June 4-7, 2007, a good time even if too windy for much of it.  Jared W.
Sparks joins me for the activities described for June 6 & 7:

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

Monday, June 4.  5 P.M. until dark only.  8 Surf Scoters lingering off
Wooden Point.  17 Canada Geese.  a flicker.  2 chickadees.  1 Killdeer.  2
Fish Crows.  

A 5" Five-lined Skink on the front porch, about the only place we see them;
striking, neon-blue tail.  I took a brief swim.

Tropical Storm Barry brought only a disappointing inch or so of rain.  1
Diamondback Terrapin.  2 rabbits, a squirrel, 1 deer & an adult Red Fox. 
Tide higher than normal.  SW wind of 13 or so, suddenly switching to NW and
intensifying to 15+ from 7:30-7:45 P.M. only, then calm at 8 P.M.    

Nice Green Tree Frog chorus at dusk, audible 1/3 of a mile away even though
I was on the "wrong" side of the bedroom to hear it, and in bed facing the
wrong way.  Hearing loss is an uneven thing sometimes, and puzzling.  A few
big Magnolia grandiflora blossoms out with many more on the way.  

Tuesday, June 5.  West wind 15-25, strong.  2 Red Foxes, an adult and a
well-grown kit.  See the skink again, our lizard du jour.  A 4' Black Rat
Snake in the yard.  Male Indigo Bunting.    

Wednesday, June 6.  A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK hunting at dawn, coursing down the
driveway.  Only the 2nd ever June record for here.  Once in Dorchester
County, right where the Harriet Tubman marker is near Bucktown, a sharpie
flew across the road on a June 4th while I was conducting a Breeding Bird
Survey.  Adult Red Fox on the Warbler Trail.

Thursday, June 7.  Adult Red Fox again.  With this many sightings, all in
the same area, there's almost certainly a den.  Several yard Fowler's Toads
each day, most all of them medium-sized.  This species has not vocalized
much this year, perhaps due to the dryness.  I like to hear them going
wwwwwaaaaaaaaahhhhh, which sounds surprisingly like the choruses in
numerous Doo Wop songs.  Lots of LB-GJ (little blue-gray jobs) butterflies,
Eastern Tailed Blues?

DORCHESTER COUNTY:

Tuesday, June 5:

Cambridge Wawa:  House Sparrows active at 4:15 A.M. already.  Along Egypt
Road:  a Red Fox (4:42 A.M.), a Virginia Opossum (4:47), a Sika Deer
(4:49), an Eastern Cottontail (4:55).  Blackwater N.W.R.:  30 Great & 1
Snowy egret in Pool 1.  Elsewhere along Wildlife Drive:  22 Painted Turtles
& 2 Red-bellied Sliders.

Wingate, Toddville & Bishop's Head area.  A miniroute for the Wingate SE &
SW breeding bird atlas blocks.  46 species.  5:35-6:55 A.M.  15 stops ea.
of 3 minutes.  Tide c.2' above normal, all over many roads, which slowed me
down mucho.  This is a VERY remote part of the county, one of the most
remote in the Bay area, and is "another world", scenic stretches of pure
Loblolly Pine hammocks, saltmarsh, tidal guts, and open bays.  Big Common
Snapping Turtle lumbering across the road, unhappy with the high salt
water.  A Northern Water Snake swimming down the highway in front of the
car.

7 species of herons:  Glossy Ibis at 2 stops, Tricolored Heron at 1, Little
Blue Heron at 1.  Clapper Rail at 1.   Brown-headed Nuthatch at 1.  Seaside
Sparrow at 4.  Harrier at 1.  Red-winged Blackbird the winner, at 12 stops.
 Green Tree Frog calling at stop 8.

Hooper's Island.  Tuesday, also.  7:20-8:45 A.M.  Miniroute as part of
Honga CW & NW atlas blocks.  53 species.  Wind, unfortunately, picking up. 
12 write-in species, which are always frequent in the marshes or near the
Bay in Dorchester on NABBS routes, in atlassing, and, not surprisingly, on
these miniroutes, including Clapper Rail, Bald Eagle, Brown Pelican,
Boat-tailed Grackle, 3 tern species, 2 gull species, and Willet.  

Great Egret, 6 stops.  Osprey 7 ("on nest" at 4).  Red-headed Woodpecker 1.
 9 Brown-headed Nuthatches at stop 3, several perching on wires right above
my head and scolding, and I am NOT spishing or doing any other "audiolure."
 House Finch at 7 stops; along with Cambridge, this is one of their county
"strongholds."  Great Blue Heron and Common Grackle are the "winners" here,
ea. with 10 stops.  

