SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2007.  Route 301, c. milepost 104.7 - an ad. Bald
Eagle feeding on something dead in a field to the east.

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, 25124
West Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue.  Got down
in the late afternoon.  A Gray Squirrel and 25 White-throated Sparrows. 
Beautiful sunset with the new moon to the west and Venus shining brightly
below it and closeby to the right, like some sort of romantic Islamic stage
set, if one can imagine such a thing these days.

On the heels of this recent cold spell it seems as if there's been an
influx of sparrows and waterfowl.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21.

Cambridge.  House Sparrows active at the Wawa at 5:50 A.M. long before the
first natural light.

Blackwater N.W.R.  2 Eastern Cottontails at 6:10 A.M.

HOOPER'S ISLAND but also including Swan Harbor and Meekins Neck.  6:30 A.M.
- 4 P.M.  Fair becoming overcast by 10 A.M.  25-38 degrees F.  Winds NE
5-10, nearly calm at times.  Cold.  Rather heavy, fine snow beginning at
1:16 P.M. and continuing into the early P.M. darkness.  Tide extremely low.
 61.1 miles by car, 1.5 miles on foot.  Protected waters in the saltmarsh,
tidal guts, ditches, ponds, and some of the shallow bay waters frozen.  74
species:

Objective:  to relocate the possible Barrow's Goldeneye but it was not
seen.  But this bird WAS relocated on Monday, January 15 by Diane Cole and
Danny Poet after my initial sighting on Sun., Jan. 14.  Unfortunately none
of us studied it closely enough to say for sure if it was a Barrow's
Goldeneye, or, for that matter, if it was a Common Goldeneye.  I wonder
what a hybrid female would look like?  I shudder to think.  Saints preserve
us.  a frankeneye.  

Of interest:  only 5 Mute Swans.  555 Tundra Swans (almost all of them in
Tar Bay, as were most of the 770 Canada Geese).  2 American Wigeon hanging
around the Tundra Swans just as they did in the old days to glean fragments
of SAV that slip away from the swans inadvertently; spotted by Jim Stasz. 
5 pintails, also spotted by Jim.  1 American Black Duck X Mallard hybrid. 
115 Lesser Scaup.  265 Surf Scoters.  60 Long-tailed Ducks.  285
Buffleheads.  55 Common Goldeneyes.  5 female Hooded Mergansers.  

7 Northern Bobwhite on Meekins Neck during the snow.  2 Red-throated & 5
Common loons.  8 Horned Grebes.  48 Northern Gannets very far offshore in
the center of the Bay, some plunge-diving.  1 Brown Pelican off the S end
of Barren Island, see twice.  3 Double-crested Cormorants.  9 Bald Eagles. 
3 Northern Harriers, referred to by Brian Taber as Hairy Northerners.  4
Clapper & 1 Virginia rail.  

1 Black-bellied Plover in nearly full breeding plumage (!; that's called
rushing the season) also seen by Jim's group at the experiemental jetties S
of Narrows Ferry Bridge.  35 Sanderlings.  140 Dunlin.  2 Bonaparte's
Gulls.  27 Rock Pigeons on the wires at Fishing Creek (the creek, not the
town of the same name).  2 Eurasian Collared-Doves seen by Jim's group.  1
Eastern Screech & 3 Great Horned owls.  4 kingfishers.  

1 Winter & 1 Marsh wren.  2 Hermit Thrushes.  245 starlings.  7 Fox
Sparrows feeding together on the shoulder of Swan Harbor Road, beauties. 
35 juncos.  80 Boat-tailed Grackles, an excellent count by both local and
recent standards.  18 House Finches (one of the best places for them in the
lower part of the county, where they're still scarce).  110 House Sparrows,
seems like a lot for this skinny, long, island-peninsula. 

NO Canvasbacks or Redheads.

Also: a Gray Squirrel on a roof top at the end of McGlaughlin Road on Upper
Hooper's Island.  Nice to know there are squirreleepoos on the island.*

Curious are 8 flocks of Canada Geese, mostly of 20-35 birds, coming high
out of the S, where there's nothing much but open bay and marsh islands,
and heading N.  I suppose they could conceivably be very early migrants.

