Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 22:57:54 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Dorchester County (mostly) May 5 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii May 4, 2001, Rigby's Folly, Ferry Neck, Talbot County near Bellevue. George A. had a good view of an Olive Hairstreak. They are partial to Red Cedars so I wonder why we have never seen one before here. May 5, southern Dorchester County, May count LXVII, my 67th running of the Dorchester sweepstakes. 55-85 degrees, wind SW to NW variously 5-20 m.p.h., clear, hazy in mid-day otherwise the viz. was excellent, turning cloudy in P.M. then fair. Carol Erwin, Maxine Sorensen, Erika Wilson & myself. 127 species. Midnight to 8:30 P.M. A poor flight and species total but 16 shorebirds was pretty good including a Stilt Sandpiper at Blackwater (thank you Levin Willey & Terry Allen) and 4 Black-necked Stilts at Elliott Island in knockout plumage and at close range feeding voraciously on tiny fishes (I think). Some misses: Least Bittern, Green Heron, Cattle Egret, Common Tern, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, kingfisher, nighthawk (harder to get each year), wood pewee, numerous warblers, and White-throated Sparrow. Of note: 6 Brown Pelicans (3 ea. @ Hooper's and Elliott Is.), 2 Black Rails (used to get a dozen or so almost every year), 23 Clapper Rails (new high count), 1 Barn Owl, 19 Chuck-will's-widows, 2 Whip-poor-wills, 2 Red-headed Woodpeckers (Moneystump Swamp unit of Blackwater), 3 Brown-headed Nuthatches (1 landed on a phone wire right overhead at Robbins and let us have it for daring to play a screech owl tape), nice close view of a Worm-eating Warbler, a flight of 45 or so Bobolinks at sunrise in 6 or 7 small flocks, and good views of a dozen Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows in a lovely 'Spartina patens' meadow at Elliott Island marsh. Best of all was a great view of a King Snake spotted by Carol Erwin on a ditch bank along Old Field Road north of Blackwater. We saw Sika Deer several times and a Red Fox. I almost slammed into a White-tailed doe on the Elliott Road at 3 A.M. 1 Fox Squirrel. A pretty day but only 8 warbler species. Froggies and toads were restrained perhaps due to a long period of drying conditions yet we did hear some Green and Bullfrogs plus a few tentative Green Treefrogs but that is all. Purple Martins seemed scarce. Not too many turtles: a few terrapin in the bays, some Painted and Red-bellied Turtles at Blackwater. At 8 P.M. we went through Erika's bottle of champagne in about 10 minutes, a perfect way to decompress as we scanned the skies for Tricolored Herons that never materialized. After such a stunt it was difficult to say: "Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Thparrow" thicks times in rapid succession. May 6 at Rigby Liz A. and I saw the female eagle carrying an eel closely followed by the male flying toward their nest, a promising development. Later we scoped the nest from considerable distance and saw an adult on it, but not in an incubating posture. Perhaps: 1) the young is/are late-hatching and small; 2) the eggs/this pair are infertile; 3) This pair is indisposed. "Not this spring, dear, I have a terrible headache." The young we saw May 5 in several Dorchester nests were large - the size of CG's, I'd say. Marshall Iliff and George A. found a White-faced Ibis at Chincoteague N.W.R. on May 6 seen from one of the Snow Goose pool observation platforms. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================