"Rigby's Folly", Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue. 

SATURDAY evening, May 21, 2005.  Scattered clouds, many trailing virga.  2
Chuck-will's-widows at 8:45 P.M. calling from Woods 3, and they weren't
holding back.  1 Spotted Sandpiper.  1 Common Loon giving the wail call.  1
pair of Blue Grosbeaks.

Also:  17 deer (there are more deer now than at any time I can recall).  1
Gray Squirrel crossing the driveway in the deep woods as framed by my
headlights at 8:43 P.M.  (You're risking getting nailed by Bubo, the great
Great Horned Owl, little squirreleepooh, and SHOULD BE asleep in your drey
at that ungodly hour; I mean really)  1 Eastern Cottontail.  Fowler's Toads
are definitely open by business.  Huge chorus after dark no doubt turned on
by the 6 inches of rain on Friday, the relative warmth, and, perhaps, by
the nearly full moon, that turned me on.  The sky was extraordinarily clear
and it was easy, with only binoculars, to see craters and other features as
well as the shadows of some of these.  A Fowler's Toad on the lawn, the
first I've SEEN this spring.

SUNDAY, May 22.  7 A.M. - 5 P.M.  Overcast at first with occasional
sprinkles from passing virga, then fair or clear for the rest of (most of)
the day.  Winds NW 5-10, but almost calm for my 5.1 mile boat trip.  Temps
62-76, water temp 64-66.  Delightful weather.  Went for first Bay swim. 
Don't know the submerged aquatic vegetation very well but there was lots of
what I believe is Ruppia floating all over the surface of Irish Creek and
my prop picked up a lot of it just as used to happen all the time before
the 1970s, at which time the SVA crashed.  It's great duck and swan food. 
61 species. 

2 Common Loons.  12 Surf Scoters (8 males, 4 females).  136 Mute Swans (the
nest at the head of the cove has apparently failed).  16 Canada Geese
(including broods of 3 & 2 small downy young).  1 ad. Bald Eagle.  12
Ospreys including 1 carrying a medium-sized fish that was trailing fishing
line with an apparent lure dangling 7 or 8 feet below the bird and the
fish).  1 Semipalmated Sandpiper.  1 horned owl.  1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 
1 male Hairy Woodpecker variously carrying food and acting (very) agitated.
 4 Bank Swallows (migrants).  5 Red-eyed Vireos (all singing, probably all
migrants, ties 2nd highest yard count).  2 Magnolia Warblers, singing and
also giving their distinctive House Sparrow-like call note; this call note
can be heard on the Stokes 3-CD set, which I think does a great job of
presenting call notes and some other less usual vocalizations; about 300
species on the CDs, which are fun to listen to on the long drive home.  2
redstarts (migrants).  1 chat (also singing but probably passing through). 
2 Indigo Buntings.  1 hummer.  

MAMMALS:  1 Woodchuck, a surprise, first seen here beginning in the late
1970s but for the past 5 years or so not much of a presence.  1 Muskrat
(swimming across the mouth of the cove, about a quarter mile of a paddle). 
2 Gray Squirrels.  6 deer.  1 Raccoon.  1 Red Fox kit.  1 cottontail.  

HERPS.  Amphibians:  1 Bullfrog, a few leopard frogs, 2 Spring Peepers, and
a few Fowler's Toads.  Reptiles:  2 Painted Turtles basking in Woods 4, 40
Diamondback Terrapin (highest count today of those in sight simultaneeously
at the mouth of the cove). 

May 14 DORCHESTER MAY BIRD COUNT ADDENDA.  Returns are still coming in but
this is probably the last hurrah.  Paul Spitzer spent several hours late in
the evening along the Elliott Island Road.  His numbers of several species
exceeded those of Hal, Lynn & myself in that same area so I am adding to
the final list:  3 Clapper (his total was 8), 2 King (only ones on the
count) & 10 Virginia Rails (his total was c. 25) plus 3 Yellow-billed
Cuckoos.  No one heard any Soras, another species that seems to be
declining here as a spring migrant.  The species total for the count is now
154, a good result for a day when there was almost no flight.

I was in error when I suggested Horned Lark was missing from the official
M.O.S. May count list.  I'd been looking at a poorly-positioned photocopy
which left off the bottom line, on which Horned Lark does appear.

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