Two days of banding young Brown Pelicans on central Chesapeake Bay islands
in MD & VA.  An unofficial total of 1,540 are tagged.  This is a project
directed by Dave Brinker of MD DNR.  The recovery rate for pelicans is c.
8% so eventually there should be over 1,000 recoveries of birds banded over
the years.  One has already been recovered in Maine (!) and some in Cuba.

The crews for these 2 days consisted of MD DNR personnel, folks from the
National Aquarium, the National Zoo, volunteers for these entities, and
random freelancers.  Some of the National Zoo people were taking
swabs/samples from the pelicans to test for avian flu.  Both Dave Brinker
and John Weske, in addition to being accomplished banders, also do a fine
job of instructing their retinues and making certain they have some time to
enjoy and appreciate the experience of going to these remote islands as
well as understand the contribution these projects make to ornithology.

1.  July 18, 2006, Tuesday.  E of Crisfield, MD.  Briefly visit Irish Grove
Sanctuary after dinner, spending most of the time (7:15-8 P.M.) along
RUMBLY POINT ROAD, which penetrates for 1.6 miles some of the most
beautiful saltmarsh I've ever seen on the Eastern Shore.  This is almost in
Virginia.  So hot (still over 90 degrees F.) and calm I mostly stay in the
car.  Of most interest:  1 Song, 5 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed & 6 Seaside
sparrows, 1 Willet, 3 meadowlarks, 2 Bald Eagles, 45 Least Sandpipers, 5
Great & 9 Snowy egrets, 2 harriers, 4 Royal Terns, 7 bluebirds incl. a
recently-fledged young, 1 Marsh Wren, 1 kingbird.  

The small, isolated, high marsh tidal pools are loaded with countless small
fishes.  This marsh mostly consists of low-growing, green grass (esp.
Spartina patens) and must have been great for Black Rails in their hey day.
 A wild, isolated area that reminds me considerably of parts of Anahuac
N.W.R.  As I leave I pass a young man whose small, red pickup truck has,
since I arrived, run along a big ditch, straddling it, for over 100 feet
before settling into it, stuck but good.  He does not seem drunk but must
have been going very fast and recklessly to have cut such a swath.  He
politely declines my offer of help.  Mammals seen here:  1 deer, 1 Red Fox,
a Gray Squirrel & 5 rabbits.

July 19, Wednesday:

2.  HOLLAND ISLAND, Dorchester County, MD.  15 of us led by bander Dave
Brinker and including Tammy Fuehrer, Lisa Balmert & Bill McInturff, launch
from Chance at Deal Island at 6 A.M, head due W to Holland I., middle
segment, to band Brown Pelican chicks.  By 9:30 664 are banded, with 100 or
more chicks too small to be banded plus some eggs not yet hatched.  The
young are rather small and easy to handle.  

Nine Diamondback Terrapin counted in the SAV just E of the island.  Snowy
Egrets and a Little Blue Heron or 2 are nesting in this segment also, which
has an extensive stand of Spartina cynosuroides (in the center) and
Baccharis halimifolia (mostly along the E side but with lots elsewhere,
too).  At one point 57 Snowy Egrets are counted perched in the dead trees
near the old house.  2 Mute Swans with 4 cygnets are present.  Scores of
cormorant nests.  

Pelican nests still with eggs (probably missed some, esp. on the N end,
where I did not go):  1 with 1 egg, 4 with 2, 3 with 3, 1 with 2 eggs & 1
young, 2 with 1 each, 1 with 1 egg & 2 young = 12 such nests.  

Cormorant nests still with eggs:  1 with 1 egg, 1 with 3 eggs.

Two adult Bald Eagles seen by their nest on the S segment.  Also present: 4
Red-winged Blackbirds & 2 Fish Crows.     

3.  SOUTH POINT MARSH, Accomack County, VA, about 1.5 miles S of Smith I.,
MD, and the MD/VA line.  Since the Holland I. pelican banding is done with
such dispatch 9 of us continue on S 13+ statue miles all the way to the
huge South Point Marsh pelican colony, where we band 259 more pelican
chicks in the S segment of that colony.  Many more remain but it is time
for lunch and hydration at Ruke's in Ewell, Smith I., MD.

Also seen at South Point Marsh:  15 Mute Swans, 6 oystercatchers, 1
Mallard, 3 Seaside Sparrows, 1 Fish Crow & 1 Glossy Ibis.  Plus 2 Monarchs.
 Pelican nests noticed that still have eggs: 2 with 1 egg & 1 with 2 eggs. 

4.  EWELL.  2 Yellow-crowned Night Herons (seem to be in decline here), 60
Fish Crows, 35 Barn Swallows, 1 House Sparrow, 15 Canada Geese, 1 kingbird
& 1 Royal Tern.  We have the traditional celebratory crab cake lunch at
Ruke's.  

5.  CHANCE, DEAL ISLAND.  We arrive back here on the mainland at 3:30 P.M. 
Calm so the return is at high speed, probably over 30 m.p.h. at times.  2
Glossy Ibis, 1 harrier & 1 imm. Bald Eagle.    

6.  DEAL ISLAND W.M.A.  4:30-5:15 P.M.  Oppresively hot and also quite
calm, so I just slowly drive Riley Roberts Road plus the road off of Rt.
413 farther E and closer to the mainland.  Windows up and the AC on.  The
big impoundment here seems to get less interesting with each passing year. 
But I see these:  5 Great Blue, 1 Tricolored & 1 Little Blue heron, 13
Snowy & 8 Great egrets, 5 black ducks, 2 Song Sparrows, 22 Canada Geese, 3
Ospreys, 10 Red-winged Blackbirds, 1 rough-winged swallow, 0 shorebirds, 0
terns.  Also 2 Monarchs, which seem to be on the move starting a few days
ago in the central Eastern Shore areas I've been to recently. 

