Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 09:50:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Blackwater March 24 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline March 24, 2002, Sunday. 34 - 60 degrees F. Overcast - fair - clear - fair. Winds calm - SW 5-15- 5 mph. Tide extremely low. 5 A.M. at Rigby as the first light was breaking: heard calling, a Common Loon (giving its wail call), a Great Horned Owl, an early Mourning Dove, a huge chorus of Long-tailed Ducks (probably 3 miles away in the middle of the Choptank River mouth), and several Spring Peepers in spite of the 34 degree chill, which left some skim ice in a few puddles and ditches. A lovely pre-dawn scene, dead calm and clear. Choptank River (Malkus) Bridge. 6:30 A.M. Groups (dozens in each group) of Surf Scoters, Canvasbacks, and Lesser Scaup easy to see even from a moving car close to the bridge (west side, as usual). Blackwater N.W.R., 7 A.M. - 1 P.M. Barbara Albert & myself. 67 species. 12 Great Egrets (50 or more seen on several days earlier this week by Levin Willey et al.). 1 Snowy Egret. 1 Glossy Ibis. 60 Tundra Swan (most have left). Snow Goose 0 (all have left?). 2 Blue-winged Teal. 24 Bald Eagles. 6 Pectoral Sandpipers (in the impoundment in front of Visitors Center). 2 Laughing Gulls. 1 Caspian Tern (the earliest I've ever seen one; seen by Levin Willey also on March 23). 1 Forster's Tern. 1 phoebe. 2 White-breasted Nuthatches. 2 Brown-headed Nuthatches (busy excavating a nesting cavity). Chipping Sparrow 0 (overdue?). Also at Blackwater: 2 Fox Squirrels, Peter Cottontail, small choruses of Spring Peepers, chorus frogs, and S. Leopard Frogs, 1 E. Cabbage White. Only 1 turtle, a Painted. "Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near Bellevue. 2 - 6 P.M. 41 species. 13 Northern Gannets (all adults, as usual, of the ones I could see well enough to tell; no plunge-diving observed). 2 Wood Ducks. 3 Black Vultures (breeding suspected; how else to explain 2 flushing from deep in the undergrowth, then circling overhead?). 2 ad. Bald Eagles (1 dive-bombed repeatedly by an Osprey). 1 kestrel (in migration). 1 Laughing Gull. 1 Hairy Woodpecker. Other goodies. 2 Gray Squirrels, 1 Easter Bunny, 5 deer (does), 1 unid. anglewing, several tentatively-calling chorus frogs and Spring Peepers. Loads of Sea Walnuts floating around the dock. Hawthorns and daffodils in full bloom now. 2 corrections. The beaver mentioned in my last post was at milepost 118.4, not 18.4, on Route 301 in Kent County. Paul Bystrak, not Danny, was the person who replied to my post asking how many natural lakes there are in MD. A few days ago I received an advance review copy from "Library Journal" of what seems to be, on first inspection, a splendid new book by Scott Weidensaul entitled "The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species", a chronicle of rediscovered "extinct" species or species presumed gone but for which there may yet be hope. Fascinating going so far and, as one expects of this author, well-written. Due out in June. North Point Press (a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================