Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 10:46:35 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Whimbrels & skimmers at Ferry Neck MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline "Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near Bellevue. Liz, Mary & Harry Armistead. May 26, 2002, Sun. 43 species. No passerine migration. Not one warbler all weekend (though I was at work Sat.). Overcast to fair. 58 - 80 degrees. Wind NE - SW - NW 5. Whimbrels at dusk, a flock of 26 followed by a flock of c. 95 = 121 in toto. Every Memorial Day Weekend we look for this and are successful every 2nd or 3rd time. They fly high, very fast, and towards the NW, invariably around dusk. On May 25, 1990, Liz and I saw 595 go over, a most stirring sight. Also: 2 Black Vultures, 2 Bald Eagles, 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2 Chuck-will's-widows, a White-eyed Vireo, and 1 Blue Grosbeak. Critters: 25 Diamondback Terrapin in sight at one time. Caught a 4' 10" Black Rat Snake. 2 water snakes, 4 Gray Squirrels, 6 deer (5 does and a fawn), 1 Red Fox. Loads of Fowler's Toads, incl. swarms of tiny, petit pois-sized babies in the woods. 1 Cow-nosed Ray in the cove. Already a few Sea Nettles, and big ones at that. May 27. 41 species. Clear. 63-84 degrees. Wind S 5-15. Two Black Skimmers at Lucy Point, new for the yard list, no. 262. Also: 12 Great Blue Herons (ties 3rd highest; most of these are presumed nesters in the Poplar Island archipelago), 37 Canada Geese flying north in one flock, 1 Black-bellied Plover, 1 Cedar Waxwing. Critters: Beautiful female box turtle (predominantly orange-yellow, beautiful markings), a terrapin laying her eggs in Field 2 in the midst of a 10' X 700' strip planted in sunflowers yesterday by our client-hunters, the Olszewski family. Butterflies for the weekend: a few ea. of Spring Azures, Buckeyes and Red-spotted Purples. Once when I counted there were 150 cabbage whites in Fields 1 & 2. 4 Orange Sulphurs. A silver-spotted Skipper. 1 unid. anglewing. Erratum for my 5-part Dorchester County May Count Analysis. Under Sedge Wren there was only ever one count of 10 or more and that was 10 on May 7, 1977, by Floyd Parks and myself. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================