"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  Saturday, April 9, 2005.  Liz and Harry Armistead.  Clear, 52-65
degrees F., winds NE 20-10, ground saturated and soggy with big amounts of
surface water.  Tide low to high to low.  54 species.  

7 Common Loons (1 with a "normal" type small fish, not a Hogchoker).  35
Horned Grebes.  41 Northern Gannets (in sight simultaneously, all adulkts,
and several plunge-diving; gannets present all day long; 3rd highest
property count).  4 Snowy Egrets, in a group, landed on Davidson's dock
once.  6 Glossy Ibis (2 groups of 3, flying north in migration, c. 8th
property record and earliest, by one day).  12 Canvasbacks.  3 Common
Goldeneyes.  210 Buffleheads.  4 White-winged & 1,370 Surf Scoters.  240
Ruddy Dcuks (7th highest property count).  5 Bald Eagles.  2 kestrels.  1
Wild Turkey, stalked into the yard when I was napping in the sun,
apparently didn't like what it saw, and woke me when it flushed noisily.  2
Bonaparte's Gulls.  2 Barn Swallows.  4 Field Sparrows.  

5 Gray Squirrels.  10 deer.  Heard Spring Peepers (big choruses) plus a few
Southern Leopard and Chorus Frogs but no Fowler's Toads yet this year.  Our
fields, unploughed, not disked for the 3rd season (yet) are turning a
lovely, grassy green with some sulphurs (c. 8) and Cabbage Whites (5)
coursing over them.  A lovely Spotted Turtle slowly swimming in the
driveway ditch adjacent to Field 4.  

Took first 2005 boatride in "the Mudhen", a little shakedown cruise of 3.4
miles, most of the time at 4.5 m.p.h., 2:30-4 P.M.  Water temperatures
52-58 along the way.  Nice looks at the scoters and other divers including
loons, grebes, and gannets.  Stimulating if bracing to wade a little in the
cove.  To actually get into the Bay and walk around some is always
worthwhile.         

Sunday, April 10.  Clear, temps. 42-68 F., winds light to 10 m.p.h. from
the NW, a sunny, beautiful spring day, warmer than yesterday.  A few
sulphurs and cabbage white as per yesterday.  

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  7 A.M. - Noon.  4 of us on the bird
walk:  Cynthia Johnson, Bob Donald, Gerhard Rauh, and myself.  69 species. 
1 Pied-billed Grebe (Pool 1).  6 Glossy Ibis.  1 male Gadwall.  18
Green-winged Teal.  5 Blue-winged Teal.  3 male American Wigeon.  12
shovelers.  4 Ring-necked Ducks (Pool 1).  1 female Common Merganser (next
to the boathouse).  1 Cooper's Hawk.  22 Bald Eagles, 2 of which were seen
to catch fish; another adult was seen feeding an eaglet.  13 Wild Turkeys
in Cambridge near Route 16 X Stone Boundary Road.  2 coots (Pool 1).  2
Wilson's Snipe, unusual in that they were ON Egypt Road.  22 Forster's & 4
Caspian Terns.  2 Pileated Woodpeckers.  7 Horned Larks (widespread along
Egypt Road).  Only 3 Barn Swallows.  5 Brown-headed Nuthatches.  1 Marsh
Wren (singing).  2 Brown Thrashers.  1 yellowthroat (singing).  An awful
lot of early arrivals don't seem to be here yet: crested flycatchers, House
Wrens, kingbirds, Blue Grosbeaks, Ovenbird, White-eyed Vireo, gnatcatcher,
etc.  Still a bit too early for them this year?   

Several new Osprey platforms have been put up recently and older ones
repaired.  Saw a starling carrying food at the Spur Road on Wildlife Drive
where we also watched a Gray Squirrel for several minutes as it gathered a
big mouthful of last year's cattail leaves for a nest 20 feet up in a
Loblolly Pine right next to the trunk.  Its mate was nearby.  6 Red-bellied
and 7 Painted Turtles.         

Somehow our conversation turned to nettles, that is, thistles, and I came
up with a tongue twister:  Mendelssohn's meddlesome nettles.  This was a
mistake because Gerhard, who is from Germany, responded with some of his
own (My 1 year of German was in academic year 1958/1959 so pardon any
mistakes in transcription):

Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut.  Bridal dress
stays bridal dress and red cabbage stays red cabbage.

Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische und frische Fische fischt Fischers
Fritz.  Fishers Fritz fishes fresh fish and fresh fish is fished by fishers
Fritz.

Brewer's Blackbird habitat?  Bob chipped in with a report on his visit to
New York City to see Christo's 'The Gates' in Central Park, where he heard
a German tourist ask "Wie gehts?"  Outside of Easton on Route 33 is what
could pass for Talbot County's answer to Christo.  A collection of domestic
fowl of doubtful provenance parades around a garish enclosure in the middle
of which, for no special reason that I can discern, is a port-a-potty. 
Next to this is another enclosure, a sea of wet mud, in which hogs bustle
about, in the center of which is a shipwrecked Suburban sloppily painted in
many colors and emblazoned with such as "PIG HOTEL" and "OINK, OINK." 
Other graffiti nearby proclaim 'LOOKIN' GOOD.  Very studiedly white trash
heaven.   It is all something to see.  Such places sometimes attract
Brewer's Blackbirds.  

The fields adjacent to the Hurlock Wastewater Treatment Plant also look
good for Brewer's, although if any are around it's getting late in the
season for them.  These fields have a nice blend of green grasses, bare
earth, rotten cucumbers, and pasture patties.  Such fields near Leipsic,
Delaware, have been good for occasional Brewer's for decades.  

Rigby's Folly.  1:15 - 6:15 P.M.  The usual perps and suspects plus (missed
yesterday):  2 Pileated Woodpeckers (not seen here until September 15,
1975; c. 65 property records now; 2 seen in one day on only 4 other dates).
 4 Red-breasted Mergansers.  Also:  60 Ruddy Ducks.  4 Red-tailed Hawks
(together in a small kettle).  1 Wild Turkey (gobbling at 5:45 A.M.).  

25 deer seen in 1 group in Field 3 (the Clover Field) and I found an antler
with 4 points there.  1 of the deer was apparently the same partially
leucistic 1 I've seen several times on Deep Neck.  2 Gray Squirrels.  1
cottontail.  The Mute Swan nest at the head of the cove, a huge affair over
1 yard in diameter and more than 1 foot high, has 8 eggs, each about the
size of an Emu's.  Over the years I've examined perhaps 40 Mute Swan nests,
most of them in the Barren I. area, but have never been attacked.  1
Painted Turtle, in Woods 4.  5 Diamondback Terrapin in the cove; go Terps. 
    

I stopped by Unicorn Book Shop again.  The 2-foot stack of "Maryland
Birdlife" mentioned in my previous post belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Oliver L.
Smith of Denton.

Family retreat opportunity.  The current issue (issue one, 2005), page 61, 
of "Christie's Great Estates" lists Medway Plantation for sale.  Near
Charleston, South Carolina.  6,700 acres, a stable for 12 horses, 3 guest
houses, "A tributary of the Cooper River winds through the property, acres
of loblolly and longleaf pine provide sanctuary for red-cockaded
woodpeckers, and 13 lakes afford habitat for ducks."  $25,000,000.  If The
Nature Conservancy can't ante up maybe we could all chip in ...   

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