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

Summer's dog days, but much of interest anyways.

July 21, 2007, Saturday.  3 Barn Swallow chicks in the nest under the dock
catwalk.  Locally docks are referred to as piers, driveways as lanes in
Eastern Shorespeak.  Sarah Warner and I see 5 Killdeer foraging on the edge
of the cove at low tide.  However, the exposed muddy edges of Chesapeake
Bay are a shorebird desert compared to the countless thousands of
sandpipers that regularly feed along the edges of Delaware Bay.

July 23, Monday.  So dry that small dust devils twist and wind to the NW
across recently-disked Fields 1 & 2.

Thursday, July 26.  Fair, calm, 83.  Present at Rigby only from 8 P.M.

Come down to hear William Burt give his talk in conjunction with the
publication of "Marshes: disappearing Edens" (Yale, 2007, 179pp.).  This
takes place in St. Michaels at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  40 of
his spectacular, beautifully-composed photographs are on display here
through December 16.  Many are of the Eliiott Island marshes plus some from
Virginia's Eastern Shore.  Marshbirds are a main focus, including Bill's
unbelievably dramatic and arresting portraits of Black Rails.

Daughter Anne and a friend here earlier today.  They see 2 fawns, a Red
Fox, some cottontails, and a Five-lined Skink.  

Watering the flowers in the big pots after my late arrival, I see a 1.5'
Garter Snake that slithers through a crack in the north crawl space
entrance.  Seldom see garters here.

Friday, July 27.  Clear, E5, 76-80+.

Let the hose run the in Yard Pond.  The water there attracts a few robins,
cardinals, a Red-winged Blackbird, Carolina Wrens, Common Grackles, and a
Gray Squirrel.  It is SO dry.  

GET OUT THE CHAMPAGNE.  8 Northern Mockingbirds, the 3rd highest property
count.  I suspect that 6 of these are a family group.

A kingbird socks it to an adult Red-tailed Hawk along the driveway.  See
what are probably the same 2 fawns Anne saw, gamboling along the edge of
the yard.  One hummingbird.  Blue Grosbeak singing from the edge of Field
2.

Back up to Philadelphia to pick up Liz.  A half-grown Woodchuck out in the
field to the E of Rt. 301 at mile 101.7.

Saturday, July 28.  Fair, calm, 93.  From 3:15 to dusk only.  Still 83 at
10 P.M.

Back down to Rigby, a nightmare of a trip, 2.5 hours to cover the 70 miles
from Philadelphia to the Route 301 Plaza E. of Middletown, DE (average 21.4
m.p.h.), 10:07 A.M.-12:37 P.M.  We hear 4 fatalities are the reason for the
complete closure of Route 1.  At the top of the good old Route 13 bridge
over the D-C canal halted traffic chokes Route 1 as far as we can see. 
Prior to that a 6-mile backup on the Blue Route (I-476) and another big one
on I-95 (the cloaca of Megalopolis), prompt us to exit to good old Route 1
and good old Route 202 plus various miniscule Delaware backroads W of good
old Route 13 by the canal bridge.  For the latter foray a compass is very
useful at mid-day.  

The old bridge has beautiful, curving lines, blends in with the landscape,
in contrast to the ultra-modern new bridge's harsh, angular aspects.  The
old bridge was used as a backdrop for several movies in the 1960s and
1970s.

I remember a poem by one of the Beat poets, perhaps it was Ray Bremser,
called "Turnpike."  One of the lines is: "Pound would not grace your gray
imponderability."  Of course one of the reasons Pound would not grace the
New Jersey Turnpike was because he was in prison for his pro-fascist and
anti-Semitic radio broadcasts from Italy during the World War II period. 
Nevertheless, one understands the poem's sentiment.  As convenient as these
great highways are - when they work well - they are in many respects
monstrosities.  As Yeats put it:

"I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds on the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
            I hear it in the deep heart's core."      

Then there's Easton, which has become a nightmare at mid-day, choked with
traffic and with monstruous new buildings under construction along the
so-called bypass, on what last year was bucolic farmland.  

Liz spots a subadult Red Fox scratching itself on the side of Rt. 481 in
Queen Annes County, MD.

