Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.
Saturday, March 11, 2006.
WEATHER. Warm! Sky: fair, sometimes hazy. Wind: mostly calm.
Temperature in degrees F.: 50-70. Tide: real low to start. Ground
condition: dry. Visibility: not bad.
Mostly do errands, get boat out of winter storage, send lawnmowers to be
tuned up, am interviewed. Common Loon 1. Horned Grebe 4. Northern Gannet
1. Mute & Tundra swans combo 285, c. half-and-half. An additional 120
Tundra Swans coming in from the South at day's end. A lot of lovely
vocalizing by the Tundra Swans all day. 850 Canada Geese. Surf Scoter
420. Bufflehead 165. Red-breasted Merganser 12. Black Vulture 3.
Red-tailed Hawk 1. Mourning Dove 19. Long-tailed Duck (heard only).
Common Grackle 475. High flocks of Canada Geese far out over the Choptank
River in migration. No Ospreys here yet. They usually arrive here later
than in many surrounding areas.
Mammals: 1 bat attending our first outdoor cookout (big, in fact, major,
hot dogs, hamburgers). 1 Gray Squirrel. 1 large, furry Red Fox.
Striking today is an unusual mirage. Looking up the Choptank towards
Castle Haven there seems to be a large, long, rounded HILL of water with
the distant shoreline along its ridge. The most amazing mirages I've seen
were at Churchill, Manitoba, where the offshore ice sheet appeared to be
over a hundred feet high.
Sunday, March 12. Bird walk at Blackwater N.W.R. with Paul Thut, Beth
Hopkins, John McNamara, Liz Armistead & myself. 7:30 A.M. - noon. Fair,
50-65 degrees F., mostly calm, tidal areas quite low, impoundments lower.
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN 5. Present all morning, at rest, in the Blackwater
River opposite Pool 5B at the bend in Wildlife Drive there. Gigantic
birds. Humongous. Acting as if they belong here, which by now they have
the right to do. Come for the fish, stay for the breeding season? Seems
unlikely.
Snow Goose 25 (in migration, accompanying Tundra Swans). 425 Tundra Swans,
many of them coming in from the South. 30 shovelers. 45 Green-winged
Teal. Blue-winged Teal, a pair in Pool 1. 1 male pintail. 4 Ring-necked
Ducks, Pool 1. 14 Bald Eagles. 6 Ospreys. 4 Red-tailed Hawks including a
pair, one of which is carrying a large stick. 8 Black Vultures. 4 Greater
& 2 Lesser yellowlegs. 1 Bonaparte's Gull, spotted by John. 2 Laughing
Gulls, seem early. 21 Forster's Terns. 1 Pileated Woodpecker. 1 Brown
Creeper. 1 Hermit Thrush. 6 Brown-headed Nuthatches. 1 Horned Lark
(Egypt Road). 12 Tree Swallows. 10 Pine Warblers (much singing). 3
meadowlarks (one singing continuously).
Mammals: 2 Fox Squirrels (near the boat house). 1 Gray Squirrel.
Turtles: 106 Painted Turtles (my personal best here). 11 Red-bellied
Sliders. 2 Mud Turtles rescued while basking on the road, candidates for
the Darwin award, perhaps inspired by the last words of a good old country
boy: "Hold my beer and watch this."
Back at Rigby in the afternoon. Up to 70 Surf Scoters in the cove; I've
never seen more than 2 or 3 previously in the cove. This species continues
to be in the ascendancy, the Long-tailed Duck in decline here. 14 Herring
Gulls are attending the scoters. Once one adult robs one of a mollusk,
only to be kleptoparasitized in turn by a sub-adult gull, which then drops
and loses its prize. A Great Horned Owl calls 3 times, starting at 4:53
P.M. At 5:53 2 of them begin calling from Woods 1. 10 Canvasbacks. 10
Mallard accompanied by one black duck. 2 Lesser Scaup. 1 Common
Goldeneye, in the confusing sub-adult male plumage. 11 deer at 6:15 A.M.
Our annual celebratory, traditional start of spring dinner: shad roe and
bacon, after which I head home.
Mon., March 13. Liz sees a Gray Squirrel at Rigby, courting Red-breasted
Mergansers in the cove, and an imm. Bald Eagle flies over the house at
treetop level. She'll ride home with daughter, Mary, and son-in-law-to be,
Michael, this afternoon.
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 (never, please, to 74077.3176 ....) |