Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:15:54 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Chuck-will's-widows 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. April 26, 2003. Sat., 8:40 P.M. Chuck-will's-widow, 2 calling birds. The earliest I have heard them here was April 16 one year. As a child a black man I knew, Charlie Cook, used to say that if I wasn't good the Hollerin' Boys would haunt me. I am convinced he thought Chuck-will's-widows were the Hollerin' Boys. Illiterate, Mr. Cook knew folkloric stories from oral tradition. My brother, even as a teen interested in folklore, recorded some of them in the 1940s and published about them much later: Armistead, Samuel G. "Two Brer Rabbit stories from the Eastern Shore of Maryland." Journal of American Folklore 84 (1971) pp. 442-444. April 27. Sunday. Fair to clear, 56 - 73 degrees F., winds NW 15-10. A gem. Some of the wind gusts today shook loose yellow-green clouds of pine pollen. Seems like a late spring. Blackwater N.W.R. 7:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M. Fourteen persons on my bird walk today. Cattle Egret 1 (in fine breeding plumage, sitting on the Visitor Center fence). Glossy Ibis 3. Canada Goose 3 broods of goslings seen. Blue-winged Teal 11. Lesser Yellowlegs 30. Spotted Sandpiper 2. Least Sandpiper 45. Caspian Tern 9. Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2 males. flicker at its nest hole. Eastern Kingbird 2. rough-winged swallow 1. House Wren 4. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1. Wood Thrush 1. Blue Grosbeak 1. Orchard Oriole 3. Also: 15 Painted, 7 Red-bellied, 2 Spotted, 2 Mud & 1 Box turtle; 3 water and 1 Black Rat snake; 1 Fox Squirrel. The present Visitor Center will be closed sometime after next weekend for the summer because of reconstruction and expansion. During this period the V.C. will be reconstituted in part at the old Headquarters building at the entrance to Wildlife Drive. I neglected to mention that earlier this spring I noticed that the nest tree with a big eagle nest in a short Loblolly Pine in the open marsh on the east side of Shorter's Wharf Rd. is now dead. The nest seemed unattended and I believe was unsuccessful last year also, when the surrounding marsh was burned, nearly killing the tree then, but it did sprout a few needles later in the year after all others had been singed. This is the fourth active eagle nest tree of which I am aware that has been killed by fire Rigby's Folly. 2 - 5:45 P.M. Horned Grebe 2. Northern Gannet 1 ad. plunge-diving, our latest date here, previous latest was April 16, but hardly surprising. Wood Duck 2. Surf Scoter 115. Bufflehead 45. Bald Eagle 2 adults. Forster's Tern 6. flicker 2 (1 at its nest cavity). Savannah Sparrow 1. Also: River Otter 1 (hunting in the middle of Irish Creek), Gray Squirrel 1, deer 3 (does), Eastern Cottontail 1; Cabbage White 3, Spring Azure 4; Spring Peeper, Chorus Frog, Southern Leopard Frog calling & 1 very fat Fowler's Toad seen. 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 "We hold little anxiety that the strictly utilitarian controls on forests, oil, mines, and fisheries will be seriously relaxed under our present concept of government ... The pressures of growing population, self-interest, and shortness of vision are now the greatest enemies of the national park idea ... The perspectives of history are discounted and the wilderness coveted and invaded to provide more water, more grazing land, more minerals, and more inappropriate recreation ... The dragons of demand have been kept at snarling distance by the St. Georges of conservation, but the menace remains." -Ansel Adams (1950), reprinted in 2003 by the Wilderness Society in "Celebrating the American Earth: a Tribute to Ansel Adams", a publication given to those who have been members for 25 years or more. Best bumper sticker I saw in 2002: Jet skis suck. [indeed!] ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================