Friday, February 15:

a screech-owl roadkill along Route 329 E of Royal Oak.

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

Late afternoon only until 6:30 P.M.  calm, 54-49 degrees F., fair, tide
low, a good amount of standing water on the ground.  21 species.

LONG-TAILED DUCKS en masse.  Massed out on the Choptank River mouth and
very garrulous, keeping up a continuous din and clamor, just like in the
old days, and one of the great sounds of the Bay.  Careful, prolonged
scoping revealed c. 2,430.  My highest total here in years.  Out there in a
boat I'm sure a count would have revealed many more.

2 Horned Grebes.  1 Song Sparrow (a property year bird, believe it or not).
 1 adult Northern Gannet.  2 Brown Thrashers calling at 6:00 P.M. at Lucy
Point.  1 Eastern Screech-Owl calling spontaneously from Woods 8 at 6:13
P.M.  470 Ring-billed Gulls, a dusk roost in the Choptank out from the
mouth of Irish Creek.  115 Surf Scoters.  7 Killdeer in Field 1.  9
Canvasbacks.  135 Buffleheads.  22 Tundra Swans.  

Saturday, February 16.  

Hooper's Island but also including Swan Harbor and Meekins Neck.  6 A.M. -
6 P.M.  fair becoming clear c. 8:30 A.M. for the rest of the day.  35-45. 
winds NW 10-15-10 to calm at day's end.  Tide low to high to low but well
below average all day.  A breezy, chilly day with very good visibility. 
Some residual ice in shaded, protected areas, and very little new ice,
crystal clear and with small creases in it, in the ditches and puddles.

68 species.  Low numbers of diving ducks.  I thoroughly searched the
exposed rip-rap at low tide, hoping for Purple Sandpipers, which I've never
seen in the county.  No luck.  The rocks have a rich growth of algae and
barnacles, somewhat like coastal jetties, and much richer than that on
rocks around Rigby's Folly.

LOON FLIGHT:  

In the water adjacent to Hooper's there were 19 Common Loons, 2 of them
with Hogchokers.  From Hoopersville while scoping for cormorants and
pelicans (no luck with either) I noticed loons flying south way out on the
Bay.  First noticed at 4:15 P.M., the flight continued unabated until 5:25,
by which time it had about petered out.  The exact count is 795.  Late in
the flight groups flew closer and higher, and I was able to see that all of
these were Common Loons.  So I assume the rest were, especially since
Red-throated Loons are usually scarce on the Bay.  So the Common Loon total
today is an astounding 814.   

I've only ever seen big numbers of Common Loons in winter once on the Bay,
from Chance on Deal Island, March 7, 2002, when 157 were in sight
simultaneously.  One day in the late 1960s in November from this vantage
point I saw over 300, a time of year when one might expect many to be
around.  Otherwise, one time Liz and I counted over 1,000 off the beaches
of Topsail I., NC, in mid-March.  Only once at Rigby's Folly have I seen
huge numbers: 477 on November 9, 1980, almost all of them in one compact
group sitting on the water.  And once in late Dec. I saw a loose
aggregation of 900 Red-throated Loons flying down the coast off of Smith
I., VA, in late December. 

There are 9 or 10 pound nets off of Hooper's Island, most well offshore,
but today they are bereft of birds.  In the warmer months these are good to
scrutinize for pelicans and cormorants, which often linger at these places
well into November, or even later.   

975 Tundra Swans, most on the east side of Barren Island, an area they
favor.  170 Canvasbacks.  14 Lesser Scaup.  12 Surf and a male Black
scoter.  120 Long-tailed Ducks.  265 Buffleheads.  45 Common Goldeneyes.  6
Hooded & 10 Red-breasted mergansers.  2 Ruddy Ducks.

33 Horned Grebes.  11 Northern Gannets.  9 Great Blue Herons.  10 Bald
Eagles.  1 imm. Red-shouldered Hawk.  6 Clapper & 5 Virginia rails, 2 of
the Clappers very well seen at close range.  9 Killdeer.  1 Greater
Yellowlegs.  12 Sanderlings.  95 Dunlin.  11 Bonaparte's Gulls.  

1 Great Horned Owl (Swan Harbor; being chased by 3 American Crows at 7:37
flying N, then again, solo flying S unmolested in broad daylight at 7:58). 
4 Fish Crows, 2 of them in an Osprey nest at red marker 2 in Fishing Creek.
 4 Red-breasted & 7 Brown-headed Nuthatches.  1 Winter Wren.  4
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 ea. of the little sprites at 4 locales.  2 Hermit
Thrushes.  70 starlings, 1 of them repeatedly imitating a bobwhite.  22
juncos.  9 House Finches.    
Missed:  Redhead, accipiters, kestrel, snipe, titmouse, waxwing, Savannah
Sparrow & Boat-tailed Grackle.  

