On the way down (leave Philadelphia c. 0945 hours) a very fat Woodchuck
near Odessa, Delaware. Play Bach's great Italian Concerto in F Major for
harpsichord a couple of times. If you do watch it or you'll be going 80
before you know it.
Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue. Sunday, April 23, 2006, 1 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. only. George & Harry
Armistead. Sometimes the short visits are the sweetest. With the
tremendous rain yesterday, this afternoon's abundant sun & and the
advancing season this place came alive today. 60 species. The main reason
for today's trip was to pick up & ferry home Anne's car, abandoned here
last weekend in need of a new water pump, and to make a major trash run.
Anne was at a meeting in Washington, D.C.
Black Vulture. A bird flushed out of the goose blind on the W. side of
Field 1. We found 2 big, dirty-white eggs right on the bare floor under
the open sky. I'da thought they would have been under the bench. A little
dirt and debris but a minimalist "nest."
A lot of spring arrivals today - 7 species not seen last weekend, or prior
to that: a Solitary Sandpiper, flushed and then chased by a Red-winged
Blackbird. 2 Chuck-will's-widows, hard to hear over the deafening chorus
of Spring Peepers and Chorus Frogs, 8:20 P.M. 1 Chimney Swift. 2 Eastern
Kingbirds. 1 House Wren. 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 1 male Blue Grosbeak.
Also: 13 Common Loons, several with fish; none seen with fish last (3-day)
weekend. 3 Horned Grebes. 19 cormorants, a flock in migration. 6 Wood
Ducks. 80 Surf Scoters. 1 female Bufflehead. 1 ad., 1 sub-adult & 1 imm.
Bald Eagle. 1 male kestrel. 1 Wild Turkey, gobbling away starting at 8:11
P.M. 1 screech-owl. 1 horned owl. 2 Pileated Woodpeckers, only the 6th
time I've had the pil double-whammy here. 3 swallow species. 1 catbird.
24 waxwings, 3 small groups. 5 towhees. 2 Swamp Sparrows.
The nest box on the old phone pole on the E. side of Field 1: 4 species
showing interest today - House Sparrow, bluebird, Tree Swallow & starling.
Location is everything.
A big Winter Jellyfish was off the end of the dock. Cove water murky,
brown, full of sediment, totally lacking in clarity after the big rain.
Several Ospreys carrying sizeable fish. Good.
Osprey duck blind nest.
A man and a bird both hunt.
Man for birds. Bird? Fish.
HERPS. Definitely open for business. GO TERPS: a new record Diamondback
Terrapin count - 132. 41 seen from the end of the dock at the mouth of
the cove. Then went straight out to Lucy Point and counted 91 more snouts.
These all around 5:30 P.M. 4 Painted Turtles. BIG choruses of Chorus
Frogs and Spring Peepers, not so big of Fowler's Toads. 4 Green Frogs seen
but not heard in the Waterthrush Pond. Also not so big a chorus, Southern
Leopard Frogs, but definitely sounding off, esp. on the edge of Woods 2 X
Field 3.
The 3 big manure piles present for several years in Field 4 (2 of them) and
Field 6 have finally been spread over the fields, esp. Field 4.
MAMMALS: 9 deer. 1 Muskrat. 1 Gray Squirrel. 1 Eastern Cottontail.
BUTTERFLIES: an early Monarch. 4 Pearlcrescents. 6 Spring Azures. 30
sulphurs. 2 Cabbage Whites. And numerous others on the move I could not
identify (but many other folks would have).
Lots of Periwinkles and Sea Roaches along the shoreline, esp. at the base
of the dock. Earlier this week the lawn, trails, and driveway grasses were
mowed. In the deep ditch where the overflow from Frog Hollow pours out I
saw for the first time ever several fish roiling the waters and apparently
foraging, one of them a Carp c. 13 inches long. A few early dragonflies
today. Loblolly Pine candles are now an inch or 2 long and the pollen is
starting to cover everything. Locusts are already starting to leaf out.
The plants are early.
WEATHER. Sky: mostly overcast becoming fair, then clear (clear and sunny
most of the time). Wind: calm becoming light, c. 5, from the S or SE.
Temperature in degrees F.: 60 - 72. Tide: Higher than normal becoming
low. Ground condition: watery but still mostly firm. Looks as if 3 - 4
inches of rain fell yesterday and earlier today (7" was in some outdoor
pots, but these taper in a little), a deluge, relief from the drought of
the past few weeks ["The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard
and dry/And every spirit upon earth was fervorless as I" - Thomas Hardy],
standing water everywhere, water flow - clear water - in the ditches and
some even in the fields. Visibility: good. Mileage: by car 2; by foot
3.5.
At sunset most of the sky was clear but distant clouds were in the NW,
great formations, a Francis Lee Jaques sky, a south Florida sky, looking to
hold the promise of lightning, and then, a few minutes later they
occasionally glowed with it, perhaps 50-60 miles away. I slowly motored
towards it and then into it on the way home; by 9:30 was in the midst of
impressive thunder and lightning in E. Cecil County and the Middletown,
Delaware area, including crazy, wild, horizontal cloud-to-cloud lightning
bolts and torrential rain. Donner und Blitzen. Somehow you feel the
peepers and chorus frogs knew it was coming and were in full cry.
Great music on the way home: British Invasion Weekend on 107.1. Sacred
choral and organ music on 89.5's "With heart and voice". Doo Wop Sunday
evening the way only Philadelphia's 98.1 can do it.
Julie Zickefoose was on NPR recently, what I'd call a radio essay. A gem.
Very nicely done. Speaks as well as she paints, perhaps better. Her
subject, American Robin, one of my favorite birds. They're everywhere,
lovely plumage pattern, beautiful song. A pre-eminently seeable bird.
Interesting, too. Lovely "robin's egg blue" eggs. One of the things she
said, deceptively simple, it says so much more than it sounds like it does:
"If you have a lawnmower, you have a robin."
Robin's yard is mine.
S/he mines the lawn for earthworms.
This land is OUR land.
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 ....) |