"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Liz & Harry Armistead.

Saturday, April 3, 2004.  8 - 11:30 A.M. & 3:30 - 7 P.M.  Overcast with a
very little clearing in the late P.M., winds calm, then pulsing out of the
NW, then up to 10 m.p.h. NW, then dead calm.  46-54 degrees F.  Humid,
cold, and penetrating.  A great deal of standing water everywhere, the
earth soft and soggy.  EXCEPTIONALLY good, clear visibility, able to easily
see the Bald Eagle nest on Tilghman Island through the scope @32X & 7 mi.,
individual trees on the western shore @ 14 mi. distance, the reddish-brown
bloom on the maples near Black Walnut Point @ 7 mi., etc.

Most interesting birds:  3 GLOSSY IBIS (flew across the Choptank River
mouth and disappeared to the north; 7th record and earliest; previous
earliest was April 10; first since 1998; first record was a flock of 24
that flew over the yard a few minutes after I had affixed the name IBIS on
my skiff on July 27, 1975).  3,270 Surf Scoters (mostly males, for instance
one group had 14 males and only 3 females).  1,100 Long-tailed Ducks.  2
adult Northern Gannets.  11 Great Blue Herons (most of them in apparent
migration; 5th highest).  300 Buffleheads.  65 Red-breasted Mergansers
(practically absent last weekend).  3 American Black Ducks.  Little groups
of the scaup and Buffleheads buzzing around almost continuously in
courtship flights.

So ... the Choptank River divers spectacle continues.  It is a great scene.
 Fortunately at this time of year there is little boat traffic so these
thousands of birds can rest, feed, and court relatively undisturbed.  I sat
at Lucy Point with my scope off and on for 3 hours today and only saw 4
boats the entire time.  I did no boating myself this weekend.  Counts of
most of these birds are almost always higher if one gets offshore in a boat
(assuming there are at least fairly calm conditions), even if careful
estimates are made from shore in a dead calm with exceptional visibility
and strong optics.

Also:  12 Common Loons including one compact flotilla of 9.  25 Horned
Grebes (most in pretty advanced breeding plumage).  210 Lesser Scaup.  5
female Common Goldeneyes (almost absent last weekend).  5 gull species
including 1 Bonaparte's and 165 Herring (11th highest).  Starlings and Fish
Crows fed on English Ivy berries.  A male Downy Woodpecker was excavating a
nesting cavity in a Black Locust in the yard, was far enough along so that
more than its head disappeared into the cavity as it excavated.

Mammals:  17 deer (does).  Red Fox calling early in the morning and again
at dusk at Lucy Point.  A Gray Squirrel.

Daffodils are not yet in their prime.  Big choruses of Spring Peepers plus
a few Chorus and Southern Leopard Frogs.  Loons seemed silent except for
their little "chuck" note, which I think is a contact call.  Last weekend I
heard them yodel and wail several times but no tremolos.  A small dead
Spotted Turtle not much bigger than and about the same size as a Ritz
cracker on the side of the ditch by F4, probably another casualty of the
farmer's ditching machine.

200 Ruddy Ducks on Tar Creek seen from the Bellevue Road.

From c. 1:30-3:15 we were in the San Domingo Creek area s. of St. Michaels
to examine a strap boat lift, such as will be installed on our dock this
spring, where we saw 2 Muskrats in Old House Cove and an active River Otter
swimming in the middle of S.D. Creek near the dock of the house that
formerly belonged to my cousin Evans Tucker and his wife Florence, which I
had not visited for about 50 years until today.  210 Lesser Scaup were near
the otter.  25 waxwings near St. Michaels.  27 Wild Turkeys were in 1 group
near Church Neck X Mt. Misery roads, including 2 large toms that were all
puffed up and displaying, about as pompous-looking as any bird ever gets
would be my guess.

Sunday, April 4.  Birded less than 2 hours at Rigby.  Mostly cloudy, temps.
in the 40s, winds NW 20-40 m.p.h.  What I imagine an early spring day in
northeastern Saskatchewan to be like.  At times required effort to walk
against the wind.    The Choptank River roaring with waves and whitecaps.
Rained last night late but mostly clear before then with a nearly full
moon.

4 Wood Ducks.  2 adult Bald Eagles.  1 Hermit Thrush.  1 tailless Swamp
Sparrow.  2 Red-tailed Hawks.  1 Killdeer (unbelievable that it's a
property year bird).  A few tentative Chorus Frogs and Spring Peepers
calling.  The fields were fallow last year due to the excessive rains.  As
a result countless thousands of seedling loblollies sprung up as well as
some growths of cattails in random spots.  Some Long-tailed Ducks flew very
close to the shore at Lucy Point, no doubt due to the gale force winds.
All the others I've seen from the property this year were scoped at
distances of at least a mile offshore - well past where most of the Surf
Scoters have been hanging out.

Rt. 309 ponds between Rts. 481 and 213 heading west.  Pond 1:  3 Lesser
Yellowlegs and the Canada Goose on its nest as it was last Monday.  Pond 2:
 In my exhaustion, drove right past without noticing it.  Pond 3:  2
Mallards and a Muskrat lodge.  Pond 4:  5 black ducks, 2 Green-winged Teal.
 Pond 5  ("The Route 309 Pond"):  5 Bonaparte's Gulls resting in the middle
facing into the gale-force winds, 135 Canada Geese, 6 Gadwalls, 2 black
ducks, 17 Ring-necked Ducks, 1 male Blue-winged and 17 Green-winged teal, 1
Lesser Yellowlegs.  In field at junction of Rts. 213 & 309:  4 Tundra Swans
hunkered down in the wind.

Headin' home.  Route 301.  The 2 ponds just southeast of Rts. 301 X 213
have been barren of birds in the dozen or so times I've passed them in 2004
and were also today.  Last year they were favored by Ring-necked Ducks and
Gadwalls.  At mile 113.3 on Route 301 a Red-tailed Hawk dead in the center
strip.  At mile 120.5 a Bald Eagle.  The dead Red-tailed Hawk I found in
the Rt. 301 center strip 2 weeks ago near mile 118.5 is still there today.


Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to:


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