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

JUNE 20-24, 2007.  Clear, sunny weather, cool much of the time with low
humidity, more like a fair day in late September than summer on the Bay.

Friday, June 20.  4:30 P.M. - 9 P.M. only.  Fair becoming clear, NW 10,
84-78, low humidity:

At 8 P.M. a female SHARP-SHINNED HAWK streaks across the cove, lands
briefly on the Schlines' dock, then continues north.  This is my 3rd
sighting from mid-May until now and is baffling since they are not known to
nest on the Delmarva Peninsula.  

A hen Mallard with 3 downy ducklings in the cove.  A Canada Goose d.o.r. on
the driveway by Field 4.  The next day the carcass has been moved 100 yards
(by foxes?).  2 Bald Eagles.  3 Ospreys carrying fish.  5 deer in sight in
the field behind Michael Davidson's Osprey platform.

3 Cow-nosed Rays in the cove.  2 Killdeer.  A doe in Field 2, 1 Eastern
Cottontail & a Gray Squirrel.  

Thursday, June 21.  Clear, NW 5, 72-85, rain and SW winds in late afternoon
when mostly overcast.    

Liz sees 10 Ospreys together in a loose group over Woods 7, where they take
advantage of SW wind hitting the shoreline bluff and pine forest, which
gives them lift.  A 6" Five-lined Skink on the front porch; I hardly ever
see them anywhere else.  A Green Tree Frog calling from the oak on the W
end of the house during the rain.

Jared Sparks and John Weske arrive for dinner and to overnight.  Jared sees
2 adult Red Foxes and a kit on the way in at day's end.

ORDEAL BY CAROLINA WREN (cont'd.):  There are 8 places in my boat and its
trailer where mice and/or Carolina Wrens can enter (and in most cases
have).  This time the one place I didn't plug contains a Carolina Wren nest
with 3 beautiful eggs.  An adult flushes from the front opening of the
power winch housing on the trailer.  I carefully rig a nearby (3 feet away)
alternative nest site, move the nest there, but a day later something has
lanced the eggs and eaten their contents (a snake would have swallowed
them).  This sad result has always happened whenever I have had to move a
nest.  

Makings of a wren nest are over the front door sill, as they are most
years.  No nook or cranny is safe from their intrusions.  A few weeks ago
nests were started in my unguarded, white waterman's boots as well as not
only inside my car but inside a back pack inside the car.  Leave the garage
doors open and they'll start to play house in there.  All the while they're
singing around the yard.  The Till Eulenspiegel or Rumpelstiltskin of yard
birds.  A pain in the ass but ya gotta love 'em.  

Friday, June 22.  Clear, brisk NW wind of 15-20+ m.p.h., temps in the 70s. 
A windy day.  

Jared Sparks & I hear a Chuck-will's-widow before sunrise out on Ferry Neck
Road, see an almost incandescent-neon male Indigo Bunting in the headlights
on the driveway out in front of the house earlier.

A Belted Kingfisher at Wingate, scarce in the summer because there are no
banks (or savings and loans) here where they can breed.  Single Wild
Turkeys in fields, one each coming and going from Crocheron to Cambridge. 
2 Muskrats on the way down to Crocheron.

DORCHESTER COUNTY ISLANDS.  A trip in John Weske's boat (a Privateer with a
115 H.P. outboard) with John, Jared Sparks, Liz Carracino-Clark, and
photographer Dave Harp, who has collaborated with Tom Horton on several
splendid books about the Chesapeake Bay.  7:15 A.M. - 3:45 P.M.  Windy and
rather rough on the water.  High tide at 7:30 A.M.  The objective is to
band Brown Pelican chicks but they're breeding late here and we're a month
or so early:

HOLLAND ISLAND, MIDDLE SEGMENT.  There are c. 248 pelican nests here but
only a few with hatchlings.  I start to record nest contents but give up
because there are so many.  Here's what is recorded:  nests with 1 egg 6, 2
eggs 15, 3 eggs 14, 1 young 3, 2 young 6 and 3 young 8 for a total of 52
nests with the contents recorded.  At one point c. 680 grown pelicans are
in sight simultaneously, most in the air but some on the water, most of
them adults.  One adult is captured, had already been banded an est. 4-5
years ago.  John bands 2 Great Black-backed Gull chicks. 

