Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 10:22:29 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Dorchester County Feb. 23 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. Sat., Feb. 22, 4:15-6 P.M. 39 degrees F. on arrival, rising to 41 by 6 P.M. and 48 by 7:15 the next morning when the barometer was a very low 28.72". On the drive down from Philadelphia everything was a study in blacks and whites (including the cloud cover) with some browns mixed in with ground fog and sprinkles. 10 Northern Bobwhite on the snow at milepost 94 of Route 301, would have been easy pickings for a Cooper's Hawk. Dogs Indoors! Just outside of Philadelphia in a suburban development today I saw 2 dogs trotting along together unattended. One had a cottontail in its jaws. In this weather rabbits have a hard enough time without having to put up with this. Once when a neighbor visited at Rigby with her 2 golden retrievers they suddenly took off and with incredible rapidity nipped the throat of a nearby young fawn we had not seen. It died in my arms. These are really lovely animals that sleep under the dining room table when we visit for meals but their heritage takes them back to LOBO. I got tired of seeing them chasing rabbits and banned them, at least on a free-roaming basis. Canada Goose 1410 incl. 1 Richardson's Goose on the ice of the cove with a bad left leg. 1 Brown Thrasher in the yard. February 23, 2003, Sunday: Breakfast at Denny's in Easton, where I am sorry to report that the framed Periodic Table of the Fruits and Nuts by the front door is now gone. Rigby's Folly. 7-8 A.M. 1 ad. Bald Eagle near its nest. 3 Red-breasted Mergansers. Our entire property is a sodden, swampy blend of mushy snow, ice, and rain water 6" to 10" deep with much of the driveway submerged. Dorchester County, 9 A.M. - 6 P.M. Weather extremely varied. Maxfield Parrish (heroic fantasy) varied cloudscapes, piled up to the heavens, seemingly miles high, & sun early on with temperatures reaching into the low 50's. An impressive, cloudy front with squall lines moving through c. 10:30 A.M. with some thunder & lightning followed briefly by heavy rains. Winds to 45 m.p.h. in the P.M., cloudy becoming clear and temperature falling to high 30's. Most snow gone (but much remaining in Talbot County). Ditches full of fast flowing water a foot or more deep. Many sections of road under water from 1+ inches of rain yesterday on top of 15 or more inches of snow. Little ice in tidal areas except in a few protected waters. Tide high. It was worth being out today just to see the weather and its effects. 22 species of waterfowl and I would have seen 2 or so more at Elliott I. except that the water was so rough on Fishing Bay it was impossible to see anything, and the wind was so strong it made using binoculars difficult. Visited Cambridge (C), Blackwater N.W.R. (BNWR), Bestpitch-Griffith Neck Rd., Elliott Island Rd. (EIR) & Drawbridge Rd. in that order. The Cambridge waterfowl are really a treat. Get out of the car and they come CLOSER, expecting a handout. At one point I had drake Canvasbacks, Redheads, Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon, and Mallards in my binocular field at the same time less than 30 feet away. Great Blue Heron 11 (see discussion below). Tundra Swan 115 (very low). Snow Goose 1850 & Blue Goose 350 (mostly in one field on the east side of Egypt Rd.). Canada Goose 6000. Northern Pintail 95 (widespread even if not many; one of our earliest migrants). Northern Shoveler 55. Canvasback 345 (C). Redhead 2 (C). Ring-necked Duck 6 (BNWR). Hooded Merganser 7 (BNWR). Bald Eagle 52 (evenly spread at places visited; 1 ad. was carrying sticks to its EIR nest). Rough-legged Hawk 1 dark phase (EIR). Wild Turkey 46 (1 flock on Griffith Neck Rd., tame, close to road, a great sight). Dunlin 265 (25 at BNWR; 240 in the middle of a field at Lewis Wharf Rd. e. of EIR). Ring-billed Gull 6105 (made a special effort to carefully estimate their numbers today; most were in the flooded fields). Tree Swallow 6 (BNWR, Pool 3). American Robin 375. Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds common and widespread, acting like it was spring. 19 deer, all does, incl. a group of 17 on Drawbridge Rd. Earlier there was discussion on MDOSPREY about Great Blue Herons eating rodents. I didn't read all of it so pardon any repetition. Some of you may have seen the photos at BNWR of a GBH swallowing a medium-sized Muskrat. There are records of them swallowing Anhingas. In the winter of 1977 some of the BNWR staff observed them eating rails. In California GBH is notorious for catching and eating Black rails on high tides in the few places blacks haunt there. At one of these events a GBH was seen to pursue a Yellow Rail (real rare in California) in flight! It is well-known that they eat rodents during harsh winters. A couple of times I have seen sickly GBH in our fields in early autumn catching grasshoppers. One of these GBH's was later found dead. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================