Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 22:17:59 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: June 23-24 at Ferry Neck MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Weekend at our place, Rigby's Folly, near Bellevue, Talbot County. Spent most of it filling up the dumpster with old tires, old Army manuals from the 1960's, rusty bikes as well as doing brush work, making a little cinderblock reef for oysters and fish, etc., but there's always birds. June 23, 2001. As Liz and I go up the driveway at noon, blam, an adult Bald Eagle flies through a little opening in the woods, almost at eye level. Then as we come out into the fields there on the ground are the two juveniles with the other adult. The juves take off and fly beautifully. Nice work, mom and dad. You raised 'em well. Come back in 2002 and do it again! Also, 2 Snowy Egrets, a Great Egret, 5 Common and 2 Royal Terns, 4 Herring and 8 Laughing Gulls (gulls are missed completely here on some June days), a Chuck-will's-widow plus a male yellowthroat singing in one of our logged-over parcels. Butterflies: 3 Red Admirals, a Question Mark, and a cabbage white. June 24. A Hairy Woodpecker, 2 red-tails, 7 Black Vultures, 1 Blue Grosbeak. 2 fawns and 3 does. Butterflies: 3 Pearl Crescents, 2 Buckeyes, 3 cabbage whites, 2 Tiger Swallowtails, 3 Red Admirals. Admirals are the commonest b'fly this weekend. Saw a few distant sulphurs, diminutive bluish guys, and big black jobs I didn't ID, and wouldn't know how to even if they WERE close. 2 Gray Squirrels. About as many Fowler's Toads as anyone could wish for. Good year for Trumpet Creeper and Milkweed, eh? It's slack tide now. Nothing seems to be migrating. As a result this time of year has a certain uncluttered purity to it. Comin' and goin' from Philadelphia we enjoy countin' 'chucks along Route 1/Route 13 south of Wilmington, where they seem to thrive midst the abundant clover and highway plantings of crown vetch (or whatever it is). Late this afternoon (that would be: aftFURnoon) we see 4 here plus 2 others along the Blue Route (Interstate 476) in PA. I suppose the almost spherical Woodchuck actually does have a neck but it's hard to see. It is enjoyable to see them run, like a Walrus sprinting. The Easton bypass is a pretty good place for "round ground" also. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, squirrel-nut-in-residence (yes, groundhogs are squirrels), 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================