July 17, 2004, Saturday.  Clear-fair-overcast, temps low 70s to near 90,
winds SW 5 increasing to 15+ m.p.h., starting off humid and hazy but
becoming less humid and with improving visibility.  This weekend's
objectives, other than just bumming around in some favorite areas, were for
George to use his new photographic and sound-recording equipment, esp. for
marsh birds, as well as to do some incidental atlassing (the results of
which will be duely recorded on the appropriate forms).

Blackwater N.W.R.  3:45-4:45 P.M.  Thanks to refuge ranger Tom Miller for
showing us a roadkill BLACK RAIL found earlier the same day at 10:30 A.M.
on Shorter's Wharf Road by "Doherty, Annapolis".  In good shape, it was a
juvenile on the basis of the lack of warm reddish-brown markings on the
upperparts and the pale, washed-out whiteish-gray throat area - these as
illustrated in the Sibley guide.  It was adult-size, I suspect killed while
in flight, and I hope indicative that there may be others, its siblings, in
the area.  The refuge plans to preserve it for display.  Back in the early
1960s the first Black Rail I ever heard was from Shorter's Wharf Road,
heard from a moving car at 2:30 P.M. on a June day.  I have not heard any
there since then in spite of making a few hundred stops there, in daylight
hours.  Black Rails have declined alarmingly in recent years in states
north of North Carolina.  I know of only 11-12 individuals heard this year
on the Delmarva Peninsula in about as many localities.  In the early 1980s
once Carl Perry and I found a presumed roadkill Black Rail on the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, VA, in early October, where some years
later Brian Patteson found a live one plus a Yellow Rail on the same day.

On the refuge observation spur road George and I encountered a nice
mixed-species foraging guild with 6 or so Brown-headed Nuthatches, 2
Red-headed, a Red-bellied & 3-4 Downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and Pine
Warblers.  Several waxwings were also present and a Summer Tanager nearby.
Four Wild Turkeys from Egypt Road and a dozen Red-bellied Turtles from
Wildlife Drive.

East of Hurlock 2-2:30 P.M., we found 2 female and 1 singing male
DICKCISSEL (a menage a trois?).  We assume they were females and not
juveniles because there was no interaction between any of these 3 birds,
begging, or the bringing of food, etc.  One of the females flew some
distance out into a field with low soy beans and sometime later flew back
in again.  Butterflies are still thick at the clover here, esp. Orange
Sulphurs and Variegated Fritillaries but also a Painted Lady, several
American Ladies, a few Cabbage White, Buckeyes, and Silver-spotted
Skippers.

Hurlock Wastewater Treatment Plant.  2:45-3:15 P.M.  21 Ruddy Ducks, one
doing its courtship display (3 in the NE cell, 14 in the SE cell & 4 in the
SW cell).  Last summer I found up to 24 ruddies here.  Also:  3 Least
Sandpipers (one being vigorously chased by a Barn Swallow; better to be
chased than unchaste), 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 9 Spotted Sandpipers, a
waxwing, and a Grasshopper Sparrow flushed from the dikes.  Just west of
H.W.W.T.P. was a roadkill Woodchuck.

Elliott Island Road.  7:30 A.M. - 1:15 P.M.  2 adult male Surf Scoters in
the Nanticoke River just off from the launching ramp at Vienna (quite
possibly the same ones Lynn Davidson, Hal Wierenga & I saw a week ago but
miles downstream from Vienna).  Hummers still swarm at the feeders just
west of the Fire/Community Hall and House Finches seem to be breeding in
Vienna.  A roadkill baby Skunk several miles north of Savanna Lake and 2
roadkill Red Foxes elsewhere.  2 adult and 2 small downy chick Common
Moorhens at the Moorhen Spot near Savanna Lake.  George and I spent 4 hours
combined in 2 atlas blocks extending from the Green Island Hunt Club and
the Pokata Creek bridge north past the Island Creek defunct lodge (west
side)-launching area until the Island Creek boarded-up lodge (east side of
the road).  Combined we walked c. 2.5 miles in the salt marsh.  There are
some lovely beds of Marsh (also-called Sea Pink) Pink here, a lovely little
gentian that spangles the Spartina alterniflora meadows.  A few of them are
also white.  Gadwall bend is also a good area for them.

