RIGBY'S FOLLY, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, 25124
West Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue.  Liz &
Harry Armistead.

Saturday, May 27, 2006.  37 species incl. 6 Ospreys (1 carrying a big eel),
16 Mourning Doves (incl. a flock of 14), 1 Bank Swallow, 2 Snowy & 1 Great
egret, 3 waxwings, 2 Green Herons, 3 Bald Eagles, 2 Red-tailed Hawks, 1
Great Horned Owl.  The Barn Swallow nest under the dock now has 3 eggs. 
Other creatures: 3' water snake, 4 rabbits, 6 deer (5 does & 1 very small
fawn in Field 1).  John Swaine began planting corn today, in Fields 1 & 2,
16 rows at a time with each pass.  Butterflies:  3 Orange Sulphurs, 2
Eastern Tailed Blues, 1 Black Swallowtail, 3 Monarchs, 1 Silver-spotted
Skipper, 1 Red-spotted Purple, 3 Cabbage Whites.     

Monday, May 29.  This is "Whimbrel Watch Weekend".  No luck in that respect
but we do see 5 Black-bellied Plovers, c. the 21st property record and a
new late date, by all of one day.  3 waxwings.  6 Gray Squirrels spend the
entire morning in the yard, oblivious to us, engaging in charming
scamperings and slow tree chases, uttering little clucks, not unlike those
of Common Grackles, as well as a sort of wheezing, mewing, sighing call.  I
suspect this is a group of 4 young the parents are trying to ditch, to cut
the apron strings.  One youngster disappears into a culvert.  "Bairns!  Get
a life.  Your parents are trying to get some down time to rest up for
2006's second litter.  Be gone!"  

Yesterday Liz sees a juvenile, flying Common Grackle land in the middle of
the cove and then do a sort of breaststroke all the way to shore. 
Grackles, starlings, cardinals, and mockingbirds are busy feeding on Red
Mulberries, carrying food to their young.  Those trees are big bird feeders
this time of year.  A Fowler's Toad crawls up the leg of my camouflage
jumpsuit airing out on the porch.  In the Field 1 goose blind the 2 Black
Vulture eggs have finally hatched.  Take 6 photographs of the young, which
are about the size and shape of avocados.


DORCHESTER COUNTY, MARYLAND:

Sunday, May 28.  BLACKWATER N.W.R.  6:15 A.M.  Quick drive through.  1 Fox
& 1 Gray Squirrel, 6 rabbits, 22 Cedar Waxwings.  A huge Snapping Turtle on
the drive (25 lbs.?), 2 others nearby.  510 shorebirds in the Pools 5,
mostly Semipalmated sandpipers & plovers, and Dunlin but we didn't look
them over carefully.

ABBREVIATIONs:  BCNH, Black-crowned Night & YCNH, Yellow-crowned Night
herons.

BLOODSWORTH ISLAND area.  28.8 mile boat trip with Jared Sparks.  7 A.M. -
5 P.M.  I was disappointed to see or hear no Carolina or House wrens or
cardinals on any islands, one more sign of the degradation of these eroding
wildlife havens.  Fair, warm, wind NW 10, a gem, few bugs.

1.  FIN CREEK, NE Bloodsworth I.  8-10 A.M.  Fin Creek penetrates
northeast-central Bloodsworth for well over 1 mile, running north and
south, 1.2 mi. is easily navigable even in my heavy boat at low tide.  Just
east is a long ridge, Fin Creek Ridge, with a dense growth of Baccharis
halimifolia, some small Red Cedars, Black Locusts, and Loblolly Pines and,
of course, Poison Ivy.  It has a small, old graveyard.  Formerly it boasted
large Loblolly Pines which are thought to have been burned by naval
ordnance in the 1960s.  Low tide at 10 A.M. today.  

30 species including 26 pelicans, 16 BCNH, 6 black ducks, a pair of
harriers, 8 Willets, 14 Clapper Rails, 7 yellowthroats, 7 Song & 26 Seaside
sparrows, 1 catbird, 3 kingbirds, 25 Marsh Wrens, an imm. Bald Eagle, 1
Tree Swallow, and 9 Glossy Ibis.  At the mouth of Fin Creek is a small
Spartina patens and Distichlis Spicata meadow interspersed with some Juncus
roemerianus and Baccharis bushes.  Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows have
been seen here in other years.  We see 2 today.  For the first time I play
a Black Rail tape here a few times, to no avail.  We find a dead, unbanded
Osprey on top of a nest platform.  

There are about 115 occupied Great Blue Heron nests, almost all of them on
nesting platforms erected by the U.S. Navy and assisted by other agencies
and individuals,  most built September 9-12, 2002.  I suspect at least one
pair of Great Egrets and 10 or so pairs of BCNHs nest here as well.  For
the first time in years no YCNH here.  The good counts of nesting landbirds
due largely to Jared's good hearing.  Last year in late May Jared & I
estimated c. 110 GBH nests.     