Blackwater N.W.R., again, 4:38 P.M. in the driving snow storm the American
White Pelicans, as white as the snow, hard to see, but dimly-seen clumped
together in a group of at least 20 opposite the bend of Pool 5B.  Also: 2
Red-tailed Hwks and 4 Bald Eagles.  The Blackwater River waters are not
only extremely low but what there is of them is mostly frozen with lots of
exposed mud flats concealed by ice and snow.   

The drive back to Rigby a little dicey as the snow stuck and became
slippery.  Mostly drove 25-30 m.p.h.  One pickup truck very much in the
ditch on Route 329.  

MONDAY, JANUARY 22.  Rigby's Folly, 9 A.M. - 12:45 P.M. only.  Overcast,
temperature in the mid-30s, dead calm, much of last night's snow (c. 0.5
inches) now soggy and melting, the snow on the trees melting fast, a lot of
dripping going on, the Magnolia grandiflora and the boxwood burdened with
the wet snow.  35-37 degrees F.  Beautiful winter scene.  

85 Tundra Swans.  159 Mallards.  135 Canvasbacks,  12 Redheads.  1 Greater
& 60 Lesser scaup.  245 Surf Scoters.  14 Long-tailed Ducks, far offshore
except for 1 female right next to the rocks at Holland Point.  140
Buffleheads.  20 Common Goldeneyes.  8 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 of them
adult males.  1,020 Ruddy Ducks massed on the NW side of Irish Creek,
disturbed by 3 hunters cruising around in their camou boat, who also scared
off the Canvasbacks; 2nd highest ruddy count for the property; the ruddies
flushed, buzzed around for a while, and then re-lit on Irish Creek.  An
imm. Bald Eagle.  4 flickers.  1 Pileated Woodpecker.  11 waxwings.  10
cardinals feeding on the driveway in a loose aggregation.  

4 workboats out on the Choptank River scraping for oysters.

the COLD SHOULDER(s).  Even after only a few hours of snow that did not
accumulate much the sparrows, juncos, and cardinals thronged to the road
shoulders for grit and seeds by mid-afternoon on Sunday.  HEADIN' HOME. 
Route 481 between Rts. 309 and 301, small groups of 4, 12 and 10 Horned
Larks flushed from the shoulders along with some Mourning Doves,
blackbirds, starlings, and sparrows.  6 Red-tailed Hawks along Rt. 301 all
sitting, incl 2 on the wires.

ODDS AND ENDS, in one case at least, VERY odd:

1.  Blackwater N.W.R. in the news.  "Washington Post", Wed., Jan. 17, 2007,
p. C2, "The bald and the bountiful: winter eagles flock to Md.'s Blackwater
refuge" about the increase in Bald Eagles and how the author, Steve
Hendrix, was thrilled recently to see 10 eagles here.  I'm still thrilled
to see one but he should come back sometime and let one of us show him 20
or more.  Thanks to Kate Birchmeier of Swan Harbor for giving me this
clipping. 
  
2.  "Philadelphia Inquirer", Mon., Jan. 22, 2007, p. A10, the op-ed page. 
Only two editorials.  The 2nd one is about Rafflesia arnoldii, the world's
largest flower, found in Sumatra, Borneo and environs, sometimes gets to be
a meter across, weighs 15 pounds, five petalled.  "No roots, shoots, stem,
leaves; not even photosynthesis.  Actually, it's a parasite that lives
inside a vine, feeds off it, and grows its flower from there ... If
something like Rafflesia can ride evolution like a dragster, you have to
think we all have a chance for personal growth."  A slow day for news
apparently.    

* 3. "A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, and making the wood but one
wide tree, fills the eye not less than a lion,- is beautiful,
self-sufficing, and stands then and there for nature." - Ralph Waldo
Emerson, as quoted in "Squirrels" by Richard W. Thorington, Jr., and Katie
Ferrell (John Hopkins U. Pr., 2006, p. v).  You know ... I was just
thinking the same thing.  Ralph ... I think you've nailed it.   

4.  Hooper Island vs. Hooper's Island.  Natural speech tends to slip in the
possessive with regard to many eponymic place names but the maps say
Hooper.  Much of the signage on Hooper's, official or otherwise, says
Hooper's.  I consider anything west and south of the Route 335 bridge at
Great Marsh Creek as Hooper's, which is also incorrect because politically,
if not geographically, Hooper's begins a couple of miles farther SW at
Honga S of the bridge across Fishing Creek. 

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 ....)