GALAPAGOS APOLOGIA.  I think I have finally overcome the inexplicable
computer problems with this.  Any of you who, weeks ago, requested an
electronic copy, in 5 parts, but have not received one yet please let me
know at:    .  Thank you.  I'd be able to mail
paper copies to a few requestors.  Part 5, the species list and
bibliography, both annotated, would better have been made part 1.  Parts 1
& 2 have already been sent. 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2006.  A Red Fox crossing the paved road at Rigby.  

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4.

Blackwater N.W.R.  Jared and I did a quick drive through and found an
American Bittern sunning on the edge of the little pond on the Spur Road. 
Levin Willey went back and found 2 there.  Quite a few shovelers and lots
of Green-winged teal and pintails at Blackwater.  8 Bald Eagles.  20
Dunlin.  4 kingfishers.  

Gootee's Marine.  Jared heard a Hairy Woodpecker & 2 Brown-headed
Nuthatches.

Swan Harbor Road N of Hooper's Island.  Jared Sparks, Levin Willey &
myself.  8:30-10:30 A.M.  With fair weather and cool NW winds we expected a
good flight of raptors but this did not materialize:

Turkey Vulture 68.  Black Vulture 5.  Sharp-shinned Hawk 6.  Cooper's Hawk
4.  Red-tailed Hawk 5.  Red-shouldered Hawk 1.  Northern Harrier 4.  Bald
Eagle 11.  TOTAL:  104.  Also: 3 Common Loons.  5 Brown Pelicans.  11
Tundra & 75 Mute Swans.  8 Buffleheads.  12 Surf Scoters.  4 Black-bellied
Plovers.  140 Dunlin.  14 Sanderlings.  3 turnstones.  65 Great
Black-backed Gulls.  245 Forster's Terns (mostly feeding actively way out
in Chesapeake Bay).  6 Tree Swallows.  2 Brown-headed Nuthatches.  90
robins.  20 Ruby-crowned & 6 Golden-crowned kinglets.  3 Palm Warblers.  3
meadowlarks.  1 Rusty Blackbird.  

Most of the non-raptors were seen after 10:30 from the yard of Neil & Kate
Birchmeier.  Under their porch in a corner of the ceiling there was a Green
Tree Frog that must have been torpid in today's chill.  

The Dorchester morning was filled with hundreds of sparrows, a dozen or
more big flocks rising up from the road shoulders as we drove by, including
a group of 85 Chipping Sparrows on Hip Roof Road, where we also saw an
Osprey.  We were able to study these chippies before they flushed.  Wild
estimates (probably low):  275 Chipping, 150 Song & 200 White-throated
sparrows plus 150 juncos.  Jared & I saw about 10 each of Eastern Phoebes
and Hermit Thrushes but dozens were probably present.  BIG flight of
passerines today in contrast to the relative paucity of raptors.  Some very
few areas with skim ice on protected ditches.        

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
Armistead & myself).  2-5:15 P.M. only.  The afternoon became very calm
making for good scoping from Lucy Point out over the mouth of the Choptank
River:  60 Common Loons.  20 Horned Grebes.  90 Tundra Swans (migrated on
through).  45 Buffleheads.  60 Surf Scoters.  105 Ruddy Ducks (in Irish
Creek).  3 Bald Eagles.  1 Osprey.  20 Bonaparte's Gulls.  1 Yellow and 1
Western Palm Warbler.  2 meadowlarks.  

I almost stepped on a Golden-crowned Kinglet that continued to feed (very
successfully) in the grass 2-4 feet from my boots, probably indicating an
injured and/or starving bird.  It could fly but not very convincingly.  

Also:  6 does, including 2 in the middle of Irish Creek swimming towards
our shoreline.  2 Gray Squirrels.     

During the course of the weekend we saw several pods of Common Loons, each
of 20-45 or so birds, sometimes accompanied by Bonaparte's Gulls hovering
and dipping in their midst.  Herring, Great Black-backed, and Laughing
gulls also accompanied them, indicating some sort of cooperative feeding
guild.  

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5.

