80th DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD, MAY BIRD COUNT, grand totals.  May 12, 2007,
Saturday.

172 species (2nd or 3rd highest ... I forget).  An as-yet-to-be-determined
number of individuals, perhaps c. 8,000.  

A poor day for waterfowl (9 species).  The variety of shorebirds was O.K.
(18) but the numbers were low.  9 sparrow species was about average (no
White-crowned or White-throated).  8 heron-egret-ibis-bittern types (HEIBs)
was so-so and with poor numbers. 

PARTY AREAS:

1.  Elliott Island Road, Blackwater N.W.R. & Hooper's Island.  Harry
(compiler) and George Armistead, Mel Baughman, and (first 4.75 hours only)
John Hubbell.  This is the route I have followed on all 80 May counts.  If
there is ever major participation in this county, say 30 observers, I might
give up this exhausting regimen and route and just spend the day with 1 or
2 others in a smaller area, or, perhaps, cover the islands in my boat,
which has never been done.  I have already summarized this party's findings
(and the weather and tides) a few days ago and will not repeat that now. 
By virtue of seniority and tradition this party is blessed with the "best"
areas of the county, one reason it found 37 unique species today.

2.  Dorchester north of Route 50:  Jared Sparks & John Hubbell.  These 2
found all of the north Dorchester breeding specialities, such as a
Louisiana Waterthrush, 2 Vesper Sparrows, 3 rough-winged swallows, and a
whopping 31 Cliff Swallows (probably a record county count).  Plus they saw
a Lesser Black-backed and over 3,000 Laughing Gulls at the Pig Farm (near
Indiantown Road south of Brookview) and 8 Bonaparte's Gulls at the Hurlock
Wastewater Treatment Plant.  Other goodies included a Horned Grebe and 2
Yellow-throated Warblers

3.  West of Cambridge: Neck District and Horn Point:  Levin & Diane Willey
and Gordon Jennings.  Found the only Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Merlin, 2
Yellow-throated Vireos, and a surprise - Purple Finch.  

4.  Extreme southern Dorchester:  Diane Cole.  2PM-10PM, thus at a
disadvantage for the morning songbird chorus, plus the area is not good for
landbirds to begin with.  Most of it is pure Loblolly Pine forest or else
Juncus roemerianus marsh, thus limited habitat-wise.  Notable counts for
here are 23 Clapper Rails, 96 of today's 184 Purple Martins, and the day's
only kingfisher.  

5.  Blackwater N.W.R.  Bird walk with 15 participants led by Terry Allen. 
Party 1 was here also so only species not found by party 1, or counts that
exceeded their total, are included here.

MISSED SPECIES (none very surprising):  Lesser Scaup, Tricolored Heron,
American Kestrel, Sora, Common Nighthawk, White-throated Sparrow.  

COMMON BIRDS THAT WERE UNCOMMON TODAY (some of these have been declining
for several years, at least).  Bear in mind that today's totals are the
results of considerable effort:  59.25 party hours, 505 party miles, and 10
observers in 5 parties.: 

Northern Bobwhite 21 (9,2,7,3 = these are the totals for the 4 major
parties, i.e., parties 1 through 4 respectively - does not include party
5).  The situation in New Jersey bears light on what is going on here also.
 Here's some information from a splendid new book:  "Birds and birding at
Cape May: by Clay & Pat Sutton (Stackpole Books, 2006, 568pp., $26.95), p.
494-495:  "The almost total loss of the Northern Bobwhite is a sad tale ...
Early Christmas Bird Counts found hundreds of quail, but today, a bobwhite
is almost a red-letter bird, and most that are seen are probably game-farm
releases.  New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife bobwhite survey routes
that averaged 25.2 birds per route in the 1970s averaged only 0.3 whistling
bobwhites in the spring of 2003 ... should be listed as an endangered
species in New Jersey."  They go on to talk about rails: "King Rail, Black
Rail, and (to a lesser extent) Virginia Rail populations have seen severe
declines."  It's nice that my party on May 12 heard 47 Virginia Rails, but
several times in the not-so-distant past we heard well over 100, 125+ even.


