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Subject:

Ocean City, Holland I., Blackwater & Ferry Neck, Aug. 3-8

From:

Henry Armistead

Reply-To:

Henry Armistead

Date:

Wed, 9 Aug 2006 10:29:09 -0400

Abbreviation:  I.S.S. = in sight simultaneously. 

August 3, 2006, Thursday:
 
Route 50.  3 Wild Turkeys feeding on the S shoulder just E of where the
road from Ocean Pines comes in.

Visits to 2 islands late in the day with temperatures up to 96 degrees F.
and not much wind:

Reedy Island, Ocean City, MD.  The purpose of this visit is to round up
Royal Tern chicks that were too small to band on July 11, when John Weske
tagged 105.  Today John bands 30 new ones, a good total for a 2nd visit,
and Dave Brinker weighs and measures the wing chord of these plus some
others banded earlier that are not yet capable of flight.  Lisa Balmert and
Dave Haynes are also on hand.  

Reedy Island consists almost entirely of Spartina alterniflora but there
are some Baccharis bushes and Sea Lavender and a little beach.  It is only
a few acres.  We also see some Seaside Dragonlets and nearly step on a Rice
Rat.  The island bird list:  1 Seaside Sparrow, 2 Tricolored Herons, 2
Snowy & 1 Great egret, 4 Willets, 2 Boat-tailed Grackles, a female Mallard
& 8 Semipalmated Sandpipers.  

Skimmer Island, Ocean City, MD.  Same personnel as above.  The purpose of
this visit is so Dave Brinker can take GPS readings to do a map of the
island.  It has become quite overgrown, especially with Phragmites, and
Royal Terns did not nest here this year, nor skimmers.  But it is loaded
with herons that seem to be nesting in the reeds:  110 Cattle, 20 Snowy &
25 Great egrets, a Glossy Ibis, 1 Great Blue (not a breeder), 30 Little
Blue, 10 Tricolored & 7 Black-crowned Night herons.  Also:  135 cormorants,
115 Brown Pelicans, 20 Boat-tailed Grackles, 1 starling, 2 Seaside
Sparrows, 2 Least & 10 Semipalmated sandpipers, 115 Sanderlings, 9 Fish
Crows, 10 Ruddy Turnstones, 13 oystercatchers, 6 Laughing Gulls and 4
Red-winged Blackbirds plus mucho Herring & Great Black-backed gulls.  The
Sanderlings and turnstones appear to be feeding on Horseshoe Crab eggs.    

Aug. 4, Friday:

Bloodsworth Island, Dorchester County, MD.  3 Glossy Ibis flying N on the
SE side of the island.

Holland Island, Dorchester County.  8 of us, including John, Dave & Lisa
Balmert, boat out from Deal Island at 6 A.M. to band Brown Pelican chicks. 
259 of them are tagged which together with the 664 banded on July 19
combine for 923, a best ever total for Maryland.  Lisa finds a dead adult
with band 0938-34694 that, fide John Weske, was banded on June 28, 2003, by
Micou Browne at Beacon Island, Ocracoke Inlet, NC.  Dave spots an adult in
a dead tree with color band H98.  There is but one nest still with eggs, 2
of them.  Apres pelican banding John bands 70 Double-crested Cormorant
chicks; some of his returns on these for birds banded in earlier years are
of birds shot at fish farms in the Deep South.

Other Holland Island birds:  4 Yellow-crowned, 2 Tricolored & 2 Little Blue
herons, 1 Cattle & 20 Snowy egrets, 7 Fish Crows, 3 Bald Eagles, 1 Glossy
Ibis, 12 Barn Swallows, 4 Red-winged Blackbirds, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1
harrier, 1 Purple Martin, 7 Boat-tailed Grackles and 85 Mallards.  Also: 31
Diamondback Terrapin in the SAV east of Holland.  1 Monarch.

Deal Island.  We return to Chance by 11 A.M. where I see a Monarch and a
Black Swallowtail. 

Blackwater N.W.R., Dorchester County.  1:30 - 3:30 P.M. only.  Hot,
mid-90s, W or NW winds 15-20.  The impoundments are low and seem to have
been drying out for a good while.

Blackwater birds:  21 Least, 1 Caspian & 11 Forster's terns, 1 imm. Little
Blue Heron, 1 Tundra Swan endlessly preening but no doubt a cripple, 20
Ospreys, 6 Bald Eagles, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 4 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary,
4 Least & 1 Spotted sandpiper, 1 Eastern Wood Pewee, 1 Summer Tanager,  320
Common Grackles & 25 cowbirds. 

Good vege along the dikes of Wildlife Drive including blooming thistles,
Devil's Walkingstick (Hercules Club), Joe Pye Weed, clovers, lace, etc., so
saw some butterflies incl. 2 Spicebush, 9 Black  & 1 Tiger swallowtail, 3
Silver-spotted Skippers, 9 Buckeyes, 6 Cloudless & 8 Orange sulphurs, 12
Cabbage Whites & 3 Monarchs plus 4 Common Whitetails. 

At the outlet of Pool 3 to the tidal side of the dike there is a small
concentration of 6 Red-bellied Sliders, 5 Painted Turtles, and a slew of
carp. 

  
Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, 25124
West Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue:

Aug. 4, Friday.  97 degrees F. at 5 P.M.  1 Bald Eagle.  64 Canada Geese. 
1 deer.   

Aug. 5, Saturday.  A nice NW wind of 5-10 m.p.h. finally lowered the
humidity and temperature a little and produced an actual small fall flight
consisting of 9 Bald Eagles (ties 2nd highest here), 12 cormorants circling
high overhead in a sort of kettle, 22 Barn Swallows, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs
(c. 14th property record), 2 Cliff Swallows (9th property record and ties
the high count, such as it is), 23 Cedar Waxwings (8 sightings, all of
differently-numbered "flocks"), and a Northern Harrier.  

