Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 10:07:15 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Smith Island MD/VA Aug. 13 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Smith Island, MD/VA, Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 8 A.M. - 5:15 P.M., clear but hazy, 75-90, SW 10-15 to S 5-10 to SW 10. John Weske (bander & boat captain), Bob Ake, Nancy Richards West, Russell Fish & myself. Very pleasant weather with a nice breeze making it quite bearable most of the time. John set up camp the previous evening on South Marsh Pt., VA, and banded from 10 P.M., Aug. 12, until 3:30 A.M., Aug. 13, (!!) banding about 50 Double-crested Cormorants and 70 Brown Pelicans. Most of these were late-hatching chicks but John was also able to capture a few adults of both species. He saw a Willet in the night also. He feels the birds are much less disturbed by night banding than during the day. After a few hours of sleep John came in to pick the rest of us up at the Crisfield marina at 7:45 A.M. Our first stop was at Little Fox Island, VA, c. 5 mi. s. of Crisfield. Three weeks ago we had estimated no more than 40 late Royal Tern eggs here. We were wrong because today we banded 62 royal chicks, an excellent total for a 3rd visit to this colony, esp. since even 2nd visits in such colonies usually end up with few new birds and sometimes none at all. A total of 1,032 royal chicks were banded here this summer, the most ever by 100 or so, I think. Also here were 115 Great Black-back Gulls, 95 juvenile Laughing Gulls (locally hatched), 1 Semipalmated and 1 Black-bellied Plover, 1 Common Tern, a couple of flying young Forster's Terns, a Least Sandpiper, 4 Black Skimmers and 3 American Oystercatchers. Little Fox is only a couple of acres. Our next stop was back out to South Marsh Pt., a sort of extension of Smith Island, MD, but in VA c. 3 mi. south of the MD/VA line. In short order we banded 50 pelican chicks and could have banded quite a few more but it was getting a little too hot and for the sake of the birds and ourselves we quit in time for lunch back at Ewell at Ruke's Restaurant - the usual delicious celebratory crabcake sandwich platters with iced tea. At South Marsh Point we saw 17 oystercatchers, 1 ad. Black-crowned & 1 ad. Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 3 Least Sandpipers, 3 Seaside Sparrows, 1 American Black Duck, and I carefully estimated 1,210 Brown Pelicans (capable of flight) in sight from one spot at one time, with numerous others out of sight behind walls of Spartina alterniflora, these last seen a little later. Fiddler Crabs swarmed everywhere today where there was exposed mud. A total of over 1,100 pelican chicks have now been banded at South Marsh Point this summer, a project under the direction of Dave Brinker. In Maryland on Smith I. including the Ewell area, the west jetties, and Big Thorofare southeast of Ewell we saw the birds listed below, many of them on the extensive, exposed flats in the vicinity of Swan Island and the adjacent jetties (the tide was very low): 55 pelicans, 47 Little Blue Herons, 12 black ducks, 3 Black-bellied Plovers, 25 Canada Geese, 17 oystercatchers, 45 Fish Crows, 2 Sanderlings (on the outermost part of the south jetty), a Spotted Sandpiper (on the north jetty), 7 Tricolored Herons, 3 Glossy Ibis, and, interestingly, no Yellow-crowned Night Herons, plus 2 Diamondback Terrapin in between the jetties. I wish we had had the time to do some landbirding the way Jim and Matt did last Friday. The marsh around Swan Island is emergent. Nice to see it building up when in so many areas it is eroding. Swan Island per se has a nice developing forested area. When I first saw it in the 1970's it had no trees at all. It has turned into a respectable hammock as has the refuge tower/cabin area (about a mile to the east of Swan Island) which now has a good growth of trees and an attendant heronry. In the 1970's it had no trees at all but through the efforts of then refuge (Glenn L. Martin N.W.R.) technician, the late Stanley Marshall, trees finally became established after the dredged soil began to lose some of its salinity through leaching by the rains. Incidentally, if I were a Reddish Egret in the lower Bay I would frequent the flats adjacent to Swan Island. Swan Island abuts the base of the north jetty. Maryland's only 2 Roseate Spoonbill records are from nearby areas of Smith Island. Bunker oil, again. Noticing some slick areas in Tangier Sound I commented on these and Russell Fish, who is a Chincoteague waterman, said they were made by the bunker bait (Menhaden) used in the many extensive lines of crab pots in this area. Perhaps you heard already but (I got wind of this indirectly) a Rufous Hummingbird banded near Richmond, VA, last November by Mary Gustafson was recaptured in early August in Montana. The chance of this happening is about like winning the biggest ever Powerball lottery. An astounding foreign recovery. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. 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