120 Barn Swallows (confirmed nesting in both the southernmost lodges, where
yellowthroats, Song Sparrows, and catbirds also have territories) incl. 1
monster nest c. 9" high.  10 Bank Swallows (fall arrivals).  An adult
Virginia Rail giving its alarm call and 1 small chick closeby.  A pair of
harriers.  20 Snowy Egrets.  3 Willets (soon enough they will depart).  55
mas o menos Seaside and 10 or so Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows plus a
Swamp Sparrow singing.  Much has been made of the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed
Sparrow not singing and being non-territorial but George secured some
recordings of their almost inaudible shadow song and observed some chases
that certainly looked territorial.  3 each of Greater Yellowlegs and Least
Sandpipers.  1 meadowlark.  Dozens of Marsh Wrens, several carrying food.
4 Royal Terns.   Also:  2 Muskrats and 0 Nutria.  Missed along the road
were any Gadwalls, Blue-winged Teal or Black-necked Stilts.  2 Buckeyes
were the only butterflies seen in the marsh.  Only 1 Boat-tailed Grackle, a
female at McCready's Creek.  A pair of Red-tailed Hawks near Gadwall Bend.

A side trip downy sandy Kraft Neck Road N. of Henry's Crossroads turned up
a Red-shouldered Hawk and 2 Red-tails.  At a spot where I'd found an ad.
female Prothonotary Warbler with a dependent juvenile on July 21, 2002,
there was a female with 2 young this year plus a gnatcatcher.

"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Nice chorus of Green Tree Frogs when we arrived c. 9:15 P.M.,
Fri., July 16 and also at the end of the next day.  July 17:  A male Surf
Scoter hauled out on a marshy area near the dock plus a Muskrat, the rain
starts at 8:30 P.M.  July 18, overcast, very humid, winds E-NE 5, low-mid
70s.:  there was a female Surf Scoter in the same spot.  Also on July 18, 9
A.M. - 1 P.M.:  seen carrying food and/or attending young - Blue Grosbeaks
(2 pairs present), Eastern Kingbird, House and Chipping sparrows, bluebird.
 An Indigo Bunting singing, a fawn and 3 does, a Red Fox, a rough-winged
swallow and a Field Sparrow (both overdue year birds), and 2 Gray
Squirrels.  Along the Olszewski trails in the Wool Sedge Depression:  a Mud
and a Painted turtle.  Our fields have still not been planted.  Last night
a deluge of rain, at least 2 inches.

In Delaware:  On July 16 a male Cooper's Hawk NE of Churchman's Marsh seen
from RouteI-95 and a presumed other male coop seen from the car from where
Route 1 turns east off of Route 13 as we were going north July 18.  11
adult Woodchucks as we were heading south July 16, 4 where one turns from
I-95 to Rts. 13/1 and 7 more at the Odessa/Middletown exit from Rts. 13/1.
At Bombay Hook late in the afternoon, July 18, 6 immature Bald Eagles.  I
only get to Bomb-bomb a few times a year but this is my best eagle count
ever for there.  Raymond's Pool was very high from the recent rains without
ANY shorebirds or heron types.  Most of the shorebirds we saw were in a
ploughed field and also in an adjacent wet area on the turf farm east of
Smyrna:  lots of yellowlegs and a few Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers,
Killdeer, Short-billed Dowtchers, and Semipalmated Plovers.  The complex
cloudscapes with scattered descending rain showers and virga in the
distance and occasional patches of blue sky made for a beautiful scene over
the rich, green Bombay Hook marshlands, which were teeming with distant
herons, ibises, and shorebirds.

And so it goes, or at least, went.

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