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Subject:

Ferry Neck & Blackwater N.W.R., April 27-29

From:

Henry Armistead

Reply-To:

Henry Armistead

Date:

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:21:28 -0400

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, West
Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue. 

In the time of Loblolly Pine pollen.  Gesundheit!

Friday, April 27, 2007.  Arrive at 10 P.M.  Calling in the night:  2
Chuck-will's-widows in the distance.  A flyby Black-crowned Night Heron,
the 18th property record.  Fowler's Toads.  It's calm, strongly moonlit
with haze and some fog, lending an air of enchantment.

Saturday, April 28.  Mostly overcast, sun showing occasionally, dead calm
most of the day but with a light NW breeze, c. 5 m.p.h. at times.  58-70
degrees F.  Light - very light - rain at the end of the day.

5 Least Terns, earliest ever & ties the existing high count of 5 on July
15, 2000.  2 Great Crested Flycatchers.  3 Gray Catbirds.  1 Bank Swallow. 
205 Surf Scoters and 40 Buffleheads still linger out on the 'tank but very
far out on the Choptank River mouth, farther than usual for most of the
spring.  35 Double-crested Cormorants migrating north.  16 Common Loons.  2
Wood Ducks on The Pond.  2 Killdeer.  Barn Swallows building a nest under
the dock catwalk.  15 Ruddy Ducks.  8 Forster's Terns.  An adult Bald Eagle
over Edwards Point.  

Zero Horned Grebes or gannets.

Not an all-out birding effort today.  Using the car, pull 3 big, dangling
dead limbs off the yard Black Locusts, then chainsaw them into firewood for
next winter.

NON-AVIAN TAXA:  2 Northern Watersnakes swimming near the dock.  People are
often surprised to find them in this salty tidal water but this is about
the only place I see them here.  Diamondback Terrapin: the terps are
massing, getting ready to haulout and lay eggs:  best count from the dock,
71, plus from Lucy Point just minutes later, 52, = a total of 123 (2nd
highest count ever).  I am glad they are protected this year, but they
certainly don't seem to be in decline hereabouts.  Go, Terps!  Butterflies:
a Tiger Swallowtail, some Cabbage Whites.  An Eastern Cottontail refuses to
budge from the driveway shoulder until the car, stopped for a couple of
minutes to see what, if anything, it would do, gets to within about 4 feet,
then hightails it, in as much as a rabbit CAN hightail it.  3 Gray
Squirrels.  Some Tent Caterpillar nests have been in evidence for 3 weeks
now - cuckoo food in the making.

Sunday, April 29.  I'm gone until 2 P.M. but Liz spots some new arrivals
for the year:  a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (probably attracted by her red
sweater), Spotted Sandpiper, and Eastern Kingbird.  Also a Ruby-crowned
Kinglet, Green Heron, and Mourning Cloak.  We both see single Fowler's
Toads.

BLACKWATER N.W.R.  7:15 A.M. - 12:15 P.M.  Fair, 58-80, NW 5-10.  Impounded
waters very high, tidal waters not so high.  5 on the refuge birdwalk:  Ben
Weems, Mary Templin, Sandy Boots, Deborah Cantor & myself.  72 species.  We
run out of time and do not carefully diagnose the many shorebirds in front
of the Visitor Center in Pool 3A. 

2 Common Loons migrating.  2 Green Herons.  1 Glossy Ibis, also migrating,
flew right by us, sicklebill.  4 Mute Swans.  35 Green-winged & 6
Blue-winged teal.  12 Bald Eagles.  14 Ospreys.  2 Northern Bobwhite
calling.  4 American Coots (Pool 1).  35 Semipalmated Plovers.  40 Least
Sandpipers.  3 Spotted Sandpipers.  12 Greater & 2 Lesser yellowlegs.  4
Short-billed Dowitchers probing in Pool 3A.  45 Dunlin.  5 Least Terns.

3 Chimney Swifts.  2 Pileated Woodpeckers.  1 Eastern Kingbird.  5 Great
Crested Flycatchers.  1 Wood Thrush.  1 Ovenbird.  3 Eastern Meadowlarks. 
1 Baltimore & 3 Orchard orioles.  1 Blue Grosbeak.  4 Savannah, 6
White-throated, 3 Grasshopper & 25 Chipping sparrows.    

Just one of those things, but I have yet to see a Purple Martin this year
... except in Florida.  

TURTLES:  8 Red-bellied Sliders, 7 Painted Turtles & 2 Mud Turtles.  A Mud
and a Painted turtle are on the roads, are captured for close inspection.  

MAMMALS:  A Sika Elk, 2 Fox Squirrels, 2 Muskrats & 2 bunnies.

BUTTERFLIES:  2 American Ladies, 2 Monarchs, a Black Swallowtail & several
Cabbage Whites.  

the PRECARIOUSNESS OF IT ALL.  Ospreys, displaced by the removal of the
substantial channel markers in Irish Creek, are attempting to build a nest
on top of the low, slanted pilings off Holland Point, which submerge, or
nearly so, with each high tide.  Barn Swallows over the years have not been
too successful nesting under the dock (usually called a pier locally, just
as a driveway is a lane).  In spite of my building several handy small
ledges they still usually attach their mud nest to a vertical wood surface,
from which it detaches as often as not.  The Black Vulture nest, recently
with one egg, in the goose blind on the edge of Field 1 is abandoned. 
House Sparrows and starlings compete with the bluebirds for the bluebird
boxes, as they do every year.  Carolina Wrens, as one outlet for their
boundless energy, build the start of a nest over the front door sill
(another annual event), but have yet to nest in the boat or the boat
trailer, as they sometimes have in past years.

Mon., April 30.  10 White-throated Sparrows, some really smart-looking with
gleaming white head stripes and bright yellow lores, hopping in between the
violets, carefully eating the grass seeds Liz hoped would germinate in our
patchy lawn here in Philadelphia. 

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 ....)