Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 11:11:40 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Dorchester County March 3 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. Quite comfortable in the house without any heat on, temperature in the kitchen dropping from 63 (10:35 P.M., Tue.) to 60 (5:15 A.M. Wed.) and outside from 53 to 49 at the same times. Wednesday, March 3, 2004. Southern Dorchester County, MD. 7 A.M. - 6:30 P.M. 104 miles by car, 2 by foot. Clear or fair with some high clouding moving in late but still remaining basically clear, 47-65 degrees F., winds calm - W 15-5 - SW 10. Tide very low, WAY low. All ditches and upper reaches of little tidal guts virtually teeming with minnows. Nice sunny day. After a disaster in a ditch (but I am richer by 3 large plastic buckets) I was quite comfortable going barefoot for a while, walking on the paved roads until I dried out. A 3 turtle day. Fish Crows have been very vocal today and the past week or so, a sign of spring, albeit not the most inspiring one. Cambridge waterfront. Horned Grebe 1, Tundra Swan 7, Canada Goose 30, Mallard 90, American Wigeon 25, Canvasback 295, Redhead 1 male, Lesser Scaup 18, Surf Scoter 9, Common Goldeneye 25, Bufflehead 16. 7 Gray Squirrels on the lawns. Maple Dam Road impoundments. 8 Bald Eagles, 2 Gadwall, 85 Green-winged Teal, 50 Northern Pintails, and a Southern Leopard Frog calling. Blackwater N.W.R. Talked to Dick Kleen for a full hour in the Visitor Center. An early Forster's Tern resting on the exposed mud with Ring-billed Gulls at Sewards. An adult Bald Eagle caught an eel there and then flew to its nest in back of the maintenance sheds pursued by an adult Ring-billed Gull apparently bent on kleptoparasitism. Frogs calling in Pool 1 sound like Wood Frogs but this species is not on the refuge list. In Pool 1 a male Redhead, 22 shovelers, 12 Gadwall, and 41 Ring-necked Ducks. Elsewhere along Wildlife Drive: 130 Tundra Swans, 45 shovelers, 35 Gadwall, 40 pintails, 30 Common Mergansers, 1 Great Egret (probably a spring arrival, on the edge of the Spur Road pond), 8 Painted Turtles, and a whopping 19 Red-bellied Turtles. Golden Hill. Went to Gootees Marine to ask them to prepare "The Mudhen" for pickup on March 26. Jenny Gootee had left for lunch but her mother, in spite of my protestations, took a good 20 minutes from her lunch to go over my account with me. Just at the time I was returning through the refuge at 12:07 P.M. a public service announcement on 98.5 described how Blackwater was using heavy equipment to cut brush along Wildlife Drive a quarter of a mile to my right to allow better viewing by the public. Willeys Neck Road. Extends 1.5 miles east from the end of the paving at the junction of Andrews and Wesley Church roads and towards Fishing Bay. A locked gate keeps one out of a stretch through the marsh of over an additional half mile. 3 Northern Harriers and a Bald Eagle nest in a hammock c. 0.5 mile to the north of the road. 7 Painted Turtles. It was at the end of this road that I heard 3 Black Rails calling c. 3:45 A.M. on May 4, 1968. At that time I came across a parked car. Thinking it was a landowner, and a little afraid, I got out to try to explain myself. By the time I discovered the occupants were a couple in flagrante delicto (a.k.a. caught in a compromising position) it was too late and in a manoeuvre that would have done a 'Dukes of Hazzard' stunt driver proud they somehow spun off the road, into the marsh, got back on the road, and then went blasting away into the darkness behind my own car on this narrow one lane dirt road, during which time the rails never stopped calling, audible even over my pounding heart. Cedar Creek Road. 5 Bald Eagles, 1 harrier, and 2 Tree Swallows. Perhaps the most splendidly isolated, beautiful road in the county. Extends 2.05 miles east from Wesley Church Road to the mouth of Cedar Creek very close to Fishing Bay and directly across Fishing Bay from the village of Elliott. 1.3 miles of its length is through rather high marsh, mostly 'Juncus roemerianus', unditched except for the sides of the road, and without ponds or tidal guts. A high, nicely bevelled sandy road but with a few areas with a bad series of bumps. The end of the road is a site used to dress and render game, judging from the remains of Sika Elk and Buffleheads littering the place, and is apparently as good a place as any to dispose of an old air conditioner and set of bedsprings. Nice old graveyard on the north side in the woods. There are no signs saying to keep out. Lots of deer stands in the wooded stretch. Terminus of Toddville Road, 3:30 P.M. 5 male Boat-tailed Grackles, some of them "singing." 2 Gadwall. 2 Mute Swans. I was amazed to see 2 Diamondback Terrapin out in the mouth of Goose Creek. What's the water temperature now, in the mid forties? Phillips Gunning Club Road (Bishop's Head - Chesapeake Bay Foundation Noonan Center for Environmental Education). Disappointing that no one was there. I wanted to ask about how Hurricane Isabel impacted the place, when the Great Blue Herons had returned to their nests, and so on. I left them 3 complimentary copies of "Maryland's Everglades." Dozens of Great Blue Herons were on their nests and nest platforms easily visible c. 1.5 miles away on Bloodsworth Island even through the heat haze (Schlieren in German, possibly a better word since "heat waves" can be present when it is extremely cold, even before or after sunset). The Hooper Straits here were disappointingly devoid of birds, just a few ducks - 6 Long-tailed Ducks, 55 Lesser Scaup (in apparent migration) and 30 Bufflehead - plus 2 Common Loons, one with a fish. The highlight, if you can consider it that, was a group of 80 Boat-tailed Grackles. This species seems to be declining in Dorchester County, so that is a big group anymore for here. After Cambridge and Blackwater I concentrated on exploring these back roads south of Blackwater in the Toddville and Wesley areas, especially in quads 37 and 43 of the ADC Dorchester map book. Most of this is not very birdy but it comprises some of the wildest, most beautiful Bay country I have ever seen, much of the scenery worthy of National Park status. It enchanted me as a teenager and still does. It's full of marshy prospects and dense, nearly pure Loblolly Pine hammocks fringed with Red Cedars. This kind of fringing cedar growth is very similar to that on the seaside of the Virginia Eastern Shore, except that the marsh there is mostly 'Spartina alterniflora' instead of 'Juncus roemerianus'. It is also reminiscent of the fringing cedar trees in southern New Jersey, especially in Cumberland County. This area is very photogenic, full of abandoned houses, some still with the old style, finial-type lightning rods, as well as workboats and lovely wooden churches. Today watermen were repairing their nets and painting their boats' hulls. Hundreds of freshly cut, straight Loblolly Pine boles were stacked at Wingate, ready to be deployed in new pound net sites. At the Wingate launching ramp a crude sign advises: "No work boats pulled except by "Snooks" ". Roadkill du jour: 2 Sika Elk. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================