Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:52:21 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Islands: Dorchester's + S. Marsh, June 1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline June 1, 2002, Sat. Dorchester County, MD, islands. 45.8 miles by boat. 6 A.M. - 6 P.M. overcast to fair to clear to fair. Winds NW to calm to SW, variously 10-15-0-15. 77 - 85+ degrees. Tide low all day, a hindrance, lowest at midday. My gauge, that I noticed, said the water temperature varied from 74.7-80.5. Perhaps it's not working right. It's only June 1 for the love of Pete. Bloodsworth Island - Fin Creek area (U. S. Navy). 35 species. c. 70 active Great Blue Heron nests. Down from 180 in the 1970's, 100+ in some recent years, as snags continue to rot and fall. Northern Harrier 3, Clapper Rail 10, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 3, Seaside Sparrow 36, Yellow-crowned Night Heron (YCNH) 3, Black-crowned Night Heron 18. Breeding landbirds, still hangin' in there, (REAL landbirds - I don't consider Seaside Sparrow, Marsh Wren, Fish Crow, red-wings, boat-tails, etc., as landbirds): 1 Common Yellowthroat, 1 Carolina Wren, 2 Gray Catbirds, 2 Song Sparrows, 1 Eastern Kingbird. Two ad. Bald Eagles were at an apparently active nest, one sitting on its edge, the other next to it on a branch, a curious nest site - a large, dead loblolly away from other trees c. 1 mile south on Fin Creek. I could not get close enough to see if there were any young. For the first time since I can remember (i.e., c. early 1970's) the 3 isolated clumps of Red Cedars and other vege on the e. side of Bloodsworth have no active GBH nests. Also on the e. side a pair of Canada Geese with 3 downy young. Spring Island (part of Blackwater N.W.R.). Estimated (one can only see so much from a boat) no. of Brown Pelican nests 160, Double-crested Cormorant 150. Both species already have some large young: biggish, white-down pelis and cormorants even more advanced. The Baccharis and Iva bushes here are really diminished with more birds nesting on the ground than previously. Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls (GBBG) also nest here with some large but still downy GBBG chicks on the bank. GBBG's seem to hatch earlier in the Bay than Herring Gulls. 2 Peregrine Falcons perched on the hacking tower; I couldn't see inside it. Miscellaneous estimates of birds capable of flight: 240 pelicans, 100 Herring & 6 GBB Gulls, 225 cormorants. Three migrating Semipalmated Sandpipers went whipping by. In the 1980's a big Sterna tern colony existed on a small, marshy tump off the s. end of Spring I. that has since eroded away. No trees or hammocks here. Holland Island (private). For about the 8th straight year all the basic 10 MD heron/egret/ibis species are nesting here. When I first came to know it in the early 1970's Holland I. was one contiguous island c. 1 mile long. Now it consists of 3 sections: a big, squareish South part with extensive marsh, a tidal gut, 2 small woodlands, and a fine old graveyard. South is loaded with droves of fiddler crabs. A Central section has the one remaining house from when Holland was a sizeable community with a school and church, perhaps 100 years ago. The house is almost IN the water. Central also has a small woods and extensive bushy section, esp. with Baccharis. That is where most of the herons nest. The North part is narrow, bushy and doomed. Its woods of big American Hackberries is gone, as is its graveyard. This is the first time I've landed on Central. My estimates of heron pairs for previous years must be way too low. When very close to the heronry it is obvious there are dozens of pairs of Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets, somewhat fewer Tricolored Herons and Cattle Egrets, fewer still of Glossy Ibis. Once today there were 40 ad. Little Blues in sight at one time. Central had breedings gulls in 2001. Today for the first time I counted nests = 22 Herring Gull nests (13 of these had 3 eggs) and probably 3 pairs of GBBG. No doubt nests were missed; there were c. 100 ad. Herring Gulls here. Two small satellite marsh tumps on the SW side of Holland have vanished but used to have nesting Common Terns and Herring Gulls in the 1980's. At Holland 37 species: 20 YCNH, Willet nests with 4 and 1 egg, 2 Gadwall (no doubt breeders), 6 Clapper Rails. Landbirds: 3 Common Yellowthroats, 4 Song Sparrows, 3 Gray Catbirds, 1 Carolina Wren, 1 Eastern Kingbird, and 1 N. Cardinal. In the context of my visits to the islands in the past 10 years, the cardinal is the most unusual bird of the entire day. I can't remember WHEN the last time was that I had one on these islands (except for Smith I.). Adam Island (U. S. Navy). 