Elsewhere: 

4:25 A.M.:  groups of 3 and 3 deer on the way to Royal Oak.  
4:32 A.M.:  7 deer and a waddling Virginia Opossum in Royal Oak.  
5:01 A.M.:  7 House Sparrow already active at the Cambridge Wawa.
5:33 A.M.:  1 Raccoon along Egypt Road.
5:45 A.M.:  1 Eastern Cottontail along Key Wallace Drive.
8:00 P.M.:  a screech-owl, red phase, roadkill on the Easton Bypass (Rt.
322) X Peachblossom Road.

Sunday, February 17:

Royal Oak, an Eastern Cottontail at 5:44 A.M.

Blackwater N.W.R.  9 of us on the refuge birdwalk, 7 A.M. - noon.  fair
becoming overcast.  36-60.  winds E 5-10.  water level in tidal areas very
low, but the impoundments, finally, are full.  51 species.

AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS.  First we see 11, then a little later we look back
and suddenly there are 16.

1000 Snow and 50 Blue geese, stick around out in the Blackwater River and
flush several times, affording an impressive spectacle ... and sound.  4000
Canada Geese.  25 American Black Ducks.  110 shovelers.  105 pintails.  70
Green-winged Teal.  6 Hooded & 30 Common Mergansers.  20 Bald Eagles.  6
harriers.  5 Red-tailed Hawks.  7 Dunlin.  1 Pileated Woodpecker.  1 Horned
Lark.  2 Tree Swallows.  2 White-breasted & 5 Brown-headed Nuthatches.  1
towhee.  3 meadowlarks.  

One of meadowlarks is pursued twice by a harrier.  At the Visitor Center a
robin is in full song.

We also encounter several acquaintances:  Greg Inskip, Suzanne & Tony
Quezon, Bob Anderson & Thuy Tran & the Gerald Tarbells.  

Earlier in the day Greg and others had seen a Golden Eagle.  We look for an
extended period from the end of Wildlife Drive but with no luck.  However,
the harriers, redtails, and Bald Eagles put on a good show there. 

Someone saw a Fox Squirrel this morning.

Cambridge.  Apres the birdwalk Bob & Thuy and 10 others join me here to
feed the Canvasbacks at the end of Oakley Street.  Here we see c. 810 cans,
a pair of Redheads, 1 male black duck, 30 American Wigeon, 45 Mallards & 90
Lesser Scaup. 

Afterwards Bob Anderson and Thuy Tran come back to Rigby with me.  As is
his habit Bob has some fine wines and we sit in the living room sampling
some.  

At Rigby's Folly:  6:01 P.M., 2 deer and a Gray Squirrel, the latter at
risk of being nailed by a Great Horned Owl at such a late hour. 

OFF TOPIC & OFF-THE-WALL:

Song(s) of the Open Road:  

In spite of having missed lunch the wine energizes me and, exhausted but
wide awake, I reverse my earlier decision to crash at Rigby, instead make
the long drive home, aided by a delicious country fried steak dinner and 2
fresh, piping hot cups of coffee at the Easton Denny's.    

Leave late enough to pick up 'With heart and voice' on 89.5 from 8-9 P.M.,
sacred organ and choral music, always inspiring.  Coming into range S of
Philadelphia it's "Street Corner Sunday", doo wop time, from 9-10 P.M. on
Double U Oh Gee El, ninety-eight point one.  Feelin' good like a rock jock
should.  '16 Candles', 'Blue Moon', 'Play Those Oldies Mr. DJ', and 'So
Fine' really help to ramp up those last 45 miles.  

When Lars Egede-Nissen and I worked on the freighter Thorshal in the South
Pacific in the summer of '59 Lars acquitted himself with such distinction
in Tahiti during the Bastille Day celebrations that by the time we left
Papeete for Pango Pango, where further misadventures awaited us, he'd
acquired the nickname So Fine, after the then current hit, from some of the
wahines.  

A good doo wop song needs to have several (but never all) of these traits
and virtues:  a cheesy, cruddy saxophone solo, falsetto, a background
chorus that sounds (surprisingly) like Fowler's Toads tuneing up, a Mr.
Bassman, nonsensical words (bomp bah bomp bomb, do doo doo, ramma lamma
ding dong, walla walla bing bang, wop de wop, etc.), and/or idiotic,
endlessly-repeated three-note phrases (preferably on piano).      

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 ....)