"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Evening of May 22, 2004:  1 Luna Moth.  A chorus of Green Tree
Frogs at Tranquility.  This is the first chorus of these frogs I've ever
heard here.  Last summer I heard 1 or 2 several times.   Before that only 1
other record of 1 frog.  Apparently they have "been fruitful and
multiplied."  The afternoon of May 23 I spent 35 minutes driving around in
our untilled fields looking for field birds, driving 3.2 miles in 6 fields,
but not a single bird was seen.

Blackwater N.W.R., May 23, Sunday, 7:30 A.M. - 1 P.M.  Bird walk with John
Krustins, Mary Konchar, Levin Willey and myself.  77-91 degrees F.  Fair
but hazy.  Winds SW 10-15 m.p.h.  67 species.

2 White-rumped Sandpipers, 1 allowing repeated studies at close range.
Other shorebirds:  3 Black-bellied & 45 Semipalmated plovers, 1 Greater
Yellowlegs, 3 Killdeer, 1 Spotted, 300 Semipalmated & 2 Least (probably
many more present) sandpipers, and 555 Dunlin.  Shorebirds were both within
the impoundments and on the tidal flats.

Also:  1 male American Black Duck X Mallard hybrid (paired with a rather
seedy-looking female Mallard - no orange on her bill), 14 Bald Eagles, 2
calling bobwhite, 2 wood pewees.

Mary said there are 2 active Great Blue Heron nests in the vicinity of
Marsh Edge Trail.  We found a kingbird on its nest in a loblolly by the
pond on the Spur Road and saw 2 juvenile starlings in a Wood Duck box being
fed by an adult.  The kingbird nest was only a couple of feet above the
water, a similar situation to a nest found at Rigby once ("An unusual
"maritime" Eastern Kingbird nest in Talbot County."  Maryland Birdlife 51:2
[1995] pp. 91-94), the latter successful even though it could have been
inundated by a very high tide.

Not much for landbirds, the Wildlife Drive forest being almost bleak with
but 1 each of Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-headed, Pileated and Red-bellied
woodpeckers, Acadian Flycatcher, and Summer & Scarlet tanager (most of
these only heard or seen once) among other less notable species.

1 Muskrat, 1 Gray Squirrel, 1 deer, 1 Raccoon.  A few Painted & Red-bellied
Turtles and 1 snapper.  A couple of Bullfrogs and a Gray Tree Frog.  At the
Easton Bypass I saw an adult Red Fox emerge from its burrow.

Headin' home:  Single hen Wild Turkeys on Route 309 1 mi. north of Hyde
Park and near the junction of Rts. 481 X 301.

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