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Subject:

Ferry Neck & Dorchester, Oct. 30-31

From:

Henry Armistead

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Mon, 1 Nov 2004 08:41:03 -0500

"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004.  Jared Sparks & Harry Armistead.
Mostly overcast, winds SW 5-10, 61-69 degrees F.  Visibility limited to 1/4
to 1/3 mile in fog and haze.  33 species.  9 Common Loons, 1 of them in
cove with a 4-5" fish.  110 Mute Swans.  230 Surf Scoters (a lot of the
lovely ringing, bell-like sound when the males flew).  3 sharpies, 2 Coops
& 2 red-tails.  20 Mourning Doves.  8 flickers.  14 bluebirds.  5
Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  40 myrtles.  5 sparrow species with 3 Savannahs & 2
Fields.  No vultures today!

Butterflies:  1 Buckeye.  3 Cabbage Whites.  1 Orange Sulphur.  Deer: 1
buck and 5 does.  3 Gray Squirrels.  Some Green Frogs seen at the Pond and
single Spring Peepers heard calling in 3 places.  Big fat Fowler's Toad
seen on the lawn.  Some Green Darners.  Some of the Poison Ivy leaves and
Asparagus are in high fall color now.  A rather rank growth of turnips on
the edge of one of the manure piles placed in the field (F4) last winter
but ultimately not used for this year's no-till soy beans.  Jared pulled
and ate some.  I fished from the dock to no avail.  Some Baccharis
halimifolia still quite seedy.


Dorchester County, Sun., Oct. 31.  7 A.M. - 5 P.M.  Fair, winds SW 15+
m.p.h. - 10 - 5 - calm, very warm, 65 - 79 degrees.  Good viz.  Spectacular
sunset as seen from the H & G Restaurant in Easton.

Early in the day Levin Willey saw 150 Killdeer in fields along Egypt Road.

Blackwater N.W.R.  6 persons on the bird walk (Jared, Mary Konchar, Levin
Willey, Kate Murphy, Arnold Simon & myself).  2 Common Loons (flyovers).
28 Great Egrets (1 flock in V formation over the Little Blackwater River).
1,000 or so Snow & Blue geese, most of them resting far out on the
Blackwater River.  250 Green-winged Teal.  20 pintails (only ones all day).
 1 American Wigeon (only 1 all day).  10 Red-tailed Hawks (small flight
going on).  1 female Merlin.  20 Long-billed Dowitchers (in flight over an
Egypt Road field).  1 Caspian Tern (somewhat late).  1 screech-owl.  10
Horned Larks.  2 White-breasted & 6 Brown-headed nuthatches.  3 American
Pipits.  55 goldfinches (feeding among Tickseed Sunflowers, a few of which
still have flowers).

Also:  3 Fox & 2 Gray squirrels.  Caught a medium-sized Snapping Turtle.  8
Red-bellied and several Painted Turtles.  Thanks to the others on the walk
for putting up with my foul mood while we changed one of my tires that was
underinflated and had a screw in it and to Tom Miller for moral support.

Hooper's Island.  Arnold & Kate joined Jared and me for the rest of the
day.  No hawk flight at Swan Harbor, although we did see 1 migrating
sharpie and several resident eagles in a half hour watch 12:30-1 P.M. and
heard 2 Clapper Rails in the adjacent saltmarsh.  On the sandbars in Tar
Bay as seen from Swan Harbor Road:  535 Double-crested Cormorants.  2
Black-bellied Plovers.  150 Dunlin.  10 Sanderlings.  180 Great
Black-backed Gulls (one of my best Dorchester counts).  35 Forster's & 1
Royal tern.

Hurlock Wastewater Treatment Plant.  HWWTP is undergoing a multimillion $
upgrade and all the gates are closed.  We were able to peek in from a
couple of edge areas:  1 BRANT (picked out by Jared; well seen through
scope by Jared, Kate, Arnold & myself; feeding on grass in company with 1
CG on top of the dike between the 2 east cells; only the 3rd Brant sighting
I've had in the county since c. 1970).  6 Green-winged Teal.  180
shovelers.  2 Ring-necked Ducks.  1 greater (a male) and 8 Lesser scaup.
480 Ruddy Ducks.  1 Bald Eagle (flushed all the Canada Geese, which left
the premises).  3 Tree Swallows.  The many Tulip Trees in the Hurlock area
are a beautiful burnished golden now.

Butterflies today:  4 Orange Sulphurs.  16 Cloudless Sulphurs (mostly at
Blackwater).  6 Cabbage Whites.  2 Monarchs.  3 Buckeyes.
Blackwater refuge Ranger Tom Miller saw a SNOW BUNTING on the little
causeway at Sewards on Key Wallace Drive on Oct. 30 at the refuge.

We saw an big River Otter run across the road (Route 335) and plunge into
the ditch waters S. of Blackwater (north of Riggins Corner, south of Gum
Swamp).  Some dragonflies and mosquitos buzzinaroundah.  Lady Bugs all over
the place, in the car, on one's clothing.  Happy Eastern Standard Time
(a.k.a. Daylight Wasting Time) to all concerned.

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