LOWER EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND & VIRGINIA, NOVEMBER 9-15, 2006.

Part 2.

VIRGINIA (cont'd):

NOV. 12, SUN.  6:30-11 at KSP.  Winds E 20-25 sometimes.  Bob Anderson
conducts the hawk count, giving Scott a day off to give his eyeballs a
rest.  But ... it rains from 11 until c. 3:30 P.M. resulting in only 47
raptors for the official KSP count.  Most of the afternoon Bob, Thuy Tran,
and I spend in the yurt listening to the rain patter down on the skylight
accompanied by at times very strong winds, playing Mozart's symphonies 39,
40 and 41 as well as some Johnny Cash, drinking a little red wine (some of
it French), reading (and in some cases re-reading) the election results
from among the 7 newspapers on hand, looking at bird books, and napping. 
Then we notice the rain's stopped and cease these harmless, passive, blue
state activities (Johnny Cash is not as red state as you might think).  7
Snow Geese from the KSP hawkwatch platform.

KSP raptor count:  TOTAL 47:  3 Ospreys, 9 harriers, 33 sharpies, 1
Cooper's & 1 Red-tailed Hawk.

RAMP LANE, ESVNWR, 4-5 P.M.:  Clapper Rail 20 (including 3 swimming across
the Intracoastal Waterway as a group).  There's light rain here 4:30-5. 
One cloud is shaped like a crocodile, another like a sperm whale.  6 Great
& 1 Snowy egret.  2 Hooded Mergansers.  4 White Ibis.  10 oystercatchers. 
1 Black-crowned Night Heron.  1 Osprey.  A woodcock at the yurt at 5:15
P.M.  

HARRIS'S SPARROW.  Scott spotted an ad. at the KSP feeders on Mon., Nov. 6,
present all day but not afterwards.  He secured some excellent photographs.
 Only about the 3rd record for the VA Eastern Shore.

MON., NOV. 13.  Rain again giving Bob Anderson, Thuy and me a good chance
to wander up Route 600 to bird and do some advance work for the new
Nassawadox Christmas Bird Count, to be Sunday, December 17 (please contact
me if interested).  A most productive day in that respect.  

KSP.  7-11 A.M. only.  A peregrine seen several times harrassing the
pigeons on the concrete ships.  Four small groups of Bonapart'e's Gulls
blowing by in the 20 m.p.h. NNW winds.  Ten Common Loons in a group flying
over. 

KSP raptor count:  TOTAL 12:  4 Ospreys, 1 Bald Eagle, 1 sharpie, 2
Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 peregrine & 2 Merlins.

7 Gadwalls in Lakewood Pond on the W side of Rt. 600.

OYSTER.  40 Greater & 1 Lesser yellowlegs in the Spartina wrack of the
inner harbor.  Run into Andrew and Margaret Odell there later in the day. 
An ad. Bald Eagle and a harrier also.   

COBB ISLAND STATION X Route 600.  Big gull group resting out the storm in
the field next to the consortium building incl. 3 Lesser Black-backs
(adults), 810 Herring, 10 Great Black-backs, 8 Ring-bills and 15 laughers. 
LBBGs remain rather scarce here compared to some other areas of the VA
coast.

MACHIPONGO.  Lovely propsect here out over the saltmarsh in this unspoiled
setting.  An old house, poorly maintained, at the end of the road.  I enter
to try to establish my bona fides but the old man is too intent on picking
crabs to pay much mind.  Outside his friend is cleaning fish.  Hard to
understand what they were saying.  Rough hewn, scruffy guys.  A scene such
as you might have encountered 100 years ago.  I got the feeling these men
were doing this just for their own consumption.  

10 Whimbrel wheel around 6 or 7 times, then land closeby.  30 Willets.  8
Western Sandpipers.  30 Dunlin.  Bob hears a Brown-headed Nuthatch.  30
Brant.  12 Foster's Terns.  55 cormorants.  1 Great Egret.  An ad. Bald
Eagle sitting out in the marsh on a snag.  15 Hooded Mergansers.  All these
seen as we stand by the car.  

WEBB'S ISLAND.  Encounter Harold W. "Tad" Beach, a world class wildlife
sculptor, whose specialty is working with pewter.  He asks us into his
cluttered, busy studio full of torches, moulds, well-used reference books
on birds and reptiles, and this (and that); it looks out over the saltmarsh
towards Cobb's Island.  Bob hears Golden-crowned Kinglets.  5 harriers
patrol the marshes nearby.  Also living at Webb's Island out at the end is
Dick Webb, known as Spider, I'm told.    

RTs. 620 X 600.  An apparently healthy imm. Double-crested Cormorant
sitting all by itself in the middle of a big field, a first for me.

RED BANK.  Good shorbirds here, too:  13 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Short-billed
Dowitcher, 1 Willet, 20 Dunlin and a Western Sandpiper.  Also:  5
Bonaparte's Gulls and 10 Forster's Terns.

BROWNSVILLE.  Drop in here unannounced at the headquarters of the Virginia
Coast Reserve of The Nature Conservancy and talk with Barry Truitt and Alex
Wilke, who give generously of their time.  Barry says most of the White
Ibis in the Cape Charles area roost on Godwin Island on the backside of
Ship Shoal Island rather than on Fisherman's Island.  Alex, who studies
oystercatchers, says they're doing well here.   

WILLIS WHARF.  Tide too high to see much.  A Black-crowned Night Heron.    

ROUTE 600.  About 80 Mourning Doves and 35 bluebirds on the wires this
afternnon.  

