Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 10:54:32 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: lower Eastern Shore Aug. 4-6 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii August 4, 2001, Sat., Rigby's Folly (my family's vacation home), Ferry Neck, Talbot Co., MD, near Royal Oak. A few hours in the late P.M. 5 Snowy & 1 Great Egret, 16 Mute Swans, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 31 Fish Crows, 1 Blue Grosbeak (singing). 1 Red Fox and 2 does with 3 small fawns in the Big Field. Seven Southern Leopard Frogs were using the pits dug for our new car port, which have dirt banks but a concrete (ouch!) floor. Blue Grosbeaks are famous for singing late into the summer and we once had a nest in the yard with 2 eggs on Sept. 3, 1974. August 5: In the morning I awoke to find a yard pooh (Gray Squirrel) shredding a large, green Loblolly Pine cone, watching it from my bed. When I finished bathing it was still working on the cone. A most labor-intensive mammal. Hurlock W.W.T.P., Dorchester County, MD, 1-3 P.M. Two Snow Geese (present all summer), 113 Canada Geese, 35 Mallards, 6 Ruddy Ducks (3 males, 3 females; present all summer), 3 Killdeer, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 13 Spotted, 1 Western and 16 Least Sandpipers, 610 Laughing Gulls, 4 rough-winged & 12 Bank Swallows, 1 Grasshopper Sparrow. The Hurlock area was full of butterflies: a Red-spotted Purple, various suplhurs, 5 cabbage whites, 10 Buckeyes, lots of Tiger Swallowtails (incl. 3 black ones), 3 Monarchs, 2 Black Swallowtails, and others I can't ID. Blackwater N.W.R., Dorchester Co., MD, 3:30 P.M.-7:15 P.M. About 1.5 hrs. of this was during a delightful series of refreshing summer showers. Tide and impounded areas were too high to be good for shorebirds and heron types. 4 Tricolored Herons, 10 Cattle Egrets, 860 Canada Geese, only 1 Am. Black Duck, 1 Black Vulture, 11 Bald Eagles (some still hanging around their nests), 6 Am. Kestrels (a little influx of post-breeding birds), 26 Wild Turkeys (Egypt Rd., c. half of them poults), a Black-bellied Plover, 17 Least Sandpipers, 8 Caspian and 47 Forster's Terns, 315 Mourning Doves (280 of them on wires over a patch of sunflowers), 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo (responded to my imitation), 1 Great Horned Owl (flying along Key Wallace Drive at 6:42 P.M.), 6 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (thronging at the V.C. feeders), 60 Bank Swallows, 1 Marsh Wren (singing), 12 Blue Grosbeaks (incl. a female trying to wolf down a full-sized cicada), 4 Seaside Sparrows (Shorter's Wharf Rd.), 4 E. Meadowlarks. The meadows adjacent to the V.C. were full of scores of sulphurs. Nine cottontails but no Fox Squirrels. Aug. 6: Seven of us took 2 boats from Crisfield to the central Bay to band late-hatching Royal Terns and Brown Pelicans, the last banding foray of the season, under the direction of Dave Brinker and John Weske: Little Fox Island, Accomack Co., VA, 10 A.M.-11 A.M. 6 Royal Tern chicks were banded, meaning that only 6 of the c. 24 nests with eggs found on July 12 were successful. John says late nests such as these often fail. This makes a total of 874 young royals banded here this summer. Earlier I had reported 968 banded on July 12 but that should have been 868. Also seen here today: 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Semipalmated Plover, 8 Sanderlings, 3 oystercatchers, and at least 10 large Black Skimmer young plus scores juvenile Laughing Gulls no doubt raised here. Small numbers of Forster's and Common Terns also bred here. Later today John and Dave and others left to band the last few Royal Tern chicks at Skimmer I., Ocean City, MD. South Point Marsh, Accomack Co., VA (but in actuality an extension of Smith I., MD, only c. 1.5 mi. south of the border), c. 11:45 A.M.-2:15 P.M. The 7 of us banded 206 Brown Pelican chicks. This summer 163 were banded at Spring I. (Dorchester Co., MD), now part of Blackwater N.W.R., probably representing all of the young raised there this year. In 2001 Dave Brinker and his helpers have banded 1,704 pelican chicks (1,541 at S. Pt. Marsh) in the central Bay area (i.e., Spring I. and the 2 South Pt. Marsh colonies), 5 fewer than in 2000. Dave feels about 90% of the total peli chicks present were tagged this year overall. Forty-seven work boats were in sight from one point. Also seen at S. Pt. Marsh today: 1 Mute Swan, 11 Am. Black Ducks, a few Mallards, 9 oystercatchers, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 16 Least Sandpipers, 2 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed and 7 Seaside Sparrows plus 5 Monarchs and 3 E. Cabbage Whites. About 50 distant shorebirds were too far away to ID. Monarchs were on the move today, seen everywhere, even in the most remote marshy islands, but in small numbers. Dave Brinker says that in Maryland pelicans constructed small numbers of nest platforms (but did not actually breed) at Bodkin I. (Queen Anne's Co.) and on a small marsh island off the s. tip of Barren I. (Dorchester Co.). These places were rechecked for active nests recently to no avail. The work of banding pelicans here today was especially hot, humid, dirty, and pungent, the air sometimes full of pelican dander and down particles, while several of us got thoroughly muddy and dirty, slipping into the gooey mud and stagnant pools and ditches of water in the midst of regurgitated, partially-digested menhaden while trying to avoid the birds' imposing, snapping bills, which occasionally draw blood, and, in the meanwhile, adding our own perspiration to the mix. Thankfully, the chicks do not seem to defecate to further fowl/foul the scene (and us), although even if they had, I for one was so dirty it might have hardly been noticed. You had to have been there. Suffice it to say, when I returned from this scene on July 12 I undressed in the cellar. Today I carried a most-welcome extra set of clothing. Perhaps 3 dozen young were still too small to band. I only saw 10 or so cormorant young. John banded several of these, which can easily cause slight lacerations with both their bills and feet (such are THEIR charms). Ewell area, Smith I., MD, Somerset Co., MD, c. 2:30-3:30 P.M. Traditional celebratory lunch of crab cake sandwiches at Ruke's. 2 (only) Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 1 N. Harrier, 1 Willet plus 1 Red Admiral which glanced off of Bob Ake's hat while we were boating to the mainland. Hatteras, North Carolina. Cape Hatteras Brian Patteson pelagic trips Aug. 4-5. These tidbits gleaned in passing from George Armistead & Carol Erwin. Several Yellow-billed Tropic Birds and South Polar Skuas seen. 2 Sperm Whales. Moderate numbers of Band-rumped Storm and Black-capped Petrels, Cory's and Greater Shearwaters (plus a Manx or 2), a juv. Long-tailed Jaeger and several Pomarines. A Yellow Warbler was seen well offshore. Carol caught a 60 lb. tuna. A dolphin (the fish, not Flipper) was caught. 1 Mola and a Portuguese Man-of-war (or person-of-war, if you like) were seen. I assume full details will appear on Brian's website (q.v.): www.patteson.com. So ... even the dog days of August have possibilities. I didn't realize that the Talbot County B.C. field trip to Kiptopeke was, unfortunately, scheduled the same weekend as the Eastern Shore Birding Festival - October 6-7. This means lodging will be almost impossible to find. I will be camping at Kiptopeke S.P. Sep. 22-Oct. 7 and would love to hook up with anyone who goes but I am committed to leading 4 field trips for the festival on those days so won't be free much of the time. Best regards to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. Any replies off-list, please send to: harryarmistead@hotmail.com. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================