Friday  evening, March 23, 2007.  Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on
Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, West Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but
nearer to Bellevue.  A big chorus of Spring Peepers plus a few Southern
Leopard Frogs in Woods 4 and Woods 2 at 10:45 P.M.

Saturday, March 24.  Liz & Harry Armistead.  A gentle, warmish day with
light NE winds that die in the early afternoon.  53-61 degrees F.  Mostly
overcast.  Tidal water very low at Blackwater and most of the impoundments
there are much lower than last week.

Bellevue.  An adult female Peregrine Falcon perched in a dead tree right
next to the road as one approaches Bellevue.  A large bird that I at first
assume to be a Red-tail. 

Drive down to Golden Hill to pick up my boat from winter storage at
Gootee's.  Most of the Gootee family have bronchitis. 

Blackwater N.W.R.  12:30-3:30 P.M. only:

275 Snow Geese (way out on the Blackwater River).  8 Gadwalls, 2 black
ducks, 12 shovelers, 40 Ring-necked & 4 Ruddy Ducks (all on Pool 1).  2
Pied-billed Grebes (also on Pool 1; one of them gives its full cuckoo-like
call).  10 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS (best seen today from Pool 5B; 9 resting
on a small mud tump; the other actively fishing nearby).  3 Great Egrets. 
27 Bald Eagles (plus the 2 eaglets and a parent as seen on the Visitor
Center videocam).  7 coots (3 different places).  16 Killdeer.  9 Greater
Yellowlegs.  10 Dunlin.  1 kingfisher.  20 Tree Swallows.  10 bluebirds.  

Non-avian taxa.  Reptiles, 4 TURTLE SPECIES, 8 Red-bellied Sliders, c. 30
Painted Turtles, 2 Mud Turtles, and 2 Snapping Turtles, the latter mating
and while not exactly Fonteyn and Nureyev - a pas de deux from hell in fact
- they persist and have been around longer than the Bolshoi.  Southern
Leopard and Wood frogs calling.  1 Gray Squirrel.  

Easton.  A Bald Eagle right over the bypass..
    
Rigby's Folly.  4:30-7:45 P.M. only:  3 juvenile Tundra Swans come in from
the south, calling, and landing in front of Tranquility.  6 Green-winged
Teal swimming offshore with Surf Scoters and Lesser Scaup (!).  285
Canvasbacks.  55 Lesser Scaup.  1,240 Surf Scoters (calm conditions made
for excellent scoping).  100 Long-tailed Ducks.  225 Buffleheads. 1 male
Common Goldeneye.  190 Ruddy Ducks.  4 Common Loons.  20 Horned Grebes
(some of the loons and grebes in breeding plumage).  6 Northern Gannets.  1
Black Vulture flushes from the blind in Field 1, sits on the blind looking
at me at close range, then perches atop a nearby tree;  blind full of CG
decoys but it looks as if the Black Vultures plan to breed in the blind
again this year.  5 gull species but only 1 adult each of Bonaparte's,
Laughing & Great Black-backed.  1 Forster's Tern.  1 Great Horned Owl
calling at twilight.  

1 bunny wabbit.  7 deer.  Find a small 2-point antler shed at Lucy Point
that has been extensively gnawed, probably by Gray Squirrel(s).   

For many years, as today, we celebrate the start of the new "season" with
shad roe and bacon.  The shad roe spats we buy today at Kool Ice in
Cambridge.

Sunday, March 25.  Rigby's Folly.  49-61 degrees.  8 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.  A
cool NW wind becoming NE and then E 10 m.p.h.  Clear, sunny.  54 species. 
Spend much of the day fussing around with 'the Mudhen', getting her ready
for the season's boating adventures.

2 shovelers, swimming with Surf Scoters and Lesser Scaup, one of the few
property records, a pair.  45 Green-winged Teal (new property high count)
also with these diving ducks, and seen as well on the larger of Jim
Meholic's two impoundments.  305 Canvasbacks.  60 Lesser Scaup.  A pair of
Common Goldeneyes.  280 Ruddy Ducks.  2 Red-breasted Mergansers, the only
ones seen all weekend.  Except for the scoters most of the diving ducks
today and yesterday are up Irish Creek.  6 Northern Gannets (as with
yesterday all are adults; no plunge-diving observed).

RAPTORS.  A good day, some of the sharpies and red-tails seem to be
migrating.  4 each of Sharp-shinned and Red-tailed hawks plus Bald Eagles. 
9 Ospreys.  20 Turkey & 1 Black vulture.  At the bend of the driveway a
diminutive male sharpie dives into the Panicum tussocks a few feet in front
of us in pursuit of one of the many Song Sparrows there.  Perhaps it
realizes the sparrows are distracted by us as with some peregrines, which
have been seen to opportunistically hunt Buffleheads flushed by power boats
on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  

15 Bonaparte's Gulls, unusual to see them far up the cove, all adults save
one immature.  1 Hairy Woodpecker.  3 Eastern Phoebes.  1 singing Eastern
Towhee.  25 Song and 10 Field (one singing) sparrows.  2 House Sparrows (in
and out of a bluebird house).

Also:  8 deer.  Do a one hour sit at the E. edge of Field 5, where we have
placed 2 plastic chairs for just such occasions.  15 juncos there. 

Headin' home:  Somewhere along Rt. 301 in MD a big Cooper's Hawk flies
crosses the highway and perches in a tree on the W. side.  Several kestrels
along Rt. 481.  There seem to be a few more this winter than in the past
few years.  20 Tundra Swans in a wheat field just across the MD/DE line in
DE near Middletown on the S. side of Rt. 301. 

Sunday night.  The Discovery channel series has incredible photography,
especially of Snow Leopards, hunting or otherwise, but they seem to
overemphasize dramatic predation scenes (Wild dogs hunting Impalas, Golden
Eagles chasing Demoiselle Cranes in the Himalayas) and play up too much
their photographic feats ("this is the first time this has been
photographed, that has been photographed ..."; shots of exhuberant,
triumphant photographers)  I wonder at what cost to the animals some of the
scenes were achieved.  Jumps from one scene, part of the world, to another
without a smooth transition ... not much informational content but great to
watch, compelling.

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 ....)