NOV. 14, TUE.  KSP.  A Baltimore Oriole descends into the pines where we
see it well.  13 Coommon Loons in flight going up the Bay and over us.  A
Brown Thrasher.  30 Surf Scoters.  A male Peregrine Falcon.  A Pileated
Woodpecker flies S across the gap.  Flocks of 6 and 4 Tundra Swans high and
white against the blue sky.  2 Gray Squirrels.  85 Chipping Sparrows.  By
the KSP dumpsters there are pools of water on the gravel and 13 robins are
bathing and drinking there.  The Odells shove off for the Lancaster, PA,
area in their inimitable van with 6 bikes and a roof top carrier on top.   

Butterflies:  2 Buckeyes, 3 Monarchs, 5 Cloudless Sulphurs & 1 Cabbage
White.   

KSP raptor count, 29:  2 Ospreys, 3 harriers, 19 sharpies, 3 Cooper's & 1
Red-tailed Hawk, 1 peregrine.  "LAKE MADDOX" next to KSP at 3:15 P.M. has
17 coots, 8 Redheads, 8 Pied-billed Grebes, 10 Ruddy & 2 Ring-necked Ducks,
and a Merlin.  At the intersection of Rts. 600 & 655 are 6 Eurasian
Collared-Doves on the wires.  They seem to be a little more spaced out on
the wires than Mourning Doves normally are, need more personal space, I
guess.  A few dragonflies bumbling about today.

RAMP LANE, ESVNWR.  One last visit 4:15-5:45 P.M.  Tide high but falling. 
S wind 15-20, raw - penetratzio, temps in the low 50s.  11 Clapper Rails, 2
black ducks, 3 Black-crowned Night Herons, 2 woodcock, 4 imm. White Ibis, 2
sharpies, 3 Great & 4 Snowy egrets (a big female peregrine dives at the
latter, which are flying, causing them to go helter skelter), 7 Greater
Yellowlegs, 2 harriers, 45 Dunlin, 2 Short-billed Dowitchers.  A cottontail
and 1 buck.  The big tower on ESVNWR is being disassembled; the Black
Vulture have been disenfranchized, must roost elsewhere.        

NOV. 15, WED.  From the yurt I hear a screech-owl at 1:18 A.M., a great
horned at 5:23.  Leave at 10 A.M. but before then a GREAT BLUE HERON is
captured in Jethro's nets, only the 2nd GBH ever caught here.  Needless to
say this leads to extensive picture taking.  Shannon has a nice manner, I'm
sure helping to calm the bird, which seems passive and does not struggle
anyway.  It's important to immobilize the spear-like bill.  I think I
remember reading that herons go for the eyes.  Other birds:  2 Red-breasted
& 2 Hooded mergansers, 230 Rock Pigeons in one group over the concrete
ships, 2 imm. Bald Eagles close by over the bluff, 170 Chipping Sparrows, 1
Royal Tern, 145 cormorants migrating over.  A week or so ago Scott
estimated 37,000 robins in one day.    

KSP raptor count, 98:  1 Osprey, 8 harriers, 74 sharpies, 11 Cooper's, 1
Red-shouldered & 2 Red-tailed hawks and 1 unID'd raptor.     

WILLIS WHARF, 11:30 A.M.  Only a few minutes here and the tide is too low
but in front of the post office on the flats are:  11 Marbled Godwits, 23
Willets, 2 turnstones, and 7 oystercatchers with an imm. Bald Eagle, 14
Forster's Terns, a Common Loon, a female Bufflehead and 3 cormorants
nearby.        

back in MARYLAND (Ocean City area):

A Monarch along Rt. 113 at milepost 25.5.

WEST OCEAN CITY POND is full of fowl, 1:15-1:45 P.M.:  54 Tundra Swans, 56
Canada Geese, 50 coots, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, 125 Mallards, 3 Canvasbacks,
1 Lesser Scaup, 45 shovelers, 15 Gadwall & 55 pintails plus 60 Ruddy, 12
Ring-necked and 26 American Black Ducks.  In the adjacent willows are an
ad. & an imm. Little Blue Heron and a Great Egret.  

OCEAN CITY INLET.  2-2:45 P.M.  Tide high and rising even more.  Calm. 
Misty and foggy offshore so can't see even a mile but there are gannets
actively plunge-diving only 100+ yards or so from the jetties, at least 35.
 2 Bonaparte's Gulls, 175 Surf & 80 Black scoters (plus 100s more scoters
farther out that are unID'd), 6 oystercatchers on the rockpile, 3
turnstones, 4 Forster's Terns, 3 Double-crested Cormorants, 35 Laughing
Gulls, 3 Red-throated & 1 Common loon.

SKIMMER ISLAND.  2:45-3 PM.  Not much.  110 Canada Geese, 1 Red-breasted
Merganser, 70 Double-crested Cormorants, 3 Common Loons, 7 oystercatchers,
6 Great Blue Herons resting on the island and a Pied-billed Grebe.

EAGLES LANDING GOLF COURSE plus Eagles Nest Campground (Eagles Nest Road). 
3:15-3:45 PM.  Mostly overcast, temps 60-70, calm, semi-balmy.  Beautiful
golf course and the big pond is loaded but I don't see any EuroWigeon.  65
Gadwall, 35 American Wigeon, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 10 Mallards and 4 coots. 
From the campground on the bay I see a big imm. female Cooper's Hawk, 12
gannets in the distance over the ocean, 11 Buffleheads, an Osprey, 2 Common
Loons, and 210 Brant (over on the Asateague Island west shore).       

Approaching Philadelphia the radio tells of an 8-mile backup due to a Wild
Turkey people are trying to catch on the PA Turnpike Northeast Extension. 
Hard to believe.

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 ....)