Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 20:15:49 -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 Tricolor ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================