Speaking of Cape May, a Big Sit there on May 12 that a close friend
participated in, down near Cape May Point, found 139 species on May 12, and
that does not include 7 other species only seen or heard by 1 person. 
These all found by observers confined to a circle 17 feet across!!! 
Bobwhite was not one of them but 8 "HEIBS", 9 waterfowl, 12 raptors, 17
shorebirds & 16 warblers were plus 2 Parasitic Jaegers, a Western Kingbird
& 2 Dickcissels were.  Wow!

Snowy Egret 18 (14,0,0,4).

Cattle Egret 1 (1,0,0,0).  Has been in decline for years.

Black Vulture 14 (1,1,8,0 plus Terry's group saw 4 others).  Doesn't seem
like many for such an effort.

Willet 19 (15,0,0,4).  I think they've been declining slightly for several
years.

American Woodcock 1 (1,0,0,0).  Declining also.

Common Tern 1 (1,0,0,0).  Only a few on the island colonies for several
years.

Whip-poor-will 5 (0,4,1,0).  

Red-bellied Woodpecker 13 (6,3,3,1).  Downy Woodpecker 3 (2,0,1,0).  Hairy
Woodpecker 3 (1,2,0,0).  Northern Flicker 7 (3,0,1,3).  

Blue Jay 22 (8,6,8,0).

Wood Thrush 20 (4,9,4,3).

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 12 (5,6,0,0 + 1 counted by Terry's group).

Yellow Warbler 10 (9,1,0,0,).

Yellow-throated Warbler 2 (0,2,0,0).

Worm-eating Warbler 1 (1,0,0,0).

Song Sparrow 8 (3,3,0,2).  Probably not declining.  Has always been scarce,
esp. in S. Dorchester.

Eastern Meadowlark 15 (7,0,7,1).  

OTHER TOTALS AND SPECIES OF INTEREST:

Mute Swan 17 (4,0,12,1).  The eradication program is working.

Ruddy Duck 36 (0,28,8,0).

American White Pelican 5.  Seen by dozens of folks today.

Clapper Rail 53 (30,0,0,23).  Seems to be doing fine here.

Black Rail 2.

Virginia Rail 51 (47,0,0,4).

Whimbrel 1.  The only new species for the cumulative list.  Elliott Island
Road.

Chuck-will's-widow 39.  Actually a bit low considering the effort. 
However, I think this species is doing just fine.

Red-headed Woodpecker 13 (13,0,0,0).

Brown-headed Nuthatch 24 (18,0,1,5).  

Sedge Wren 2.

WARBLERS.  20 species.  Except on a very unusual day much of Dorchester is
warbler-challenged in the spring.  Most of the best habitat (and geography)
lies in the north part of the county where coverage is thin.  Out of
interest, here are the complete grand totals:

parula 8.  redstart 4.  ovenbird 28.  Louisiana Waterthrush 1. 
yellowthroat 69.  chat 14.  Plus these warblers-in-name:  Yellow 10,
Chestnut-sided 1 (beautiful male found by Terry), Magnolia 2,
Black-throated Blue 2, Yellow-rumped 8, Black-throated Green 3,
Yellow-throated 2, Pine 48, Prairie 32 (25 of these by Party 2 N. of Route
50), Blackpoll 7, Black-and-white 13, Prothonotary 7, Worm-eating 1 and
Canada 1.

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 8 but many more are no doubt present in the
Elliott Island Road and Shorter's Wharf Road marshes.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1.  Often missed on this count.

My grateful thanks to the participants.  For so many years there has only
been one party on this count (or just one person in that party).  It does
the heart good to see that most years now there are several groups.  Viva
Dorchester!

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 ....)