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Nanticoke River & Hurlock July 10-11

From:

Henry Armistead

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Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 10:16:28 -0400

"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Friday, July 9, 2004, 5:15 - 9 P.M.  Mostly got ready to go
boating on Saturday.  2 Bald Eagles, 1 Chuck-will's-wwwidow, 1 male Blue
Grosbeak singing, 2 Green Herons (they're nesting in W8), 1 Common Tern.
Many Fowler's Toads and there are still lots of fireflies.  There's been an
influx of Barn Swallows and martins since last weekend.


Nanticoke River, Vienna & Route 50 bridge south to Mulberry Point and back.
 Saturday, July 10.  Lynn Davidson, Hal Wierenga & Harry Armistead.  54.9
miles by boat, 8:45 A.M. - 5:45 P.M.  Clear to fair to mostly overcast,
winds NE 5-10 becoming SW 10-15, low humidity, no bugs, temps. c. 73-88
degrees F., a gem of a day.  Water temps. 80-83.  Tidal sequence high
becoming low.

On the south side of Race Street in Vienna one yard, just west of the
Town/Fire Hall, has numerous hummingbird feeders that are very
well-patronized.  We saw a kingfisher just as we launched.

Today we worked in 4 or so atlas blocks that have no roads at all and
several more that have very limited road access.  Ergo, the only way to
secure halfway decent atlas coverage is by boat.

Synchronised flying.  Hal spotted a peregrine when we were far up a tidal
gut in the Wicomico County Nanticoke marshes.  As it came closer it turned
out to be a big immature female.  After watching it for a minute or so we
were excited to see it join a young eagle almost right overhead of us.  The
two took turns tangling with each other.  Then these 2 great birds flew
SIDE-BY-SIDE in synchronised fashion, rising and falling, turning right
then left, maintaining the same distance between them.

Our first stops were here in the Wicomico marshes which have mostly high
freshwater vegetation including marsh hibiscus, which is starting to bloom,
both the big white flowers and a few of the small pink ones.  There is
quite a bit of 'Spartina cynosuroides'.  The depth of the Nanticoke is
quite deep.  Except for the main channel,it seems to become shallower the
farther south one goes, especially when it is so wide that it is
essentially an arm of the Chesapeake.  But in the tortuous tidal guts of
Wicomico the depth is often surprising, up to 30 feet far up some of these,
especially one known as The Inlet n. of Rewastico Creek.  We heard 7 or so
Virginia Rails here and Lynn had a glimpse of a Least Bittern as well as a
Snapping Turtle.  Many fish were breaking the surface of The Inlet creek,
some over a foot long, but I had no luck with my spinning rod.

BALD EAGLES were in sight continuously almost all day.  We must have seen
at least 40, including some hanging around several nests.  OSPREYS have
nests on all the channel markers except 3 that I noticed.  This is
impressive because it is 16 miles from Vienna to Mulberry Point but that is
IN A STRAIGHT LINE and does not take into consideration the many meanders
of the Nanticoke.  There is an especially dense concentration of active
Osprey nests, as I have noticed in previous years, in the neighborhood of
the Route 50 bridge, including 5 right around the buttresses on either side
of the main channel, an area of only an acre or so.

On the west side of the Nanticoke north of Savanna Lake there are
spectacular, pure groves of Loblolly Pines with spreading crowns above a
sort of clerestory of 30 or 40 feet devoid of branches or other vegetation
but with scrubby plants below that.  The scenes along the river are of
great beauty.  To me this country is worthy of national park status.  Today
was my first boat trip on the Nanticoke.

At Long Point, over 4 mi. E. of Elliott I. Rd. (the section that is
somewhat south of the very crude launching area that is in turn S. of the
first marsh cabin on that road) Hal spotted 2 male Surf Scoters and 5 male
Ruddy Ducks.

Over 1.5 mi. e. of Langrells Island on Elliott I. Rd. is Newfoundland
Point.  The cabin here has many nesting Barn Swallows and an extensive
'Spartina patens' meadow behind it where we found numerous Seaside Sparrows
and a few Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows.  Hal witnessed the classic food
exchange in mid-air by a pair of harriers during our stop.  Lynn spotted a
Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

Our southernmost landing was at Mulberry Point, very remote, c. 4 mi. SE of
the McCready's Creek "marina" at the extreme end of Elliott I. Rd.  Here
there is a fine cabin with new siding which is raised high above the
surrounding marsh and is at the mouth of Bull Run.  A recent paint job
resulted in many greenhead flies becoming stuck by their feet or heads into
the paint, there to expire (Dorchester's answer to the La Brea Tar Pits?).
The cabin's structure is such so that Barn Swallows cannot find a good
purchase on which to fashion their mud nests.

