Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 11:01:08 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Holland Island June 17 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Rigby's Folly, Talbot County: George Armistead heard a Horned Lark singing in the Big Field June 13, indicating a possible first property breeding record when combined with our several sightings in late May. He heard a Greater Yellowlegs migrating on the odd date of June 14. On June 16 Liz and I briefly see two immature eagles flying around the nest, so it seems our 2 eaglets have successfully fledged. June 17: Carol Erwin and I left Rigby soon after 3 A.M. in the midst of the remnants of T.S. "Allison": torrential rain, 30 m.p.h. winds, and a little lightning - a perfect day for boating to the islands. Some of these places will only be around for a few more years. It's important to see what is there now before they wash away. Blackwater N.W.R. While killing time to give the weather a chance to improve, a quick transit of Wildlife Drive and Shorter's Wharf Rd. produced 31 Bald Eagles (mostly immatures), 1 Common Moorhen (startled into calling when the car engine turned over), and 1,265 Canada Geese (including several big creches). That's my best eagle count here in summer by far. Bloodsworth Island. Winds continue at 25 m.p.h., it's cleared, but the very low tide is another obstacle, limiting our boating to 27.1 miles today. Only about 91 active Great Blue Herons nests on Bloodsworth today. Other birds of interest: 2 Northern Harriers, 3 adult Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 2 adult Bald Eagles, and a Clapper Rail plus an Eastern Kingbird and a Song Sparrow. Too windy and rough to be able to give a good listen for the breeding landbirds still hanging in on these eroding islands. 28 species. Spring Island. Dave Brinker plans to band baby pelicans here on June 19. We made a brief cruise along some of the shoreline and estimated 490 Brown Pelicans (not counting any of the young in the 132 nests), 200 cormorants (also nesting), a Peregrine Falcon, and a pair of Mute Swans with 6 cygnets. Holland Island. Took a 2.5 hour walk 11:45 A.M. - 2:15 P.M. On returning to the boat it is hard aground and we wait until 6:45 before the tide rises enough to free her. 36 species including breeding landbirds: 1 Gray Catbird, 2 Song Sparrows, a Common Yellowthroat, 2 Tree and 6 Barn Swallows, 2 Eastern Kingbirds, and a Carolina Wren. Butterflies: 3 Saltmarsh Skippers, 5 Red Admirals, and a European Cabbage White. Found a healthy Mud Turtle, the first I've ever seen on the islands, and a dead Fowler's Toad. Also of interest: a female Gadwall (when flushed she acted as if she had been on eggs) and 370 Mute Swans (seen in the distance on Pone and Bloodsworth islands). For about the 7th straight year all 10 Maryland mixed heronry species are present with the following very rough estimates of breeding pairs: 7 Little Blue, 20 Great Blue, 14 Black-crowned Night, 12 Yellow-crowned Night, 1 Green, and 7 Tricolored Herons, 6 Cattle, 20 Snowy, and 20 Great Egrets, and 8 Glossy Ibis. Carol and I each find an old baking soda bottle. On one segment of what is left of Holland, but where we did not make a landing, it looks as if about 25 pairs of Herring and maybe 1 or 2 of Great Black-backed Gull are nesting. The almost total absence of terns and Laughing Gulls today is disturbing. While waiting for the tide to rise there is plenty to do other than eat, drink, relax under the Bimini top, and tell war stories. Pelicans are diving for fish closeby. Terrapin and rays are close to the boat. A formation of 5 oystercatchers is flying around us in full cry, bills aglow in the brightest red. Herons and ibis are trading back and forth to distant feeding grounds. Willets, Clapper Rails, Seaside Sparrows and boat-taileds are calling in the marsh. In the distance, on this day of exceptional clarity, one can see the colonies on Spring Island a mile away, the houses on Deal Island are visible, so is South Marsh Island, and farther away, 6 hammocks and the town of Ewell on Smith Island hove into our ken. Three peregrine hacking towers are in sight. A hundred yards to the north is the old graveyard where Parks, Dizes, and Todds from the 19th century are interred. From the south end of Holland Island here prospects of the wild central Chesapeake extend on all sides. It is an enchanted place. By the time we are afloat again the wind has died and a beautiful evening is upon us as we roar back to the launching ramp at Crocheron at 20 knots. Trailering north up Route 50 the large fields are aglimmer with countless fireflies. Back in Philadelphia by 1 A.M. and there are 3 new bird books waiting for me on the bed (a Cuban field guide, a breeding atlas of the Maritime Provinces, and a photographic guide to shorebirds) - the end of a perfect father's day. Please ... no power tools. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================