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

Sat., Oct. 22, 2005.  3-6 P.M.  Overcast, some mist and light rain
occasionally.  Tremendous amount of standing water everywhere from a deluge
last night, several inches of rain.  Ground still fairly firm.  Winds W at
10 m.p.h.  A surprising number of birds around in view of the grundgy
weather.

7 Common Loons.  1 Horned Grebe.  1 Hutchin's Goose.  9 Wood and 16 Ruddy
Ducks.  2 Bald Eagles.  235 Laughing Gulls.  25 Royal Terns (far out in the
Choptank River).  1 sapsucker.  2 Hermit Thrushes.   1 Winter Wren.  21
Palm Warblers (mostly yellows; 2nd highest property count; 30 on Oct. 13,
1991, Talbot Bird Club field trip).  40 Song Sparrows.  5 Field Sparrows. 
Also:  2 Gray Squirrels.  5 deer.

Sunday, Oct. 23.  Mostly cleared off by 10 P.M. last night.  Winds WNW or W
15.  Clear.  Temps 54-65 or so.  A good day for phoebes everywhere.  

Talbot Bird Club field trip to Rigby with Les Coble, Austin Farley, Jan
Reese, Wayne Bell, Margie Steffens, et al.  9 cars and c. 20 people.  60
species.  During the tally at the Novak's breakfast I forgot to include 1
species, a Common Grackle.  A cool morning.  I wore 4 layers.  1 Red Fox.  
   

10 Common Loons.  11 Surf Scoters.  1 Osprey.  3 Bald Eagles.  1 harrier. 
8 Sharp-shinned & 1 Cooper's hawks,  1 kestrel.  650 Laughing Gulls (mostly
at Bellevue, where we watched the sun rise).  1 Chimney Swift (previous
late date October 16).  8 flickers.  13 phoebes (4th highest property
count).  1 Brown Creeper.  6 or so of both kinglets.  1 Blue-headed Vireo
(latest property date is Oct. 27).  3 meadowlarks.  3 Purple Finches.  

Hooper's Island (Swan Harbor Road).  Hawk watch 12:45-2:45 P.M.  Clear
(unfortunately, no clouds).  Winds NW 15 gradually diminishing to 10. 
Temps in mid-high 50s to 60+.  My annual cycle of field trips allows me
only a few hours here each fall.  Regular coverage might produce several
thousand or more raptors.  Today's flight was to the north, into the wind,
as is often the case here.  I was surprised to see no red-shoulders and so
few red-tails.  This is not a good falcon flyway, so I was also surprised
to see the 11 kestrels and 2 Merlins, one of the latter a "blue jack."

Turkey Vulture 22.  Black Vulture 2.  Sharp-shinned Hawk 92.  Cooper's Hawk
17.  Red-tailed Hawk 12.  Bald Eagle 8.  American Kestrel 11.  Merlin 2. 
Osprey 1.  Northern Harrier 1.  TOTAL:  170.  Also seen: 2 Monarchs, a
Cloudless & 2 Orange sulphurs.  3 Chimney Swifts.  Vultures are always a
problem to estimate so the totals above are the highest I had in sight at
one time.     

If one extrapolates (a risky thing to do) the 170 raptors counted from
12:45-2:45 P.M. to the hours I wasn't here, say from 7:45 A.M.-12:45 P.M.
(the best time of the day), the day's total would be 595, and that's
assuming none were seen before 7:45 or after 2:45 - not a bad total for
Kiptopeke or even Cape May this late in the season.  Furthermore, compared
to most others I am not good at spotting hawks in a blue sky, especially
with the naked eye, so my totals were probably off perhaps as much as 25%
of what may have actually been there, passing overhead.  By the time I
left, 2:45, the flight had just about stopped.

I also took some time from hawk counting to talk to people who stopped to
talk to me.  One was Jenny Gootee, who takes care of my boat in the winter.
 The other was Don Willey, who talked about his 25 years in the Marines,
his life on the water, and his problems with "new People" who have not
granted him his right of way to go through their property to get to his
business.  

Blackwater N.W.R.  3:45-5 P.M.  Tidal water high, impoundment water still
low even after all the recent rain.  1 rough-winged & 1 Barn swallow.  45
Forster's Terns.  18 Greater Yellowlegs.  125 Green-winged Teal (at
Seward's).  8 Bald Eagles.  7 kestrels.  1 Snowy & 8 Great egrets.  Also: 1
Fox & 1 Gray squirrel.  7 Red-bellied & 1 Painted turtle.   

One of the features of the past 10 days or so has been a surprising number
of Chimney Swifts for so late in the year.  And they have been widespread. 
Leaving my workplace in northeast Philadelphia, in a neighborhood with next
to no nature, I saw one on October 18 at 5 P.M.

In my last post I asked whether readers thought squirrels were annoying,
gnawing, naughty, nice or neutral.  Getting into the spirit of things,
daughter Mary suggested that they are "gnawesome." 

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