Lower Greens Cove, Dorchester Co.  This is about 1.5 mi. ESE of the Pokata
Creek bridge on Elliott I. Rd.  There is a long, straight beach here and a
grove of poplars of a couple of acres.  Today's most surprising bird was
here, an Acadian Flycatcher, miles from any suitable breeding habitat.
Also notable was the only Yellow Warbler of the day.  Many of the central
poplars are dead and many next to the beach have collapsed, perhaps due to
Hurricane Isabel.  Hundreds of bricks and brick fragments plus glass and
pottery shards line the beach - nothing seems to remain that is intact.
According to the 1877 atlas the families of J. Richardson and I. Horner
lived in this area.  There is still considerable high ground here, many
acres of it.

Isolated tree clumps and hammocks such as this inspired Tom Horton to draw
an analogy to the sacred groves of classical Greece in "An island out of
time: a memoir of Smith Island of the Chesapeake" (Norton, 1996, pp.
295-297):  "If Smith Islanders were ancient Greeks, these would be their
sacred groves.  To reach these inner sanctums, you must usually cross
water, then marsh, and after that a ring of ditch banks dug by settlers a
century or more ago; and finally, bull your way through a breastwork of
thick and scratchy shrubs before attaining the open understory within. ...
Many contain the mossy bricks of old foundations, rusted farm implements,
and plantings of daffodils, arranged to cheer some long-gone walkaway."

Butterflies seen from the boat:  Rare Skipper, Buckeye, Orange Sulphur, 3
Monarchs, Black and Spicebush swallowtails, and numerous Red-spotted
Purples plus countless 1000s of dragonflies, especially Seaside Dragonlets.
 Not very many Diamondback Terrapin seen today.  We were amused at one
padlocked marsh cabin to see the key hanging from a nail in the middle of
the front of the door about a foot from the lock.


81 degrees when I arrive back at Rigby at 10:15 P.M.


Sunday, July 11.  At Rigby a small, spotted fawn gamboling ahead of the
car, stopping and starting several times before trotting off into the
woods.  Adult Bald Eagle at its roost tree at Frog Hollow.

Hurlock area, Dorchester County, MD.  Fair, winds SW 15, 92 degrees, humid,
hot & hazy.  In June Hal & Lynn discovered a pair of DICKCISSELS in a small
fallow area of 3-4 acres bounded by Medford, Harrison Ferry & Harper roads
just e. of Hurlock.  I visited here 11:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.  The first 20
minutes the birds were silent and under cover.  Then the male sang 15 times
and I had 2 studies of the female.  His song varied in complexity and
length from "dick REEDY DEE DEEP" to "dick dick REEDY DEE DEEP sis sis
sis", if you will, the dicks and the sisses being weaker, higher and
shorter, the reedy dee deeps being quite throaty, a little raspy and rough,
and louder and lower.  He sang from atop a thistle as well as from other
plants.  Long overdue, that's my 297th Dorchester species.  Thank you Hal &
Lynn.

If you go please do not use tapes and please do stay on the roads.  These
scarce birds deserve all the chances they can get.  I'm a little concerned
that the female was so easily seen.  Otherwise I would have thought she
would be out of sight incubating.  On July 5, 2002, Anne A. and I counted
71 Dickcissels at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas.  Only 1 of
those was a female, the others all singing males.  Presumably the females
were tending house.

A nice batch of big, purple clover bounds the n. side of Harper Road here,
full of what I took to be Meadow Fritillaries as well as Orange Sulphurs
(dozens), Buckeyes, American Ladies, and Cabbage Whites.  Other birds in
the area were 2 pairs of Song Sparrows, quail, Killdeer, House Sparrows,
starlings, Mourning Doves, Rock Pigeons, TVs, a pair of Blue Grosbeaks, a
pair of red-wings, martins, Barn Swallows, American Crows, a mockingbird,
and several dozen Laughing Gulls hawking insects up high as if it was early
September.

Hurlock Wastewater Treatment Plant.  12:45-1:15 P.M.  10 Ruddy Ducks (3
males in the NE cell, one doing the courtship display - vocalizing with his
squeaky rattle while popping his head up and down rapidly - and 7 other
ruddies in the SE cell).  Also:  a brood of 8 downy Wood Ducks and 7 young
Mallards.  2 Spotted Sandpipers, post-breeding birds from somewhere else.
1 Killdeer, 34 Canada Geese and 55 adult Mallards.  Lots of Buckeyes here
as is usual and a Tiger Swallowtail.  The water is green and bounded by
what looks like big clumps of bright blue algae.  Takes the edge off of
one's wilderness experience.

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