Wednesday, June 6:

Blackwater N.W.R.  7:15 A.M.  Pool 1 is being drained (almost finished now)
and there is a concentration of piscivorous birds, many more than
yesterday:  79 Great & 6 Snowy egrets, 17 Bald Eagles, 6 Turkey Vultures
(well ... piscivorous for at least today, and it isn't even Friday), 7 Fish
Crows & a Glossy Ibis.  There are scores of dead c. 2' Carp.  El stinko
grande.  The refuge often drains this pool at this time of year with the
resulting spectacle of feeding birds.  

"Watch ya gonna do when your well runs dry, honey?
Watch ya gonna do when your well runs dry, babe?
Watch ya gonna do when your well runs dry?
Sit on the bank and watch the poor things die.
Sugar, honey baby, mine." -
Loosely derived and probably misquoted some from a song of Leadbelly's (I
think). 

Also at the refugio:  a Caspian Tern and 3 Cedar Waxwings.  A bobwhite
calling & a Song Sparrow (scarce in this part of the county) singing at the
Visitor Center.    

Gootees Marine, Golden Hill.  4 active Barn Swallow nests under the eaves
by the entrances there.

Greater Barren Island area.  14.9 mile boat trip.  None of the 4
oystercatchers seen today is banded.  Clear.  Temps in low 70s.  Official
low tide is at 1:20 P.M.  Rough sledding, very windy, 15-20+ m.p.h., tide
low all the time, and it is a very shallow area to begin with:

Opossum Island, east segment.  10 A.M.  I WAS SO WRONG.  On May 5 there was
a small cloud of terns over Opossum.  On June 5 also some terns plus lots
of cormorants resting on Opossum.  These all seen from the "mainland" from
Hooper's Island.  I assumed (assume makes an ASS out of U and ME) these
birds were nesting but today we found they were not.  East segment has an
Osprey nest on a blind, a male Mallard, Red-winged Blackbirds, and 2
Forster's Terns in the area.  No more than 1.5 acres.  Sections with
Phragmites, Spartina alterniflora, and Baccharis halimifolia.  

Opossum Island, west segment.  10:15 A.M.  More interesting with 72 gulls
present, most of the GBBGs.  Gull nests with eggs, probably all GBBGs:  3
with 1 egg, 2 with 2 eggs & 4 with 3 eggs = 9 total.  An American
Oystercatcher nest with 2 eggs, both adults there, too.  85 cormorants but
no nests.  A 2nd-year dead Herring Gull.  Lots of Phragmites on the S side
of this diminutive island.  Baccharis bushes.  An Osprey nest on the blind
has 3 eggs.  A male Red-winged Blackbird, probably a nest present.  

Sodbank tump island just off S. end of Barren I. proper.  10:45 A.M.  Very
low, unsuitable for any bird nests.  Great Blue Herons continuously
approach both from due S (but from where ... the Northern Neck, Smith
Island?) and the W or SW (some definitely coming from the western shore). 
They're going to their big colony on Barren Island.  Island bisected by a
small gut.  TINY minnows in some of the pools.  Only see a Royal and a
Forster's tern here, and a Fish Crow.  Water temp is 72.4 degrees F.  

Barren Island per se off and on all day.  Verboten to land here w/o a Use
Permit, part of Blackwater N.W.R., but from the boat we see 9 Bald Eagles
(at least), 12 Mute Swans, 4 starlings, 4 Barn & 2 Tree Swallows, 1 Common
& 4 Boat-tailed grackles, 1 Turkey Vulture, 4 Fish Crows, 2 redwingeds, 20
cormorants, 4 Ospreys, and more Great Egrets on their nests than I ever
remember seeing here previously.  

The big Loblolly Pine forests are great diminished but still substantial. 
There is a nice rock jetty on the NW side that extends S from the shore
near several geotubes and a lot of rip rap on the NW and N sides.   

Tar Bay sandbars.  12:45-2 P.M.  The main sandbar extends c. 1/3 of a mile
and is now contiguous with marshes on the N end that are themselves
contiguous with the mainland.  Thus nesting birds would be vulnerable to
predation.  

There is some Sea Rocket on the S end where 3 Least Terns are hanging out,
seen landing there a couple of times, perhaps will breed.  A pair of
oystercatchers present.  Also:  4 Ruddy Turnstones and 11 Semipalmated
Sandpipers.  See an Osprey (the aircraft).  A 69' Loblolly Pine bole is
washed up here.  60 Mute Swans in the distance. on upper Tar Bay.  25
Forster's Terns on a dock on the mainland.