Also:  A Red Fox well-seen along the creek bank.  2 Mourning Cloaks, 1
Monarch, 1 Orange Sulphur.  15 Diamondback Terrapin.  Lots of Seaside
Dragonlets.     

2.  On the NORTH END of Bloodsworth we find an 8' dead dolphin up on the
shore at the high tide line.  I took 6 color photographs.  Its viscera
protrude from its left, rear flank, perhaps due to a propeller wound.  Its
dorsal and tail fins are curled and twisted perhaps due to rigor mortis and
exposure to heat and sun.  The only time I've seen live dolphins in the MD
part of the Chesapeake was on June 1, 2000, when Marshall Iliff and I saw 4
just west of Holland Island.  In both cases I think they were Atlantic
Bottlenose Dolphins.

3.  PONE ISLAND, a component of Bloodsworth I. in its SW sector.  11 A.M. 
There is a nice though diminshed sand bar here between Pone and Northeast
islands.  22 species including 85 Mute Swans (no cygnets today), a female
Red-breasted Merganser, 2 black ducks, 2 oystercatchers, 3 Royal Terns
(only ones today), 9 Seaside Sparrows, 1 Marsh Wren, 5 Glossy Ibis, and 30
Canada Geese (no goslings today on any islands).  8 Diamondback Terrapin. 
2 Monarchs.  The west side of Pone I. used to have two groves of Persimmons
with some heron nests but they eroded away years ago.  

A Sherman Tank, its lid open, still partially clears the water's surface
and 3 more have subsided below it just NW of Pone I.  In the 1970s I found
Dorchester's first oystercatcher nest at Pone I. in the midst of windrows
of unexploded naval ordnance.  This May 20 I remarked on this to Lou
Schiavo while we were at Tangier Island.  His response was "I helped put
some of those there."  He had been a gunnery officer on a destroyer that
shelled Bloodsworth

4.  ADAM ISLAND.  11:40 A.M.  14 species.  As with Bloodsworth also navy
property.  Now busted up into several segments due to erosion, it still has
a good 6 Great Blue Heron nests.  We didn't land so can't be sure there
aren't a few more.  Also 3 Osprey nests, including one on the remains of
the metal tower the navy tore down.  60 pelicans, 10 Boat-tailed Grackles,
1 Song Sparow, 1 Willet, and 12 Canada Geese.  Adam is just N of Holland I.

5.  HOLLAND ISLAND, NORTH SEGMENT.  Noon.  This is a marshy, sod tump
island of only a few acres.  Last year on June 8 I found 45 Forster's Tern
nests here.  Today there are a robust 217 as follows:  5 with 1 egg, 35
with 2, 173 with 3 & 4 with 4.  Mixed in with the Forster's are at least 5
Common Terns, although we did not make a big effort to detect them.  Some
of the nests may have been of Commons.  Common Tern is not to be confused
with the Comintern or the Politburo).    

Also here are 2 Mute Swan nests, 1 empty, the other with 3 huge eggs, and a
Great Black-backed Gull nest with 1 good egg, another busted one.  When the
GBBGs fly they're attacked by the terns.  7 GBBGs present.  1 Willet, 4
oystercatchers, 2 Laughing Gulls, 1 Dunlin.  Flushed a Mallard off her nest
with 8 eggs.  1 Orange Sulphur.

COMMON & FORSTER'S TERN COLONIES HERE AND THERE.  Paul Spitzer left a
message for me inquiring about Common Tern colonies.  In this public forum
I'll try to answer.  For a few years there's been a big one at Poplar
Island, sometimes abandoned in mid-season.  Joshua Stone is doing work
there this year.  Formerly they nested on Nelson's I., Talbot County, which
eroded away in the 1960s.  Most of the Sterna tern colonies formerly in the
Manokin R., Somerset Co., were mostly of Forster's but with Commons, too. 
Don't know if they're any there now.  

Off the S end of Spring I. a small sub-island used to have big Sterna tern
colonies with both species but it's been gone for 15 years or so.  The
sub-islands off the S end of Barren I. used to have big terneries with both
species; they've been gone for years, too.  For a couple of years these
also had nesting Laughing Gulls, Royal Terns, and Black Skimmers.  Little
sub-islands off of and NW of SW Holland I. had small Sterna tern colonies
in the 1980s or so but these islands have gone also.  

The Troy Is. on the S. end of the Martin N.W.R., Smith I., used to have
small terneries in the 1970s.  Some of the small tump islands N. of Tangier
I. have traditionally had small terneries.  East I. and Pry I., sub-islands
of South Marsh I., have had Sterna terneries fairly recently (and sometimes
skimmers) but have had a couple of years of abandonments also; their
vegetation and size are now greatly diminshed.  The best source of
information on recent tern colonies is Dave Brinker of MD D.N.R.     

