June 10, 2004, Thursday.  Smith Island, MD/VA, esp. South Marsh Point,
which is south of the MD/VA line c. 1.2 miles.   Fair, a mite hazy, low 70s
to low 80s, winds W 15+ becoming SW 10 or less.  Pretty good banding
weather.

This was a banding trip to band young Brown Pelicans - the first such trip
here this year.  Ten of us, including master bander Dave Brinker, Simone
Jenion and Charlie Vaughn, banded 375 young pelicans, a fraction of those
there, and these in just one of the 2 major subcolonies.  Many young we did
not band are simply too small yet.  We also used up 75 big, light blue
plastic color bands (go on the left leg), with large white alphanumerics.
Another expedition is planned for Tuesday, June 15, when Maryland public TV
will be shooting the action.  Peter Jennings and Paul Zahn couldn't make
it.

Birds seen by me at South Marsh Point, VA, (which is contained by a MD
atlas block apparently)...  Much of the time was spent trying to get a real
good crimp on the pelican band closing, which I am getting better at.  So
not a lot of time was spent scanning around.  2 Yellow-crowned Night, 2
Tricolored & 1 Little Blue Heron, 1 Mute Swan, 15 oystercatchers, 3 Fish
Crows, 2 Great Egrets, 2 Mallards, 1 Bald Eagle, 4 Ospreys, a pair of
Gadwall, 5 black ducks, 4 Boat-tailed Grackles, 2 Glossy Ibis, 2 Barn
Swallows and 3 Seaside Sparrows.

There are also dozens of active Herring Gull nests, most with eggs, but
some fuzzy young are scurrying around and presumably some Great
Black-backed Gulls nests are there also, since there are plenty of adult
GBBGs.  On May 18 Dave counted 1,424 pelican nests here, up several hunnies
from last year.  There are scores of Double-crested Cormorant nests, most
with furry-looking black young whose rather musical chirpings and
utterances contrast sharply with the rather James-Brown-like rasps, croaks,
and what-have-you that the baby pelis cut loose with.  It's a noisy (and
smelly) place.  Still a few pelican and cormorant nests with eggs.

Some of the young pelicans often regurgitate when one is in their colony
(We have that effect on them, rather like I used to have with some of my
staff), usually menhaden, but I saw a couple of eels also and someone
reported squid.  At one point I estimated 590 adult cormorants waiting
offshore in a loose group for us to finish up.  The pelicans return to
their nests quickly, often when you've moved less than 100 feet away.  The
cormorants are more standoffish.

At Ewell, Smith I., MD, we enjoyed the usualy celebratory lunch afterwards
at Ruke's - great crabcake platters.  Saw 3 Yellow-crowned Night Herons in
the Ewell area and across the channel from town great blues and Great
Egrets can be seen at their nests.  Saw Willets divebombing Fish Crows
here.  The past couple of years it sems to me there are far fewer YCNHs
here.

A trip not without mishap.  Soon after launch (but before lunch) it became
apparent that John Weske's boat had a problem with the engine getting oil.
I feel especially bad about this because John had just recently picked up
his boat from a marine service I had recommended.  So John had to bail and
deal with that.  For my own part I apparently broke my longest left toe
(considerable blood and bruising, a joy to behold) just after we'd finished
and also sustained an uncomfortable blister on the palm of my banding hand.


We had 6 or so sightings of Cow-nosed Rays.  A Tiger Swallowtail flew
across the channel at Ewell.  Going and coming to Ewell there are tricky
tidal currents and confusing wave patterns offshore from Crisfield around
the no. 8 marker (this is in MD waters), where (mostly) Royal Terns and
some gulls were engaging in a minor feeding frenzy.

Yesterday Dave counted some 651 Royal Terns nests several miles east of
South Point Marsh at Little Fox Island, Virginia.  However, skimmers were
aparently absent for this first time in several years.

Gas in Salisbury at the big Wawa was $1.87 vs. $2.13 at my local
Philadelphia station here.

My spell check has vanished, desaparecido, so, and this is mentioned
especially for Paul O'Brien's benefit, if you think Turvey Vulture was bad,
get ready for some more REAL masterpieces of keyboarding, which I hope will
not be obscenities, racist, or otherwise scatological or politically
incorrect.  Anything could happen.  Turnkey Ruptures feeding on carryon
luggage?  They used to say that given enough time a chimpanzee could, by
random chance, type 'Macbeth' or 'Hamlet' in its/their entirety.  Jonathan
Winters used to work that idea into one of his routines by intoning:  "To
be or not to be, that is the guzorninblatz."  He didn't believe it for a
minute.  And since I have a broken toe now, my keyboarding talents, never a
strong suit to begin with, are definitely compromised.  And furthermore,
rfghhhjklyopsdrft.

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