Saturday, April 14, 2007:

The calm before the storm.  

Route 301.  An immature Bald Eagle on the west side perched in a tree right
on the edge of the road shoulder at mile 109.7, the first time I've ever
seen that.

1000s of Skunk Cabbages in the bottomlands of the Blockston Branch Creek
area, Rt. 481, quite a sight.  Countless yellow Dandelion blossoms since
last weekend.  Non-native they may be but goldfinches and Boblinks like
them just fine.

4 Green-winged Teal and 2 Greater Yellowlegs in the nice boggy spot just N.
of Rts. 309 X 481 and on the E. side.

A male Northern Bobwhite right in Royal Oak.  A rare sight anymore.

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, West
Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue.  1:40 - 8 P.M.
only.  A productive 6+ hours.  47 species.  3 miles on foot, 4 by car.  

Fair becoming mostly overcast with occasional light rain starting at 4 P.M.
 57-62.  Winds light, almost calm, then S. 5-10.  Tide lower than usual. 
Excellent visibility.   

1 Chimney Swift.  1,470 Surf Scoters, highest count (estimate, really) so
far this year.  4 Northern Gannets (1 an immature).  An adult female
Cooper's Hawk.  A Wild Turkey gobbling at dusk.  8 Common Loons.  Only 4
Horned Grebes.  Only 8 Ruddy Ducks.  155 Common Grackles.  1 male Common
Goldeneye.  80 Fish Crows roosting in Woods 4.  1 Bald Eagle.  140
Red-winged Blackbirds.  1 Barn Swallow.  0 Herring Gulls, a HEGU wipeout
doesn't happen often.

The Ospreys on Mike Davidson's nesting platform seen copulating and the
male presenting a fish to the female.  Now that the permanent channel
markers have been removed due to shoaling in Irish Creek some of the
Ospreys are disenfranchised vis-a-vis places to nest.  In my youth
workboats came all the way deep into our cove, sizeable sailing craft into
Irish Creek, but no more.  The channel markers have been replaced with
smaller, floating plastic ones.

Mammals:  a Red Fox, 2 Eastern Cottontails, 31 deer (in groupings of 24, 6
& 1, the leucistic doe in with the group of 6) & 2 Gray Squirrels, one of
which gave me "what for."  The little Red Squirrel, also known as
Puck-o'-the-woods or Chickaree, is even perkier and more likely to get on
your case.  I'm sorry they don't seem to occur on the Delmarva Peninsula. 
Recently it's been discovered that even before there is visible evidence of
an exceptional spruce cone crop - the seeds their favorite food - they
somehow sense this and have bigger broods, including a second brood "just
weeks later" ("National widlife", April/May 2007, p. 10, "Clairvoyant
squirrels? Not so nutty").  So does a larger species, the European Red
Squirrel.       

Nice Spring Peeper choruses in Woods 2 & 4 as well as at The Pond.  A
couple of Chorus Frogs in Woods 4.  A Cabbage White.  Some of the
Shadbushes have bloomed since last weekend and I found 6 that we'd missed
counting then.  One of the Moneyplants blooming last weekend but they're
rank now.  One mouse in the house trapline since last weekend, this one,
like most of the others, a nice-looking white-bellied wild one, not a House
Mouse except by location.  

Work detail.  Mowed for the first time ever, with some difficulty, the
rough, tussocky area at Lucy Point where we like to sit and watch the sun
set behind the western shore.  Finished sawing off overhanging Loblolly
Pine boughs on the Olszewski Trails, c. 4/5 of which was done last weekend.
 Easy to cut and they decompose rapidly, for wood.           

Sunday, April 15.

The storm.  

Drove 287 miles in today's buildup to the big Nor'easter.  An inch of snow
in Philadelphia on Monday, April 16.

Overcast, winds S-SE-E 25-40 m.p.h., torrential rain off and on, sort of
like the bands of rain in a hurricane.  Temps in the mid-50s.  Fields and
ditches overflowing.  In a day when it is necessary to stay in the car
almost all the time due to the crazy weather it's good to listen to music. 
Played the Overture to 'Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg' 6 times.  Just
enough.  The timpani at the end bring the goosbumps every time.  Every
time.  However, it's too bad Wagner was such a horrid person.    

Blackwater N.W.R.  Hardly a surprise no one shows up for the birdwalk,
except for Levin Willey.  We quickly agree not to do one.  8 American Coots
in Pool 1.  2 Caspian Terns and 2 Bonaparte's Gulls on the Wildlife Drive
pavement.  Practically have to run them over to get by them.  They do NOT
want to fly today.  3 Bald Eagles.  Through the wet smear of the car
windows it does not look as if the white pelicans are out on the Blackwater
River.  By the time I re-enter Wildlife Drive a second time one of the big
Red Cedars has blown over.

Nanticoke River X Route 50, a Bald Eagle up over the swampy woods, doing
just fine in gale force winds.  ATTN: Benjamin Franklin - I'd like to see a
Wild Turkey do that.  

Ocean City Inlet, 9:50 A.M. - 2 P.M.  I'd hoped some sea birds would get
blown in.  Monday probably a better day for that.  24 species right at the
inlet.  Nothing unusual.  Most of the time the visibility is only c. 0.25
miles.  

An adult male Peregrine Falcon makes a breathtaking pass along the south
jetty, mastering the gale and flushing the purps.  45 Purple Sandpipers. 
40 Bonaparte's Gulls, some in full breeding plumage.  6 Royal, 115
Forster's & 1 Common tern, actively hunting in the strong winds, as were
the Bonies.  35 Surf & 110 unID'd scoters.  55 Northern Gannets, many of
them just a few feet out from the jetties and one adult goes right into and
through the inlet past me to the west; c. 1/5 of the gannets are
sub-adults.  A female Long-tailed Duck.  2 black ducks.    14 Red-breasted
Mergansers.  6 Common & 2 Red-throated loons.  1 Willet.  

One has to park so that incoming and outgoing cars pass right in front of
you, which happens every few seconds.  In as much as the wind and rain
forces me to stay in the car ... not an ideal situation.  The first 20
minutes are free so most folks come and go after a few minutes.

Skimmer Island.  Low tide.  215 Double-crested Cormorants.  145 Royal Terns
resting together somewhat off to the N.W. of the island in a group on an
exposed sandbar.  4 oystercatchers.  15 Brant.  A few Black-crowned Night
Herons, Glossy Ibis, Snowy & Great egrets trading in and out of the
Phragmites where I assume they're getting ready to nest.  4 Common Loons.

West Ocean City Pond (Golf Course Road):  10 American Wigeon, 18
Green-winged Teal & 58 Gadwalls.

Headin' home.  An Osprey flying very low and carrying a fish right over
Milford.  A female Merlin perched on a fence near Dover.  A Caspian and a
Forster's tern over a borrow pit near Smyrna.  Last Monday at last light
Liz and I saw an imm. Bald Eagle that looked as if it was going to land
right on the Route 1 bridge over the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal.       

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 ....)