A Spotted Sandpier at Lucy Point.  4 Snowy Egrets at the head of the cove,
my season high so far.  32 Canada Geese.  a Killdeer.  a hummingbird.  a
male Blue Grosbeak.  

At The Pond, drawn perhaps by the stagnant water, are: a Downy Woodpecker,
a flicker, a grackle, 7 Blue Jays, 2 cardinals, and a Red-bellied
Woodpcker.

65 Diamondback Terrapin: 57 off Lucy Point in the SAV + 8 in the cove SAV
bed.  20 frogs at The (drastically-receeding) Pond: Bullfrog, Green &
Southern Leopard frogs in decreasing order of abundance.  A large and
lovely Spicebush Swallowtail attends the flowers by the back steps.  1
fawn.  1 Gray Squirrel.  1 Common Wood Nymph.  Bluets fly over and
sometimes alight on the windrows of detached Ruppia by the dock.

GREEN TREE FROG, mano a mano.  After I hitch the boat trailer to the car,
tilt the outboard, trailer to the launching ramp, launch, and wade with the
boat to the dock I discover a Green Tree Frog in the deeply-recessed
propeller housing area of the outboard.  It eludes me, jumps into the salty
Bay, submerges.  After a minute it surfaces, I catch it, hose it down, and
release it on the edge of the Yard Pond.  There are 10 areas of my boat and
trailer that I plug up after each boat trip to foil mice and Carolina
Wrens.  Most of these areas have been invaded by these creatures.  AND NOW
THIS.  

Sunday, July 29.  Fair becoming mostly overcast, NW-NE 5, hot, humid, the
temperature at 12:45 A.M. is 81 degrees F.  A brief, inconsequential
rainfall in mid-afternoon when the temperature falls from 92-77 degrees F.
from 2-4:30 P.M. and, for a while, the humidity falls, too.

1 Black Vulture.  1 Brown Thrasher.  1 Killdeer.  8 cowbirds, 8 robins, the
thrasher, and some cardinals forage in the recently-disked Field 2 in its
SE corner.  3 each of kingbird, Snowy Egret & Indigo Bunting.  Overhead: an
adult Turkey Vulture with a dangling, injured right leg.

Non-avian taxa.  A Red Fox, well-furred and with a fine, very bushy tail,
hunts in Field 2 much of the afternoon, unconcerned by my presence.  2
rabbits.  1 Gray Squirrel,  A doe with a small fawn.  1 Spicebush
Swallowtail.

Short, 6.9 mile boat trip up Broad Creek, 12:50-2:05 P.M., cut short by the
rumble of thunder to the east.  95 Mute Swans in Bridges Creek.  An Osprey
nest with 2 young on a pole right over an active dock on Deep Neck.  2
Tiger Swallowtails and a Monarch well offshore.  Water temperature a
refreshing 83-85 degrees F.  

Jim & Connie Olszewski arrive to do work on the Clover Field (Field 3). 
Generous as always, they give us a big box full of the juiciest peaches
known to man.

A GREAT DUSK EXPERIENCE.  8:30-9 P.M.  Calm, a light zephyr from the East,
77 degrees, a slow, continuous dripping from the earlier light rain,
overcast.  6 or more late season Fireflies still weaving about in the
gloaming.  On the Front Porch I say to Liz: "It would be nice to hear a
screech-owl calling, unsolicited.  This is a good time of year for that." 
Does not happen but a moment later a Great Horned Owl calls a few times.  

As the affecting night insect choruses tune up in the grassy areas around
the fields and yard, perhaps energized by the slight precipitation, there's
a silent but visual fluttering on the SW corner of the porch roof. 
"Probably a Carolina Wren" (but ... they're not silent fliers).  Then we
have a perfect look at a Chuck-will's-widow, alighting on the roof, not 10
feet away.  Then a 2nd one comes in.  This happens several times.  

Step out on the lawn and there's one of the chucks, within broom's-length
distance, sitting there looking at us for a minute or so.  Then it flies to
the peak of the roof over the Guest Room and sits THERE, looking at us.  A
few minutes later one gives its full call 6 times from the back yard. 

