Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:38:58 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: central Chesapeake sightings Aug. 13 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline August 13, 2003, Wednesday. Smith Island, Somerset County, MD, area but most time spent just south of there on islands and marshes in Accomack County, VA. Gentle SW wind 5+ m.p.h., mostly overcast, with a couple of isolated showers that mostly avoided us, temperature moderate, 70s - low 80s. Excellent boating weather, plus the added bonus that the tide was rising the entire time, with really low water to start because of the full moon.. Dramatis personae: Master bander, John Weske, Ph.D., Betty Pitney, Charlie Vaughn, and myself. Today we attempted to record all pelican, skimmer, and cormorant nests that still contained apparently viable eggs and small, featherless young as detailed below. One of the pelican eggs was pipping. 1. Crisfield, MD, a Clapper Rail walking chicken-like along an exposed mud flat at Somers Cove. The Pines Motel in addition to being somewhat woodsy is c. 1/3 miles off of the main drag and also a hundred yards back from the side road. Here starlings were making depredations on the large fig bush and a Gray Squirrel was scolding and putzing about (breathes there a mammal more fussy?). 2. Shanks Island, Accomack County, VA. The main objective today, the main event, was to band, for the first time this year, at the considerable Royal Tern colony here, a late one. We banded 262 Royal Tern chicks. Always a pleasure to handle these little dudes. They are attractive, scrappy, vocal, and cute. They are also extremely variable with respect to bill and leg color as well as the patterns of their early plumage. When released they waddle engagingly along the beach and quickly reform their creche, much to the relief of their attendant parents, and to us. Also seen here: 65 American Oystercatchers (in sight from one spot), 30 Black-bellied Plovers, 3 Ruddy Turnstones, 7 Short-billed Dowitchers, 1 Least Sandpiper, 22 Sanderlings, 10 Semipalmated Plovers, 195 unidentified peep (several distant flocks wheeling around at some distance), 1 Mute Swan (only), 30 adult Black Skimmers, c. adult 235 Royal Terns in sight at one time, and 17 Little Blue Herons (adults). A very low tide. The mud flats were as extensive as I have seen them here and the various wading birds were taking full advantage of this situation, the Shanks Island buffet. As good a shorebird show as I have seen here. Butterflies: 1 Buckeye and 4 or 5 Cabbage Whites. Black Skimmer nesting data. No nests with eggs. 1 nest with 2 medium-sized young in their classic hunkered-down, flat-to-the-sand position. 9 other small young apparently not in their nests and unable to be sorted out as to which were each others' siblings. And finally, 3 big young, but not as big as the two capable of flight that I saw here on July 31. TOTAL (for today): 14 young. Young skimmers are even more appealing than Royal Tern chicks. For a nice, short essay on this beautiful, wild area please consider reading Tom Horton's "Shankses", pp. 290-291 in his marvelous book: "An Island Out of Time: a Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake". (W. W. Norton, 1996, 316pp.). 3. South Point Marsh, Accomack County, Virginia. (incl. remnants of Cheeseman Island, formerly a separate island to the west of South Point Marsh but now migrated east so that it abuts South Point Marsh now). This area seems to fit well the phenomena described in the fine book on barrier islands entitled "The Beaches Are Moving: the Drowning of America's Shoreline" by Wallace Kaufman and Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr. (Duke U. Pr., 1983, 336pp.). What is left of Cheeseman and Shanks islands seems to closely resemble a barrier island geologically as well as with respect to the birdlife and vegetation, such as Sea Rocket. Middle or second largest colony. Double-crested Cormorant: 1 egg in 2 nests; 2 eggs in 10 nests; 3 eggs in 10 nests; 4 eggs in 1 nest; 1 young in 10 nests; 2 young in 27 nests; 3 young in 4 nests; 1 egg & 1 young in 5 nests; 2 eggs & 1 young in 1 nest; and 2 young and 1 egg in 1 nest. TOTAL: 71 nests still with eggs and/or small (i.e., featherless young). Also seen here: c. 190 large cormorant young clambering around, mostly out of their nests. John banded 4 of the large cormorant young. Brown Pelican: 1 young in 3 nests; 2 young in 6 nests; 3 young in 2 nests; 2 eggs in 2 nests; 1 egg and 1 young in 1 nest. TOTAL: 14 nests still with eggs or small, featherless young. Also here: 1 of each of the night herons, 1 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed and 6 Seaside sparrows. 4. South Point Marsh. Southernmost and largest pelican colony (the nearest to South Point per se). A monster of a colony with over 600 pairs of pelicans. What a spectacle. 1 of each of the night herons, a Northern Harrier, 10 Boat-tailed Grackles, 3 Seaside Sparrows, and 40 large cormorant young (out of the nest but not flying yet). Many of the Seaside Sparrows seen today were juveniles. There were still several hundred adult pelicans present here today and perhaps 200+ large young pelicans. Double-crested Cormorant: 2 eggs in 1 nest; 3 eggs in 2 nests; 2 young in 1 nest. TOTAL: 4 nests with eggs or small young. Brown Pelican: 1 small young in 3 nests. TOTAL: 3 nest with small, featherless young, none with eggs. 5. Ewell area, Smith Island, Somerset County, MD. The usual celebratory crabcake lunch at Ruke's. 1 Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 1 Caspian Tern, 1 kingfisher, 14 black ducks, 9 Little Blue Herons (8 adults, 2 immatures). Had a brief conversation with Michael Harrison, of the Martin N.W.R. staff, at the U.S.F.&W.S. dock. At lunch we met Marty Cribb, who had come over from St. Mary's County on one of the ferries and seen some Wilson's Storm Petrels out in the Bay. 6. Today there was a moderate but definite migration of Barn Swallows heading south through this area. 7. On the 183.4 mile trip home, a direct, non-stop flight (average speed 52.4 m.p.h.), this evening it was evident that goldenrod has started to really color up in the past week or so. In Delaware the Wild Rice forms really impressive stands at Duck Creek where Route 1 crosses it (New Castle County). North of here, especially at Red Lion Creek, the Phragmites has choked out much of the natural palustrine vegetation. A pleasure to listen to Sibelius' 7th Symphony on 89.5. Haven't heard it before. It's brassy and classy and dramatic like most of the other pieces by this composer that I AM familiar with (Finlandia, the 1st & 5th Symphonies, Karelia Suite, et al.). At the Delaware-Maryland state line on Rt. 13 a heavy rain storm began whose edge was EXACTLY at the boundary, left and right as far as one could see, so strong I almost had to stop. 3 miles farther up the line it had stopped. Enough rain already. 8. Miscellaneous. Liz A. saw 2 Brown Pelicans at Beach Haven, NJ, today. Still no breeding records north of Maryland. Last weekend George A., one of the leaders of Brian Patteson's Outer Banks pelagic trips then, spotted a Brown Noddy, one of the few offshore records for NC. 9. Best bumper stickers of the day: God Bless the Entire World Retired, 0/0. 10. Mea culpa. In my previous posting I'd indicated that Saturday was August 1, Sunday was August 2. The days of the week were correct but Sat. was Aug. 2, Sun. was Aug. 3. 11. from "Chesapeake haiku": ... Primordial ooze, a periwinkle or two, from boots in my boat. I'll wash it ashore. slack time is for maintenance. distant islands wait: Bloodsworth, Holland, Smith, Spring, Pone, Tangier, James, South Marsh, the Foxes, and Watts. Terrapin Sand Point and Okahanikan Cove - names alone are good. ... 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================