Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 09:40:58 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM> Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM> From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: analysis of Dorchester Sept. counts 1996-2001 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Here's some analysis now that 6 Dorchester County, MD, fall bird counts have been completed on the 3rd Saturday of September, 1996-2001. These are essentially Big Days with pretty careful recording of numbers also. I have never done Big Days in the fall until these so it is still a relatively new and evolving dimension, or, "the dew was still on her", as F. Scott Fitzgerald described a young woman in "This Side of Paradise". So, with apologies to FSF, the dew is still on the September Dorchester bird count. Total species seen so far: 177. The route is: Hooper's Island in the morning, Blackwater in the late A.M. to early P.M., Hurlock W.W.T.P. area in mid-afternoon, and Elliott Island the rest of the day. Usually goes from c. 5:45 A.M. until 8 P.M. Species totals vary from 106 (1996) to 133 (2000). Unless there is a good passerine flight (i.e., cold front) there is no shot at getting over 125. On a warm day with no landbird flight warblers can be practically non-existent. This is a most enjoyable day since, unlike the spring counts, it is not an all-nighter, is about 50 miles shorter (i.e., 130 mi.), and lacks the pull-out-all-the stops, take-no-prisoners, grinding intensity of the May counts. However, with each passing year it gets more frantic, especially since fall species totals occasionally surpass some of those on the lower end of the spring counts in May. As with the spring counts these are one party affairs. Sample species annotation: Pied-billed Grebe (1,2,4,1,3,0; those are totals for years 1996 through 2001 respectively). Surprising since this species is scarce here. To get them thus 5 straight years is interesting. Brown Pelican: 0,0,0,8,0,4. In as much as counts of hundreds are a regular occurrence almost within sight of the fall route this is surprising. HERONS, what with the year's young combined with post-breeding dispersal, are in better supply than in the spring with highs such as: Great Egret 130, Snowy Egret 155 (twice), Tricolored Heron 31 & Cattle Egret 93. WATERFOWL: An excellent time of year for dabblers with highs of Wood Duck 61, Green-winged Teal 675, Mallard 595, pintail 50, Blue-winged Teal 175, shoveler 129 & wigeon 110. Snow Geese seen 4 of 6 years. Mute Swan high 285. Canada Goose high 1,750, essentially before any migrants. RAPTORS: with the fall flight (spring flights are close to non-existent here) raptors are commoner than in spring. Sharp-shinned Hawk: 9,8,17,4,36,17. American Kestrel: 5,12,14,7,22,9. Northern Harrier: 20,6,12,11,11,5. Osprey is surprisingly scarce here in the fall: 11,7,1,7,7,4. Bald Eagle: 31,22,21,35,30,30; rock solid just like the rest of the year. Broad-winged Hawk: One splendid flight of 543 in 1996, excellent for the Eastern Shore. Merlin: 2,2,1,1,1,0. Common Moorhen: 0,5,18,0,5,14. Has increased in Dorchester in recent years. RAILS: I get so tired of tapeing for Virginias in May that I do little tapeing in fall. As usual there is the dynamic duo - Virginia Rail: 13,12,10,6,3,6 and Clapper Rail: 8,8,5,4,4,5. We had 2 Kings in 1997 and single Soras in 1996 & 1997. SHOREBIRDS are mostly scarcer than in the spring, except for Western (2,1,2,0,4,0) and Pectoral (11,12,6,1,5,31) Sandpipers. Common Snipe: 3,1,3,1,1,5; I usually think of snipe as mostly a bird of gloomy, raw days in November and March or early April and was surprised to see them recorded every year so far this early in the season. 15 species was the best total, in 2000. Notable were 75 Sanderlings at Hooper's Island in 2001. Caspian Tern: 45,115,20,35,18,24. Much more common than in spring. OWLS: Old reliables - Eastern Screech-Owl: 6,7,3,7,3,2. Great Horned Owl: 4,5,1,13,2,6. Single Barred Owls 3 years. Yellow-billed Cuckoo: 1 in 1999 the only cuckoo so far. Whip-poor-will: 2 calling at dusk n. of Savannah Lake along the Elliott Island Rd. in 1999, just like it was spring, were surprising. Belted Kingfisher: 5,4,6,5,3,1. Much better than spring totals. Hairy Woodpecker: 1 in 1997 the only one. This somewhat scarce species can be rather cryptic and is missed sometimes in the spring, too. Of course they're there; one just has to luck onto them. Other woodpeckers about the same as in May except there are more flickers. Horned Lark: 0,0,0,0,1,6. The field vegetation has grown up so they're hard to come by. VIREOS: Just White-eyed and Red-eyed so far. Will have to do better. Fish Crow: 9,2,4,12,2,0. Hard to understand. Some other times of the year one can see hundreds or even a thousand or two in a day. Marsh Wren: 0,1,2,1,1,2. Seaside Sparrow: 3,7,2,2,1,1. Almost as if it were winter, these abundant breeders here are mostly gone "underground" at this time of year, detectable by their call notes at dawn or dusk or responsive to screech owl calling, otherwise mostly out of sight. American Robin: 6,10,6,6,40,45. Often scarce in September. WARBLERS: Best so far was year 1999 but with only 14 species, on a good flight day. 13 species is 2nd best in 2000 that also saw the highs for Swainson's Thrush, Great-crested Flycatcher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. So-called spruce-montane-northern warblers are easier to find in the fall than in May (i.e., Cape May, Tennessee, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian et al.). But a bad warbler day in September is much worse than a bad warbler day in May. Eastern Towhee: 0,4,0,1,0,0. Too early for migrants, resident birds are undercover. SPARROWS are scarce here in early fall, except for Savannah Sparrow: 34,24,3,3,10,8. Different story for Song Sparrow: 0,1,1,2,1,1. Chipping Sparrow: 3,10,2,1,4,0. Field Sparrow: 0,0,0,2,0,0. Bobolink: 4,3,35,12,30,7. The 3rd Saturday is past their migration peak as it is for Baltimore Oriole (1,0,1,1,0,0), Orchard Oriole (never), Worm-eating Warbler (never), Purple Martin (3,105,0,0,0,0), Yellow-throated Warbler (never), Veery (0,0,0,1,0,1), Eastern Kingbird (0,0,1,1,0,0) and Barn Swallow (14,3,3,11,6,21). GRACKLES can be unaccountably scarce. Common: 0,275,90,2,9,500. Boat-tailed: 0,0,2,18,14,0. House Finch: 0,3,0,0,6,1. Still scarce in the south part of this county. Species yet to be seen: Common Loon, Least Bittern, American Oystercatcher, American Woodcock, Ruddy Turnstone, Bonaparte's Gull, Black Tern, Barn Owl, Common Nighthawk, Chuck-will's-widow, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Sedge Wren, Archaeopteryx, Wood Thrush (!), Canada Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Grasshopper Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow. Fall species (all only seen 1X) never seen on the 70 Dorchester May counts: Eared Grebe, American Golden-Plover, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Least Flycatcher, Winter Wren, Yellow-headed Blackbird and Lincoln's Sparrow. Every day is different. So is every season, every year. That's one reason we keep coming back, isn't it? My thanks to those who have assisted me on these counts: George Armistead, Jon Beadell, Carol Erwin, Carl Perry, Les Roslund, Paul Spitzer, and Levin Willey. My thanks to Chuck Stirrat for providing a copy of the 2001 count that I had misfiled. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================