Poplar Island archipelago, Talbot County, MD, Thursday, May 26, 2005.
Friends of Blackwater (National Wildlife Refuge) field trip, including
Glenn Carowan, Shirley Bailey, Zeeger de Wilde, Maggie Briggs, Bev
Waggoner, Tom Miller, Duncan & Cynthia MacDonald, et al., all ably led by
Chrissy Albanese 9:45 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.
Much of this may be old news to some readers. Apologies if so.
Most numbers below are really rough estimates. No doubt Jan Reese will
have conducted a much more complete and accurate count.
24 of us were toured around the impressive Poplar Island Environmental
Restoration Project. Once it gets the somewhat overbearing safety issues
out of the way - a movie, the life preserver drill, everyone sit down while
on the boat, etc. - this tour settles down to be extremely interesting and
informative, and birdy.
From the c. 5-acre remains of Poplar Island, which was well over 1,000
acres in the 19th century and included a town, church, school, and sawmill
then, an island of 1,140 acres is in the making, including many miles of
rocky shoreline rip-rap (good for Purple Sandpipers from October into May).
570 acres is slated to eventually be forested. Other smaller cells will
be managed muddy for shorebirds, or marshy and tidal for other wetland
species plus some saltmarsh and beach.
Jan Reese has been making periodic censuses here and I understand Zach Baer
will be as well. The Great Blues and egrets I've seen at our property,
Rigby's Folly, for decades I have assumed are mostly birds breeding in this
archipelago.
42 species. This was not a birding trip per se but of course there were
abundant opportunities to have a pretty good look-see, although much of the
morning was spent driving around the miles of the project's dikes in a tour
bus.
Herons nest on small islands within some of the south "cells"
(impoundments) including several dozen Snowy and a few Cattle egrets,
hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants, and a big Common Tern colony. A
dozen or more egret decoys no doubt helped the birds settle on this site,
as well as their historical ("ingrained"?) disposition to do so. A big
Great Blue Heron colony has nests in tall trees, mostly Loblolly Pines, on
privately-owned (but for sale) adjacent Coaches Island along with a few
pairs of Great Egrets. A few dozen Bank Swallows have apparently colonized
one of the dirt embankments in one of the south cells.
Shorebirds were the main attraction for me today with these guesstimates:
8 Black-bellied & 125 Semipalmated plovers, 4 Killdeer, 2 oystercatchers, 4
Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Willets, 40 Ruddy Turnstones, 12 RED KNOTS (a new
county bird for me), 55 Sanderlings, 750 Semipalmated & 50 Least
sandpipers, 700 Dunlin, and 90 Short-billed Dowitchers. A Sanderling in
high breeding plumage was a source of confusion to some. Odd to see no
spotties.
Lingering waterfowl included 3 male Lesser Scaup, 2 Ruddy Ducks, and a
female Surf Scoter. Non-lingering were 10 or so Mute Swans (several
occupied nests), many Mallards (including 12 broods of downy ducklings),
and a few black ducks (2 broods of downies).
Also of interest: 3 Blue Jays apparently migrating north. 2 Caspian
Terns. 8 Least Terns (perhaps nesting within 1 of the south cells). Some
nesting Herring and Great Black-backed gulls. 3 starlings. 30 Purple
Martins, presumably visitors from the mainland; there are no nesting boxes
for them here. 40 Barn Swallows, that used to, maybe still do, nest within
the decrepit 9 or so barges that were hauled here years ago before the
project began to try to protect what was then left of Poplar Island per se.
Dozens of species of trees and shrubs, not to mention marsh grasses, esp.
Spartina alterniflora, have been planted here but the more upland
vegetation has not had a long enough period to grow big enough to attract
many passerines. The project needs volunteers to help with continued
plantings.
Tour or volunteering dates may be made with Chrissy Albanese, Environmental
Specialist/Tour Coordinator, , but they're
booked up 3 months or so ahead of time for the tours during the warmer
months. Tours can go throughout the year, rain or shine. This is a good
oppoprtunity for bird clubs to see an amazing project in action plus a
bunch of birds. A minimum of 8 people (max is 24, I think) is required.
Eventually Poplar Island will revert to the state, whether as a wildlife
management area or park I have no idea. I'd hope the former. Right now
it's a combo project of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Port
Administration, and the Maryland Environmental Service. It serves as a
catchment for 1000s of tons of dredge spoil from the channels going up to
and into Baltimore harbor. As far as I'm concerned the entire project is
really, really good news. I've visited Poplar Island sporadically from my
childhood in the 1950s until now. It's great to know it has a most
promising future.
Several interesting pamphlets are available, including information on
tours, the basic objectives of the project, and a preliminary bird list.
After so many years a disposition site for future dredging will have to be
found. I'm hoping some of the rapidly disappearing Dorchester islands will
be favored then.
Correction. In my 2 previous posts I incorrectly referred to "British
Storm-Petrel". In some older texts this is what it was, in fact, called,
although most, in the typical English way, called it simply Storm Petrel
(as if there could be any other bird other than "our" storm petrel) in the
manner of their "Wigeon", "Teal", "Jay", "Pheasant", "Oystercatcher",
"Nutcracker", and so on (and in the case of my profession, the [no ... THE]
"Library Association"). One has to, and one does, love the Brits. But the
current correct name for the bird in question is European Storm-Petrel. In
less than the past 7 days it's been seen at least 4 times on pelagic trips
from the Outer Banks, including as recently as Tuesday. And who knows what
happened yesterday.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
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