Other birds:  20 Ospreys incl. 11 I.S.S.  1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  96
Canada Geese.

Butterflies:  20 American Ladies (16 I.S.S.).  7 Monarchs, most of them
migrating in from the N.  1 Variegated Fritillary.  3 Tiger Swallowtails, 
9 Pearlcrescents.  14 Cabbage Whites.  6 Silver-spotted Skippers.  1
unidentified folded-wing skipper.  

Also:  only 1 deer and 1 Diamondback Terrapin.  A Red Fox.       

Aug. 6, Sunday.  10 Ospreys I.S.S.  1 Bald Eagle.  1 hummingbird, not many
seen here this year.  183 Fish Crows, my 3rd highest summer count.  2
migrating Monarchs.  1 deer.  1 Gray Squirrel.  

But most of today is taken up with a 30.1 mile boat trip up the Choptank
River to the island in Dickinson Bay, Talbot County, the island being over
a mile "downstream" from Cambridge, and, of course on the other side of the
"'Tank."  It is perhaps 4 or 5 acres.  Unfortunately it is overgrown
throughout with high Baccharis halimifolia and to a lesser extent
Phragmites, so it's impossible to walk around there.  The shoreline is also
impractical to try to walk. There is some (hardly any, really) Spartina
alterniflora, Spartina patens, Spartina cynosuroides, and Juncus
roemerianus.  Also a little Joe Pye Weed.  Found a few mussels and small
clams on the very limited beach area.    Doesn't say so on any maps I have
but I think it is called Dickinson Island.  2 pound nets are set nearby. 
Most notable here are (at least) 161 Diamondback Terrapin. 

Liz and I did see (11:15 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.):  1 male Surf Scoter, no doubt
a cripple.  50 Mallards.  10 Red-winged Blackbirds.  2 Ospreys.  1 Spotted
Sandpiper.  6 Forster's & 1 Royal tern.  40 Laughing Gulls.  15 cormorants.
 1 Song Sparrow.  3 Great Blue & 1 Green heron.  

Dickinson Island bugs:  a few Seaside Dragonlets, 1 Black Swallowtail, 5
Monarchs, 2 Silver-spotted Skippers. 

The 200 some pen-raised Mallards turned loose by neighbor Michael Davidson
continue to provide comic relief.  The females, in the manner of Bullfrogs,
are given to contagious calling.  One will call and this starts a small
chain reaction as several others will chime in.  Every so often the entire
group will flush simultaneously when Fish Crows fly over and surprise them.
 Several times my own imitation of the female's quack, which is actually
pretty darned good, will cause mild panic in small groups near our dock. 
They're not used to a 215 lb. transgender female, I guess.  But recently
they have started flying quite well.  The males are still in eclipse
plumage but their pale mustard-colored bills betray them in comparison with
the females' dull orange and black bills. 

Aug. 7, Monday.  2 Yellow Warblers (migrants).  1 Royal Tern.  8 Purple
Martins, a small sort of flight of them.  8 Ospreys I.S.S.  A Hackberry
Butterfly alights on my brackish water impregnated T-shirt, drying in the
sun, allowing a very close view, like a foot or less.  10 Monarchs, most of
them arriving out of the north.  1 Gray Squirrel.  1 rabbit.  

Serge and Paula Duckett come for dinner.  I knew Serge from my/our 26
shared years at Jefferson University.  He now lives in Paris 9 months of
the year teaching at the Sorbonne.  He is 80 and at the age of 76 earned an
additional doctorate in the history of medicine on top of existing M.D. and
Ph.D. degrees.  He's a neurologist and author of several books on the aging
process of the human brain.  3 months of the year they relax at their
charming, rather delightfully-overgrown place at Sassafras near Galena, MD
(where there is a small plum orchard).  

Tremendous, widespread thunder and lightning tonight with both cutting in
literally every 4 or 5 seconds at multiple locations for a couple of hours
or so.  Very impressive.  And a little scary.  Nice to have some rain both
tonight and the previous as it was getting very dry.   

Aug. 8, Tuesday.  Liz sees a Yellow-billed Cuckoo carrying a big
caterpillar, only (surprisingly) the 2nd confirmed breeding record for the
place.  4 Green Herons.  1 Pileated Woodpecker.  3 Snowy & 2 Great egrets. 
Yet another Cooper's Hawk.  3 Common Wood Nymphs along the Olszewski
trails.  A cold front, a weak one, finally comes through today.  

Assateague Island (MD only) Least Terns.  Lisa Balmert gave me an update on
these saying this year there were 289 nests including one with 2 just-
hatched chicks on August 1.  She says to the knowledge of the workers there
NONE have fledged anywhere on the island and lays the blame primarily on
foxes.  256 nests were on the north end of the island from KM 0.5 all the
way to KM 9.0.  I saw a few flying juveniles near Reedy Island on Aug. 3
that must therefore have fledged from a site other than Assateague.

One has to love not only 98.5 Salisbury but also Rep. Gilchrest whose
public service announcements today told of conservation easements just made
for a Dorchester farm plus his visit to the Nassawango Preserve to
publicize the economic impact of its popularity with kayakers, hikers, and
birdwatchers.  98.5 also played portions of Mozart's Great Mass in C-minor.
 If you don't get goosebumps from the Great Mass you're not going to get
them.  

That's it for a while, folks.  George & I blast off for the Galapagos
Islands tomorrow, the first time I've needed a passport since 1962.  The
Yellow Warblers, Yellow-crowned Night & Green herons, and perhaps a
Short-eared or Barn owl should make me feel right at home.  Vermilion
Flycatcher less so.  Catch you on the flip side.   

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 ....)