31 species. The 2nd most unusual bird today was an Eastern Wood Pewee here, a late migrant. Except for a dozen or so Red Cedars and some scrubby trees along the main hammock there are no woods here. Also: 5 YCNH, 1 male harrier, 11 Sanderlings. Landbirds: 2 Song Sparrows, 1 Common Yellowthroat. Saw a mink here once and a small fawn. Pone Island (U.S. Navy), really is SW Bloodsworth I. There are 2 fine sandbars here. 55 pelicans, 425 Mute (in sight from one spot) and 2 Australian BLACK SWANS, 45 cormorants, 4 Black-bellied Plovers & the relocated 11 Adam I. Sanderlings. Just what the Bay needs ... another problem swan. Pone used to have 2 small Persimmon groves that have since washed away. These had several species of nesting herons . South Marsh Island (SMI), Somerset County (a state of MD W.M.A.). Pry I., a small tump off the w. side of main SMI has a Herring Gull colony (and perhaps 1 pair of GBBG). I counted 59 active nests, most (29) had 3 eggs. On the s. end of SMI are 2 small tumps (I believe Dave Brinker refers to these as West Island) with hundreds of nests of Forster's plus a few Common Terns. Perhaps 95% are Forster's. I landed very briefly on the s. of these and flushed a female Gadwall, no doubt from her nest, but I couldn't find it. I did not land on the n. one but could see a Laughing Gull and an oystercatcher apparently incubating. SMI has had nesting skimmers several times in the past few years. In 2000 and 2001 I believe Dave told me these tern colonies were suddenly abandoned in the early summer. Here's hoping for a good season in 2002. Also at SMI: an ad. Bald Eagle, a male harrier, a peregrine circling the s. hacking tower and 2 perched on the n. one. Blackwater N.W.R. After my boat trips I like to make a brief "victory lap" around Wildlife Drive. 6:45 P.M. 2 Fox Squirrels, 1 Summer Tanager & 2 Horned Larks (Egypt Rd., right on the shoulder). Egypt Road, west side, has some lovely fallow areas just crying out for Dickcissels. Mute Swans. Broods of downy young (numbers = number of young in the broods): Bloodsworth I., 4,5; Spring I., 6,5,3; Holland, 6. Found two fresh but apparently failed nests on Pry I. Diamondback Terrapin. These islands must be the D.T. capital of the world. I saw several hundred today. American Oystercatcher: seen on Spring (3), Holland (3), SMI (1), Adam (3) and Pone (2). Willet. Tide was so low I didn't make any landings on main SMI but I did circumnavigate it and still thought it was unusual not to see any Willets. Perhaps that's what you get with 2 active peregrine hacking towers on the same island, even a big island. None on Adam I. either, which is near the Spring I. hacking tower. "Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near Bellevue. At dusk on May 31 a box turtle and a baby raccoon on the driveway (size of large kitten) didn't even move so I straddled it with the car. On the main road 2 Turkey and 1 Black Vulture feeding on a (different) Box Turtle roadkill at dusk June 1. On June 2: a male Summer Tanager, sang 7 times, then flew off, (8th record) plus a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Muskrat by the dock, and also, near Royal Oak, a Horned Lark, dropping into one of Swaine's fields. Locally they're scarce. Roadkill gray phase screech owl near Bellevue. A male House Sparrow at one of our bluebird boxes, an unwelcome first. 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 I sing of the Bay. my song is of the islands ere they wash away. what creatures lived on Sharp's, Long, the Roystons, Nelson's - vanquished by the waves? but gentle tides sough Spartina and juncus grass, skies full of Willets. ... from "Chesapeake haiku", full poem available on request. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================