Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 09:55:48 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: lower Hooper's Island, June 22 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. June 21, 2003, Sat. 18 deer (does) in field 4 (F4) at dusk. June 22, Sun. Lynn Davidson, Hal Wierenga, Harry Armistead. Brief boat trip to lower Hooper's Island, Dorchester County. A busted play. This is a separate, discrete island from the rest of Hooper's, reachable only by boat. We launched at Crocheron c. 9:30 and beat into a 20+ m.p.h. NW wind with big waves but returned soon after reaching lower Hooper's due to minor equipment failure and a nasty cut Hal sustained that we thought Dorchester General Hospital Inc had better look at. This was a day of several other misfortunes: I lost a set of boat keys, had several episodes of muscle cramps, and got stuck in my own yard (and that's not the complete list). We did not make several planned additional stops, at Bloodsworth Island, as we had hoped to do. 19.4 spray-filled miles by boat, 9:30 to noon or so. Mostly overcast. Water and air temperature c. 70. 2 Bald Eagles, a Glossy Ibis, a Tricolored Heron, couple of Royal Terns, and perhaps 20 Brown Pelicans - frequenting an extensive pound net, which sported 2 U. S. flags, just s. of lower Hooper's. We saw c. 20 species in the short time we were here. Lower Hooper's I. has extensive 'Juncus roemerianus' salt marsh, several attractive little beaches, and at least 5 sizeable, apparently pure stands of big Loblolly Pines, easily visible in the right conditions from distances of 10 miles or more. I think lower Hoopers comprises the only land in one atlas block. I am betting the pine hammocks harbor some Pine Warblers, Carolina Wrens, cardinals, kingbirds, and maybe other true landbirds and plan to return later this summer. A beautiful, remote area I have only been to once before, in 1977, when there was a small Great Blue heronry here, apparently no longer in existence. On the southwest side of the island is a large, active Osprey nest, piled several feet high and obviously in use for years, in a dead loblolly at the south end of the southernmost hammock. I have seen similar big nests in the central Bay area on Watts Island, VA. Most maps say Hooper Island but many people refer to it informally using the possessive form (especially when speaking), as indeed does the old atlas cited to below. The "1877 atlases and other maps of the Eastern Shore of Maryland" (Wicomico Bicentennial Commission, 1976,144pp.) shows 5 households present on lower Hooper's Island (3 of them Lewis, 2 Ruark) as well as "School No. 4". In an earlier posting I misspoke and referred to these maps as 1876 ones. Even in 1877 the map shows lower Hooper's separated from the rest of Hooper's by a narrow body of water known as "The Thorofare". "Thorofare" is a term sometimes used for waterways in several other places in the central Chesapeake as well as coastal New Jersey and also by the minor poet, Armistead (who doesn't know when to shut up sometimes), in his obscure, generally unrecognized poem 'Chesapeake haiku', which has yet to be anthologized. "Work boats from Ewell, scrapers on Big Thorofare, soft crab your cities." ... yadda, yadda ... At Rigby in mid-afternoon there was a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers (also a flicker and a Red-bellied Woodpecker) right in the yard, conspicuous, vocal, and at close range. Only see them here a few times a year, all presumed to be wandering birds. The only other dates when we've seen 2 pileateds on the same day are: 9/16/95, 2/27/99, 1/27/02 and 9/14/02, so there's no discernible pattern (but then, my math SAT scores were an abomination). Before sunrise today 2 ad. Bald Eagles were perched on their favorite roost tree here. Except for the company, the scenery, and a few birds, a quite wretched day. As the officer used to say in "Hill Street Blues": "Be careful out there." Best to all (anyway).-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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================