Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 10:10:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: M.D. weekend at Rigby + OBX pelagics MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Memorial Day weekend we have had flights of Whimbrels several times. It didn't happen this year. On May 25, 1990, Liz and I saw about 595 go over at dusk, flying fast and high and uttering their beautiful, whistling calls, an unforgettable event, watching these superb shorebirds speeding into the twilight on their great run to their breeding grounds in the subarctic tundra. Maybe next year. EAGLE NEST SUCCESSFUL. I had doubts but after a May 14 aerial survey Glenn Therres e-mailed me that our nest has 2 eaglets c. 10 weeks old. Hallelujah. On May 28 we saw the female flying to the nest followed closely by the male, who was carrying a White Perch-sized fish and being dive-bombed by an Osprey. May 27, 2001. Rigby's Folly, Talbot County. 51 species incl. 5 Black Vultures, 2 ad. and 1 imm. (not a juv.) Red-tailed Hawk plus strong evidence there is a nest, 2 Greater Yellowlegs (in migration), 1 Least Tern (a year bird), 2 Chuck-will's-widows, 1 female American Redstart (a migrant), 3 House Sparrows (year bird). 1 male Box Turtle, 5 Diamondback Terrapin, 1 Black Rat Snake (hand-captured), 5 Watersnakes. Butterflies: 1 Tiger Swallowtail, 3 unid. anglewings, 4 Clouded Sulphurs, 3 European Cabbage Whites, 1 Silver-spotted Skipper, 2 Red Admirals, 2 Mourning Cloaks, and 1 unid. skipper (what I like to call an X-wing type skipper, brown with yellow on the wings). 4 Cownose Rays feeding under the dock at 8:36 P.M. May 28. 52 species incl. these not seen yesterday: 1 Great Egret, 1 Green Heron, 4 Wood Ducks, 5 Surf Scoters (the first seen since April), 1 Royal and 12 Common Terns, 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 1 Hairy and 1 Pileated Woodpecker (the latter drumming in the yard), 1 Horned Lark (only the 3rd ever late spring record), 1 Cedar Waxwing, and 1 male Common Yellowthroat. A cardinal nest in a Red Cedar had 3 young. Butterflies seen today but not yesterday: 1 Monarch and 1 Pearl Crescent. Today several small pods of Cownose Rays fed around and under the dock again, this time at LOW tide in the afternoon. We've only seen this a few times. Once there was a white one that we called Moby Ray or Sting Dick. Big choruses of Fowler's Toads both dates and the night of May 26 as well. Disappointed not to have any interesting late migrants this weekend, such as Swainson's Thrushes or Blackpolls. Spent about half of each day doing chores, albeit mostly out-of-doors. On the way home to Philadelphia we saw a Muskrat and 2 Least Terns at the little catchment pond next to McDonalds along Route 322 at Easton. I assume the terns are nesting on some Easton roof. Anyone know where? Snowy Egrets show up at this shopping center site sometimes. We also saw an imm. Bald Eagle right over the sprawl of Middletown, DE, a town that is becoming surrounded by new developments at an astonishing pace. OUTER BANKS PELAGIC RESULTS. George A. was one of the Brian Patteson Inc. leaders of 3 of the 4 ocean trips this "weekend" aboard the 'Country Girl' from Manteo (Roanoke Island) going to sea through Oregon Inlet. Two Fea's and 2 Herald Petrels were seen Fri. On Sun. a Red-billed Tropic Bird and a Bermuda Petrel (Cahow) were seen plus excellent views of 2 Manx Shearwaters. One day 20+ ea. of Leach's Storm Petrels and Bridled Terns were counted. Jaeger types were not well-represented but a few Pomarines were found and some Band-rumped Storm Petrels plus an Arctic Tern one day. No unusual cetaceans were seen other than a few Pilot Whales. Red-necked Phalaropes were seen on just one day. The tandem trips aboard the 'Miss Hatteras' of Hatteras village off Cape Hatteras were not as productive. These are all unofficial results garnered from George in a few hurried minutes this morning before we all go traipsing off to work, hence in my haste some of the non-avian names above probably are misspelled. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================