When the chucks come in they utter a low note (described in the "big"
Sibley as a "hard, tongue-clicking cluck", p. 286), very like (to my ears)
the catbird's "a low 'whurf' deeper and softer than Hermit Thrush" (Sibley,
p. 410).  I find it very similar also to a single scold note of a Gray
Squirrel and would transcribe it as a subtle, low, quick "wuuickk."    

We are struck by how these falcon-shaped, crepuscular creatures, with long
tails and long, pointed wings, are such extremely agile, adept fliers. 
Like a huge bat or mega moth.  I only remember hearing or seeing a chuck in
the yard once previously.  But we are used to hearing them only, and then
at a distance of half a mile or more.  My latest date for hearing them
calling here is August 2.  

Monday, July 30.  Mostly overcast becoming fair, humid, oppressive, E-SE 5,
76-84.

1 Royal Tern, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, a Yelow-billed Cuckoo, 11 Ospreys in
sight simultaneosuly, 1 adult Bald Eagle perched out at Lucy Point, 2
Indigo Buntings, 2 kingbirds, a Downy Woodpecker, 3 Great Blue & 1 Green
heron, and a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker (no red on the head) feeding
on Black Cherry fruit in the yard with an adult nearby.  In mid-afternoon
several Common Crows bust on a Great Horned Owl in Woods 7; the owl calls
once.  I hope it gets revenge come nightfall.

Many thanks to Drs. Laura Murray and Debbie Hinkel of the University of
Maryland's Horn Point Center for Estuarine Studies for taking time to talk
about the center's platforms and enclosures at the mouth of Irish Creek. 
These are right off our shoreline.  

The 3 platforms with the "scare owls" on them off the Irish Creek mouth
monitor water in several different ways, taking samples every 2 hours.  One
is in the center of a big bed of Sago Pondweed.  The middle one is on the
edge of the bed.  The outermost one is in a clear area S of the bed.  

The 7 rectangular enclosures are at the mouth of the cove where Rigby is. 
The 4 bigger ones have been planted with Redhead Grass.  The 3 smaller ones
have cuttings of Redhead Grass to see if these resprout.  The predominant
grass in the cove is Widgeon Grass (Ruppia).  Dr. Hinkel says the grass off
of Broad Creek, where there is a big bed, is Sago Pondweed.

Today there are 52 DiamondbackTerrapin in the bed where one of the
platforms is, plus another 6 in the cove (=58).  42 frogs at The Pond,
almost dried up now, the usual 3 triumfrogate species   During the
heart-breakingly brief rain (1:45-2:15 P.M.) a Green Tree Frog calls
half-heartedly from its vantage point up in the Magnolia grandiflora.     

Butterflies:  2 each of Spicebush Swallowtail, Pearlcrescent,
Silver-spotted Skipper, Buckeye, Cabbage White, Hackberry Emperor, and
Tiger Swallowtail plus 3 Common Wood Nymphs, 5 Red Admirals, and an unID'd
foldwing skipper.  Perhaps due to the drought Red-spotted Purples, cicadas,
and Buckeyes are almost non-existant this summer, as are Fowler's Toads,
these all normally common here.

Talk to John Swaine on the way out.  He is disking our remaining fields,
will plant them in soy beans.  Then he'll be covered by crop insurance if,
as seems likely, the beans fail.  If they do, he plans to then plant the
fields in winter wheat, and, let the Canada Geese do what they may.

This is about the worst drought I can remember, with no signs of ending
soon.  More than one person I know is hoping for a hurricane to bring
rains.  What a setiment!  

Headin' home.  A dark-phase Woodchuck ambling from a grassy area, one of
the few left, of the Easton bypass next to what will be the expanded
Lowe's.  Route 481 is full of blue birds: Eastern Bluebirds, Indigo
Buntings, and Blue Grosbeaks.  But where are the Bank Swallows?  Usually in
July there are lots of them on the wires.  I have yet to see one there this
year.  A Cooper's Hawk with a Red-winged Blackbird riding herd on her
flying W of Rt. 13, Delaware, c. 2 miles S of the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal
(at mile 88).  A Green Heron over Chester, PA, hardly prime habitat (or is
it?).  

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 ....)