21 Herring & 1 Great Black-backed gulls.  1 Royal Tern.  2 Common Terns, 1
carrying a minnow.  Canada Goose broods of 3, 5 & 6 goslings plus 10
adults.  Osprey on a nest at the N end in the marshes.  In the past various
terns and gull nests have been found on these sandbars.  Not today.  Hard,
marly, shallow bottom; have to anchor and wade in.

Corps Island (my term, after the dredge spoil was deposited here; so-called
Corps Island is off the NE tip of Barren Island and almost contiguous with
it).  2:30-3:30.  Formerly 40 acres it is still sizeable.  I think it is a
state W.M.A.

Vegetation is largely Distichlis spicata, Spartina patens, and Spartina
alterniflora but with some sections of Scirpus and one small patch of
Spartina cynosuroides.  Has 2 small Loblolly Pines, a lot of Phragmites,
esp. on the NE shoreline, which is also where most of the Baccharis
halimifolia is.  Formerly there was a small grove of Black Locusts, which
have disappeared.  A few large Wax Myrtle bushes there, too, 4 or so.  

At first the island consisted of nothing but dredge spoil, mud, sand, etc. 
I have a file on this place one inch thick, having served on a committee
concerned with its management in the middle 1980s.  

Environmental Concern, Inc., planted a lot of marsh vegetation (e.g., "On
18 June - 16 July 1982 appproximately 65,520 nursery produced peat pots of
Spartina patens were transplanted" ... to this place created with "177,661
cubic yards of dredged material ..." (from a report of the Army Corp of
Engineers, June 28, 1983 by Glenn Earhart).  For a while Seaside Sparrows,
Marsh Wrens, some Clapper Rails, and a Least Bittern or 2 moved in.  Found
a Clapper nest here once.  None of these species seen today.  But we did
see:

a Willet, 12 Red-winged Blackbirds (11 of them males, the females
presumably barefoot and in the kitchen), 4 Boat-tailed Grackles (1 male & 1
female carrying food, but from here to Barren I.), 4 Herring Gulls, 2
Forster's Terns, 2 Fish Crows (1 messing around with a Diamondback Terrapin
carapace), 3 cormorants, and that's it, other than distant birds.  A few
Seaside Dragonlets in or over the marsh grasses.  There's a sandbar off the
E. end.  Lots of Periwinkles.  The marsh vegetation is low-growing, dense,
and lovely this time of year.  Walking it is easy.

Channel from Chesapeake Bay in to Fishing Creek (the creek not the town;
just N. of the town of Honga).  As usual the channel markers almost all
have active Osprey nests.  9 of them today.

Thursday, June 7:

Taylor's Island but also briefly Parsons Creek and Smithville Road. 
Thursday, June 7.  Another atlas miniroute in the Taylor's Island NE block.
 Fair, calm, and almost cool, a gem.  62 species, incl. 7 write-ins, such
as Clapper & Virginia rail, Bald Eagle, Willet, and Chuck-will's-widow. 

Winners are Red-winged Blackbird and Common Grackle (85 at stop 9) with 12
stops.  American Crow at 11.  Pine Warbler at 9, yellowthroat at 6. 
Bobwhite at 7.  Taylor's still has pretty good quail representation, has a
lot of fallow fields and scrub.  Another Bay bridge here would ruin lovely
Taylor's Island.  

Old Trinity Church E. of Woolford.  Drove in briefly to see this fine old
place with its historic graves, tree groves, and plantings on the edge of
... you guessed it ... Church Creek.  2 Gray Squirrels.  Nice to have such
a splendid mammal in this lovely setting.  All as it should be.

OFF TOPIC.  Extraneous Philadelphia stuff:

Little Brown Snake (formerly called DeKay's Snake).  June 1.  Caught a
healthy 11-incher in our basement and turned it loose in the mass of low
vegetation next to our garage, an environment I'd hope would be full of
delicious inverts for it to feast on.  Gentle, harmless little creature,
beautiful in its way.

Mink.  June 4.  Dead-on-the-road, a fresh roadkill, early afternoon, right
in the center of Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive (formerly West River Drive)
just N. of the Strawberry Mansion Bridge.  I did a U-turn and got out of
the car to confirm my first impression.

Goose Crossing.  Several minutes after the Mink episode I did another
U-turn to get on course again at a place where 30 or so adorable Canada
Goose goslings and their attendant parents took their time walking across
MLKjr Drive, for minutes on end seemingly, several cars with motorists
waiting patiently as the drama unfolded without any help from police or
anyone else.

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 ....)