Double-crested Cormorant nests:  with 1 egg 2, 2 eggs 3, 3 eggs 9, 4 eggs
2, 5 eggs 1, 2 young 6, 3 young 6, 4 young 1, 3 eggs & 1 young 2, completed
nests with no contents 3 for a total of 35 plus c. 40 other nests w/o
contents recorded for a grand total of c. 70 DCCO nests. 

Herring Gull nests:  with 1 egg 3, 1 young 1, and 2 eggs 1 for a total of
5.

Also seen here:  5 Mute Swans, a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 2
oystercatchers, Fish Crows, Ospreys, Red-winged Blackbirds, Boat-tailed
Grackles, Barn Swallows, and a black duck plus several heron species.  1
Cow-nosed Ray.

HOLLAND ISLAND, SOUTH SEGMENT.  Has the bigger pelican colony, c. 391
nests, most in Baccharis halimifolia.  610 grown pelicans in sight
simultaneously.  Last year pelicans looked as if they were going to nest
here, were clustered in these bushes in large numbers, but did not follow
through.  No young at all this year yet, just eggs.  One of the nests is on
top of a crab pot washed up on the shore.  Not as many cormorants here as
on the middle segment but 11 nests in a group of dead and nearly dead Red
Cedars.  Of the few nests I checked 1 has 3 eggs, another 4.  

With the 391 pelican nests here plus 248 on the middle segment, that's a
total of c. 639 nests, this for a species first seen in the county on July
4, 1996!

Herring Gull:  3 nests with 1 egg, 2 with 2, and 4 with 3 for a total of 9.
 3 Osprey nests including one on the ground with 3 small young on the SW
side.  

23 species including 40 Mute Swans, 3 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 5
Willets, 5 Seaside & 1 Song sparrow, 3 oystercatchers, and numerous
recently-fledged Boat-tailed Grackles plus all Maryland heron species save
Green Heron.  Also, a Red Admiral.

Under driftwood, boards, etc., are a Northern Watersnake and a Black Widow,
the latter already upside down so the red hourglass is easy to see.  This
segment has hundreds of nesting herons and Glossy Ibis, substantial
saltmarsh, 2 groves of trees, the old graveyard, and a nice dune area,
unusual for the central Bay, 6'-8' high on the SW side. 

HOLLAND ISLAND, NORTH SEGMENT.  We do not land but anchor closeby.  The
burgeoning tern colony Jared & I found May 27 is still going great guns but
with a subsequent buildup in the numbers of Common Terns, many of these
visible on nests on the edge of the small beach, where we see several live
and 1 dead chick..  In my experience with mixed Common/Forster's colonies
the Forster's stay farther back from the edge of the water and nest in
grassy areas.  Also here, 2 Great Black-backed Gulls and 4 oystercatchers. 
None of the oystercatchers we see today or on May 27 is banded.

BLOODSWORTH ISLAND - FIN CREEK.  3 P.M.  Tide finally starting to rise.  24
species incl. 23 Black-crowned Night Herons, 15 Marsh Wrens, 3 Seaside
Sparrows, a Clapper Rail, 20 Boat-tailed Grackles (several of both sexes
carrying food), 1 Northern Harrier, 1 Common Yellowthroat, 1 Purple Martin,
2 Willets & 6 Fish Crows.  Also: a Red Admiral.

John & Jared join us for dinner and overnight again.

Saturday, June 23.  Fair, low humidity, 65-81, NW5-SW5.  Delightful.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling in the yard at 8 A.M.  A bat, an Eastern
Cottontail and a Gray Squirrel.  A Great Egret flying NW at dusk.

OSPREY FLIGHT LINE.  Only spent a few hours looking out over the Big Field
(Field 1) but in that short time saw Ospreys coming in high carrying fish
from far out on the Choptank River mouth 11 times, headed NE to Irish
Creek.  One fish's tail extended at least an inch beyond the Osprey's tail,
a big Menhaden.  This was a definite flight line.  I sometimes felt as if I
was at a fall hawk watch.

At 10 A.M. a kettle of 4 Ospreys in a tight group with an adult Bald Eagle
plus 3 other Ospreys and another Bald Eagle nearby.  