CHOPTANK RIVER BOAT TRIP.  11 A.M. - 3 P.M.  25.8 statute miles.  Water
temperature 49-52 degrees F.  Fair, calm.  Route:  Bellevue out the Tred
Avon River to Benoni Point, up Broad Creek a little, west to within 2 mi.
of Tilghman Island, SW out into Chesapeake Bay a little to 2 mi. south of
Cook's Point, Cook's Point back to Rigby's Folly.   Jared Sparks & myself. 
The outermost part of Cook's Point is now an island.  In my youth it
extended many hundeds of feet farther to the NW than it does now.  It has
got to be one of the most exposed land areas in the Bay.  Complete list:

Canada Goose 400.  Mute Swan 70.  Tundra Swan 5.  American Black Duck 5. 
unID'd scaup 1 female.  Surf Scoter 71.  White-winged Scoter 4.  Black
Scoter 1 female hauled out at Cook's Point.  Bufflehead 215.  Long-tailed
Duck 8.  Ruddy Duck 1.  Red-throated Loon 4.  Common Loon 144.  Horned
Grebe 10.  Double-crested Cormorant 11.  Great Blue Heron 2.  Turkey
Vulture 1.  Bald Eagle 2.  Laughing Gull 725.  Bonaparte's Gull 2. 
Ring-billed Gull 4.  Herring Gull 160.  Great Black-backed Gull 27.  Royal
Tern 3.  Forster's Tern 20.  

Caught a 14" Striped Bass.  Most of the Laughing Gulls, c. 625, were S of
Cook's Point in Trippe Bay in an area of only a few "acres" in a semi
feeding frenzy.  Most of the fishing boats were there, too.  I could only
see that they were catching Striped Bass throwbacks.  The cormorants and
Royal Terns were at a pound net c. 1/2 mi. NE of Cook's Point, that,
unfortunately, contained a Common Loon that we were at a loss as to how to
liberate.  The glassy waters meant that we felt we saw almost every bird
out there.  No Red-breasted Mergansers or goldeneyes.   

Rigby's Folly.  1 Eastern Cottontail.  1 Gray Squirrel.  2 small bucks and
a doe in the Big Field.  3 Forster's Terns in the cove.  1 Red-tailed Hawk.
 The Baccharis halimifolia is gravid with clusters of cottony seeds, ready
to blow in the next winds.  Earlier this week the corn was finally
harvested; the fields are full of weeds, grasses, seeds, and the remnants
of the corn - great for sparrows.  Some asters are still blooming.  Bought
a pound of big lump crab meat at Kool Ice in Cambridge, $2 more than it was
last week, and also 2 pounds of Sea Trout filets.
 
the COOK'S POINT FACTOR.  It was nice to see the scoter resting on Cook's
Point.  As a boy in the mid-1950s I used to go there in a heavy,
flat-bottomed, wooden boat, made locally, "powered" by a two-and-a-half HP
Elgin outboard, the kind you had to fill fairly often by pouring fuel right
into a small tank on top of the engine, more often than not when the boat
was pitching in choppy waters, making it difficult to do without things
getting sloppy.    

It took for ever to get there given the anemic outboard, the cumbersome
refueling system, and the heavy boat.  Back then I remember seeing sea
ducks hauled out at the point, even in summer, when I presumed they were
cripples.  As a younger boy I vaguely remember dictating short stories
centered around Cook's Point to my patient, indulgent mother.  Probably
just as well these have been lost.  

Later I learned that Cook's Point figures rather prominently in
Dorchester-raised novelist John Barth's "The Sotweed Factor."  As a
teenager my brother, Gordon, transcribed folk stories recounted by Charles
Cook, an illiterate African-American man who was employed by my maternal
grandparents.  Charlie, as he was (and is) affectionately known by my
family, had obviously learned these stories from oral tradition.  

Decades later Gordy published about some of these stories in the "Journal
of American Folklore": 'Two Brer Rabbit stories from the Eastern Shore of
Maryland' (vol. 84, 1971, pp. 442-444).  Charlie is buried on Ferry Neck. 
I wonder if the point was named after his ancestors.  More likely, if there
even is a connection, it is named after his ancestors' "owners."  Whatever
the case I am very sorry to see the point diminished after each strong
blow. 

We all know certain places get a grip on us, run in our blood.  In my youth
Cook's Point was a mysterious corner, a frontier, (it still is), around
which lay islands farther south in the Bay that I had yet to visit, before
there was a Tom Horton or a William Warner.  Before I knew of Gilbert
Klingel.

PHILADELPHIA NATURE.  Birds usually yawn for days on end after I first put
up the feeders here in the fall but this year within 24 hours of the first
seed offerings (October 26) these species came trooping in:  junco, Downy
Woodpecker, House, White-throated & Song sparrows, cardinal, Carolina
Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Mourning Dove, and Blue Jay plus,
it goes without saying, Gray Squirrel.  In the course of a normal winter
here we'll only see 5-7 or so more additional species at our feed here. 
  
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 ....)