July 20, Thursday.  Cooler, less humid, with a nice NE becoming NW breeze. 
Refreshing:

7.  South Point Marsh, VA.  A 6 A.M. launch from Crisfield.  16 of us in 2
boats including bander John Weske.  Today we operate in the 2 N segments of
the colony.  Yesterday we were in the S segment.  It takes us longer to tag
617 today than it did to do the 664 at Holland I. yesterday because we have
a longer commute, the young are bigger and harder to handle (some probably
capable of flight, if they only knew it), the footing is worse, and the
nests are more spread out.

Also seen here:  3 Least Sandpipers, 16 Mute Swans, 1 Royal Tern, 4
oystercatchers, 2 Ospreys, a black duck, 2 Barn Swallows, 1 Little Blue, 1
Yellow-crowned Night & 1 Tricolored heron, and a Seaside Sparrow.  Also 1
Monarch.  

Nests still with eggs:  

Double-crested Cormorant: 1 egg 10, 2 eggs 16, 3 eggs 14, 4 eggs 1, 1 egg &
1 young 4, 1 egg & 2 young 1, 2 eggs & 1 young 1 = 47 such nests.

Brown Pelican:  1 egg 9, 2 eggs 6, 3 eggs 5, 1 egg & 1 young 3, 1 egg & 2
young 1, 2 eggs & 1 young 3 = 27 nests.

There are hundreds of cormorants nesting here plus scores of Herring &
Great Black-backed gulls.  The Great Black-backeds in particular seem to be
taking over the central Bay islands.

It would have been fairly easy to band a couple of hundred more pelicans by
slogging down to the S segment, but, it was 11 A.M., getting hotter, and we
were somewhat tired, thirsty, and hungry, not to mention grungy.

On the way back to the boats Dave Brinker finds a lovely, washed-out, pale
blue-green, flat-sided old bottle:  "Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root, Kidney, Liver
and Bladder Cure, Binghamton, NY, USA."  About 10" long.  Good condition. 
Wish I'd seen it first.  I'd be surprised if CVS carries Dr. Kilmer's. 
Maybe they should.

A large Chesapeake Bay Foundation tour boat (the something-or-other
"Ridder") hoves into our ken, eases in toward the shore, carrying 25 or so
passengers being led by Bill Portlock.  After exchanging a little
good-natured banter we go our separate ways.

I have to watch this a little more but I think when the pelicans wheel
overhead as we band in their domain it is always counterclockwise.  I don't
know how this squares with the Coriolis Effect.

8.  Swan Island (SW Glenn L. Martin N.W.R., Smith I., MD.  John Weske bands
3 Osprey nestlings in Red channel marker 4 between the jetties on the W
side of Smith I.  In most other nests the young are too far advanced to
band this late in July.  Also in this area: 1 kingbird, 2 Yellow-crowned
Night Herons, 1 female Mallard, 1 Mute Swan, 6 Barn Swallows & a Tricolored
Heron.  This little hammock consisted of bushes and grass when I first
visited it in the 1970s.  Now it sports a fine growth of trees.  Today a
few egrets are roosting in them.      

9.  Ewell.  Another luncheon at Ruke's.  3 Yellow-crowned Night Herons.  1
Carolina Wren.  1 Rock Pigeon.  1 House Sparrow.  The cat is the default
pet on Smith Island.  What few landbirds there are here have to contend
with kitty in addition to limited (and shrinking) habitat.  Also an Orange
Sulphur and a Tiger Swallowtail.  Return to Crisfield by 3 P.M.

10.  News from elsewhere (from memory, so may be off a little), gleaned
from John, Dave & Lisa Balmert.  A week or so ago John and Dave banded 200
Royal Terns near Ocean City, MD, at Reedy Island, a new location for them
in the state.  They have forsaken Skimmer Island, as have the skimmers. 
John and others recently banded 205 on Wreck Island, VA, where there is
another royal colony of 2,000 or so pairs plus c. 100 Sandwich Terns.  Lisa
said there are 3 colonies of Least Terns on Assateague I., MD, with c. 4,
236, and 26 pairs respectively, plus 62 pairs of Piping Plovers.   

11.  The vocalizations of nestling Brown Pelicans vary greatly depending on
their size and disposition.  That disposition is mostly
defensive-aggressive.  Some utter a little "chuck" note reminiscent of the
contact call of Common Loon.  Others sound like a Razorbill.  Often they
sound like James Brown at the start of "I feel good", except more drawn
out.  The big ones sound like the slow, bowed doublebass notes at the very
end of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique Symphony."  Some of this is as perceived
in the ear of the "beholder."  By way of contrast the adults wheeling
overhead are, to use a description that resembles something Pete Dunne once
said, as silent as the shadows of stones in the winter moonlight.  One only
has to get about 75 feet away from their nests and the attentive adults
warily begin to land next to their charges.

12.  VERMIN, or lack of it.  On the Bay islands I have never picked up
ticks or chiggers or been stung by bees or wasps.  These last 2 days I did
not see one mosquito.  However, the flies were a problem, but not nearly as
bad as they can be.  When the wind dies on the islands the midges (no
see-ums) can be unbearable.     

13.  Omitted from my Dorchester County, MD, report for July 17:  a Cattle
Egret at Golden Hill and a Woodchuck on central Egypt Road, these both in
mid-afternoon.  Cattle Egrets, away from the islands, have become scarce in
the county.

'til the next time.  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 ....)