6.  HOLLAND ISLAND, CENTRAL SEGMENT.  The old house is still standing
though with clapboards missing on much of the first floor west siding and
looking very threatened.  On one of my Blackwater N.W.R. bird walks I met a
man who had been born in this house.  Holland I. used to have a village
with a church and school.  Now only the old house and some gravestones
remain.  

A couple are present today, working, using a Bobcat to try to shore things
up.  We did not land; they seemed busy; we chose not to approach them. 
South of the house are several sheds, some platforms, and nesting boxes for
birds.  Most of the south end has dense Baccharis halimifolia growth with
countless pelican nests and perhaps 25 cormorant nests, 6 of them high in
the branches of a large, fallen deciduous tree.  I made counts (birds in
sight simultaneously) of 280, 415, and, finally, 580 Brown Pelicans
rspectively as we got closer and from different angles.  

George Armistead and I saw the first county record of Brown Pelicans just
north of here on Pone I., all of 4 (immatures), on July 4, 1996!  Their
colony here is starting much earlier than in 2005, when, on August 19, Dave
Brinker, John Weske, and various helpers, including myself, banded 252
chicks.  Numerous of the smaller heron species nested in this segment in
recent years; I didn't detect any today.  Barn Swallows apparently still
nest in the sheds and perhaps inside the house.  3 oystercatchers and a
male Mallard. 1 Osprey nest.  

7.  HOLLAND ISLAND, SOUTH SEGMENT.  12:45-2:45 P.M.  35 species.  The
largest segment, longest and thickest with greatest habitat variety:
several wooded hammocks, mostly deciduous trees, beach, rather extensive
saltmarsh, a substantial tidal gut, and several disconnected marshy tumps
to the East (with no breeding birds).  In the middle is a fine old
graveyard where the headstones look from a distance like egrets now that
the growth of Poison Ivy and Baccharis halimifolia surrounding them have
largely died back.  To the south wooded hammocks on Smith I. are visible 7
or 8 miles away and the target ship, American Mariner, looms out of the
shallows miles to the SW.  To the E a mile is Spring I.  

No White Ibis such as the adult that tantalized us last year, esp. when it
disappeared into the vegetation in the midst of the heronry.  All of MD's
other herons/ibis continue to nest here in estimated increasing order of
abundance: Green (2 seen), Great Blue & YCNHs, Great Egret (last 3 species
have declined here), Little Blue Heron, Glossy Ibis, Tricolored Heron,
Snowy & Cattle egrets, and BCNH (80 in sight simultaneously, in flight).  

The Bald Eagle nest as last year has 3 blocky, imposing, huge young. 
Perhaps the eagles have discouraged the great blues and Great Egrets; at
Cherry Island heronry on Smith I. the eagles have been seen chasing the big
herons.  Also today:  1 yellowthroat, 6 Fish Crows, 2 Song Sparrows, 8 both
of Willets & oystercatchers, 1 male Gadwall, 1 catbird, 4 Clapper Rails,
and 6 Seaside Sparrows.  Migrants: a pewee, an Indigo Bunting, 15 Dunlin, 8
Semipalmated Plovers & 3 semi. sandpipers.  Strange to see no kingbirds. 
60 Diamondback Terrapins in sight simultaneously.  4 Cabbage Whites.  3
kayakers are here, having paddled over from Deal I.  Found a little complex
of narrow trails < 6" wide, one leading to a big midden of empty mussel
shells, perhaps a sign of Mink?     

8.  SPRING ISLAND.  Circled island in the boat.  Full high tide by now. 
3:30 P.M.  8 species only.  A big female peregrine at the hacking tower
flew at us several times calling vigorously.  Could not see any young so
suspect she may still be on eggs.  1 great blue, 2 pelicans, 2 Herring & 1
Great Black-backed gull, 1 black duck, 1 Glossy Ibis & 10 cormorants. 
Bleak for an island that used to throng with nesting pelicans, gulls
(including laughing) and cormorants as well as the occasional Gadwall,
red-wings, Seaside Sparrows, Clapper Rails & Boat-tailed Grackles.    

9.  NE BLOODSWORTH ISLAND HAMMOCKS.  4:30 P.M.  3 or so of these, some with
sizeable cedars, formerly held a dozen or more great blue nests but none
for several years.  Found a dead Snapping Turtle, carapace a foot long,
first I've ever seen on the islands.  9 species with 2 kingbirds, 3 Seaside
Sparrows, a Song Sparrow, 2 black ducks, 2 Ospreys, a catbird.  A migrant
Spotted Sandpiper.  2 Horseshoe Crabs mating.  3 terrapin.    

10.  Crocheron.  Our launch site.  95 cormorants on nearby pound net
stakes.  As with last year a House Sparrow is nesting in the side of an
active Osprey nest in the Crocheron harbor.  

Best to all.-Henry ("Harry") T. 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 ....)