Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 09:55:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Ferry Neck & Dorchester March 9 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline March 9, 2003, Sunday. Clear. 44-65 degrees F. Winds SW - NW, 5 - 20 - 10 m.p.h. Warm, clear, sunny day with moderate winds most of the time. 7 A.M. - 6:30 P.M. Tide: high to low to high. Red-necked Grebe: 0. But Levin Willey has seen them in Dorchester County at Madison and McCready's Creek recently. "Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near Bellevue. 7 - 9:30 A.M. There has been in influx since 2 weeks ago as shown by: 1 Common Loon (eating a fish), 4 Horned Grebes (one in advancing breeding plumage), 2 Great Blue Herons (in migration), 165 Surf Scoters, 26 Red-breasted Mergansers (in our cove, courting), 2 Fish Crows. Also seen: 185 Tundra Swans (migrating), 1 Richardson's Goose and 1 ad. Bald Eagle (but no sign of activity at the nest). Here and elsewhere today numbers of bluebirds and Carolina Wrens seem to be O.K. in spite of this harsh winter. Mammals: 7 deer (does), 1 Red Fox. Chorus Frogs calling in W4. Two White-footed Mice caught in the house trapline even though the traps haven't been rebaited since early January. Long stretches of unmelted ice and snow, some still 6-7 inches thick, on the south edges of the fields and driveway shoulder where the hedgerows act as snow fences and there is little sun. Easton. Right at the intersection of Bay & Washington Streets a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying through traffic at eye level, hunting. Dorchester County: Cambridge. Several 100 ducks still present at end of Oakley St. and elsewhere, mostly Canvasbacks and Lesser Scaup. Threw a bucket of corn out for them. One male Redhead and a few American Wigeon also present and 2 Double-crested Cormorants. Egypt Road. A roadkill Woodchuck across the road from Maple Elementary School. Three Horned Larks on the shoulders. Blackwater N.W.R. 1 juvenile GOLDEN EAGLE soaring over Egypt Rd. with a loose kettle of 5 Bald Eagles and an Osprey. Terrific view, right overhead. This one has a sort of bent but protruding innermost left primary (or outermost secondary) feather. Ran into Gregory Inskip who monitors goldens in this area very closely. He had seen this same bird earlier this winter plus another juve about 12 miles away this morning. Greg says there are at least 6 different goldens in s. Dorchester County this winter, the most he has ever found. He's able to discriminate among them by various plumage variations. Roadkill skunk on Route 335 near the end of Wildlife Drive. 5 Ospreys. Painted Turtles hauled out at various places today basking in the rays. I removed a Mud Turtle that was just sitting in the middle of Wildlife Drive. Groups of Chorus Frogs calling in various places today. Hip Roof Road. Clapper Rail swimming across a tidal gut. Hooper's Island. 545 REDHEADS on the Honga River side at Hoopersville (south end of Muddy Hook Cove off Dicks Point) Thanks to Levin Willey for telling me about these. Earlier this winter Levin estimated over 1,000 here. Reversal of the usual situation: scanning the flock trying to find birds that WEREN'T Redheads (a few cans and some Lesser Scaup). Perhaps these are some of the 6,000 estimated on the Crisfield Christmas count this past December. An adult ICELAND GULL flew past on the Chesapeake Bay side of the island at the end of Adams Road, just offshore 100 feet away a little above eye level. It flew up the shoreline and out of sight. A beauty. Transquaking River at Bestpitch: a dark phase Rough-legged Hawk doing a lot of hovering. Elliott Island Road. A light phase Rough-legged Hawk perched in an isolated tree out in the marsh seen from the Pokata Creek (Green Island Hunt Club) bridge. Good scope view. Four Short-eared Owls tangling with each other at dusk, seen simultaneously about 1 mile north of the roughie and on the west side of the road. 22 Gadwalls at "Gadwall Bend". A River Otter was swimming around among the work boats at McCready's Creek. Muskrat swimming in Island Creek. A chorus of Southern Leopard Frogs and a displaying American Woodcock at 6:30 P.M. north of Savanna Lake. 165 Canvasbacks on Fishing Bay. Countywide totals: 1 Common Loon, 11 Horned Grebes (all in winter plumage), 480 Tundra Swans, only 1 Snow Goose, s small flight of raptors today, 22 Bald Eagles, and Fish Crows (75 at Elliott I., 45 at Bestpitch, 12 or so elsewhere, quite vocal, one of the less salubrious ones but nevertheless a sign of spring). My most satisfying day afield this year. Ran into birders everywhere both in the field and in stores and restaurants. It's getting to be like Cape May down here. Nice to see all the folks out fishing for perch today. Some of you may have seen the report in the current issue of "North American Birds" (vol. 56, no. 4, 2002) about the failure to find any Black Rails in their usual haunts on the Eastern Shore of Virginia last summer (see Marshall Iliff's essay on page 424). For years it has been my impression that they are declining alarmingly in the Elliott Island marshes. We used to hear them and Henslow's Sparrows almost without fail at Broadkill Beach, Delaware, in the 1960's and 1970's but these species seem to be gone from there now. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. 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