TILGHMAN ISLAND.  Liz & I do a 23.0 mile boat trip from Rigby, to Black
Walnut Point, out to near Sharp's Island light, up the W side of
Tilghman's, through Knapps Narrows, and back to Rigby.  Abundant SAV in the
cove and Irish Creek forces us to clear the propeller 4 times.  The best
SAV I've seen here in many years:

4 pound nets S and W of Tilghman Island hold: 1 sub-adult Brown Pelican, 43
Ospreys, 325 Double-crested Cormorants, 6 Common, 2 Royal & 2 Forster's
terns, 3 Great Black-backed, 28 Herring & 18 Laughing gulls & 5 Great Blue
Herons.  

Sunday, June 24.  Clear, winds variable, E then SW then NW at 5, low
humidity, 71-85, a sort of dry Arizona heat in the afternoon.  Splendid
weather.

A Great Horned Owl calling sometime in the wee smalls.  1 Gray Squirrel, 1
young Eastern Cottontail.  

IRISH CREEK.  Liz & I do a harmless 7.9 mile boat trip along all the
shorelines from 10:15 A.M. - 12:15 P.M., take advantage of a noon high
tide.  2 young but fledged Bald Eagles sit inconspicuously below the canopy
of a live Loblolly Pine.  If they had been a couple of years older they
would have flushed.  7 active Osprey nests, 2 of them also occupied by
House Sparrows, plus 3 unoccupied Osprey nest platforms.  5 Purple Martin
Houses, only 2 occupied, including 2 with House Sparrows plus 2 faux martin
houses not even a Mud Dauber would be attracted to.  11 Mute Swans (no
young), 3 Great Blue & 1 Green Heron, 36 Barn Swallows (dock nesters), 4
Double-crested Cormorants, 3 Herring & 4 sub-adult Laughing Gulls, 1
Eastern Kingbird, 0 terns, and 1 lingering Surf Scoter at the mouth of
Irish.  3 Cow-nosed Rays.  5 Diamondback Terrapin.  

OFF TOPIC:

GYPSY MOTHS?  Major defoliation of the oak forest at the junction of Rt. 33
& 329.

NEW YORK STATE.  Upper and Lower Lakes Wildlife Management Area, upstate NY
near Canton, where Liz and I were visiting for her sister, Dorothy's, 60th
birthday party.  Liz's cousin, Whitney Mallam, and I birded the lakes area
June 16.  We found 68 species from 7:30-10:30 A.M., including Redhead
broods with 10 and 1 downy young.  Also of interest:  6 Red-eyed, 4
Warbling, 2 Yellow-throated & 1 Blue-headed vireo.  5  flycatcher species
with 6 Willows and 1 Least.  A pair of Common Loons with 2 downy chicks.  4
Pied-billed Grebes.  2 Black Terns, which breed here.  4 Wilson's Snipe,
winnowing occasionally and seen perched in the top of a dead tree, on a
telephone pole, and on phone wires.  3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, calling
and drumming.  2 Chestnut-sided Warblers.  8 Bobolinks with much song.  An
ad. Bald Eagle.  2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks & a Scarlet Tanager.  1 American
Bittern thunder-pumping.  6 Ring-necked Ducks.  1 Veery.  

2 RED-NECKED GREBES have been seen here recently displaying and if
confirmed breeding this would be a first for New York state.  Whit and I
also found a Snapping Turtle laying eggs.  1 Porcupine d.o.r.  The next day
Liz and I see these birds not seen on June 16:  2 Ospreys, a pair of
Blue-winged Teal, a Great Crested Flycatcher, 5 Chimney Swifts, and a
Ruffed Grouse that flushed right next to us.  This whole area is a garden
with lush freshwater aquatic vegetation, an abundance of fallow fields rich
in flowers and grasses, and some groves of Aspen, Paper Birch, Tamarack,
White Pines, and spruces.

BASEBALL BIRDING.  Philadelphia game, June 13.  Liz and I watch the
Phillies beat the Chicago White Socks.  Aaron Rowand's grand slam didn't
hurt.  Never mind that the Socks have about the worst record in major
league baseball.  12 species seen in or around Citizens Bank Park.  Against
a checkered, shifting backdrop of 42,677 spectators and almost unbearable
noise, Barn Swallows somehow caught insects, that I could not see, during
the entire game, darting around just below our 400-level seats and close to
the railing.  Now ... who were the real athletes there? 

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 ....)