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Subject:

Birds (and tornado) at Irish Grove

From:

Paul Bystrak

Reply-To:

Paul Bystrak

Date:

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:03:48 -0400

There was a report of damage at Irish Grove Sanctuary, so I went 
there to check on it.  Driving up to the house, you would not know 
there was a problem at all, since what appears to have been a small 
tornado passed just to the NORTH (i.e. back side) of the house, and 
the damage is so confined that it can't be seen from the 
driveway.  The swath is about 60 - 80 yards wide, running from the SW 
towards the NE, and less than 10 yards from the house.  A lot of 
shingles were taken off the roof, and one window was smashed, but 
other than that, the damage was all to the trees.  Large trees, 
mostly pines but also a holly and a cedar, were snapped off about 30 
feet off the ground, and the tops thrown considerable distances.  One 
tree was over a foot in diameter where it snapped.  Trees were also 
taken down in the woods across the fields to the SW, about 1/4 mile 
away.  In addition, there was substantial damage to the trees at 
Conner's Corner, a couple miles to the north.  The path this storm 
took was parallel to another tornado-like storm that occurred in 
April, 1993 (I think it was).  It passed about 30 yards SOUTH of the 
house, and took out the barn, and most of the outbuildings we had at 
the time, again causing only minor damage to the house.  I wonder how 
many houses there are in Maryland that have had tornado-like events 
pass by so close, one on each side, and still be unscathed?

After surveying the damage, I spread some sand on Rail Trail and did 
some birding.  It was very quiet, but below is a list of birds seen 
around the house and down Rumbly Point Road:

Common Loon - 1
Northern Gannet - 5
Double-crested Cormorant - 6
Great Blue Heron - 1
Turkey Vulture - 4
Canada Goose - 2
American Black Duck - 2
Osprey - 1
Bald Eagle - 3
Northern Harrier - 1
Greater Yellowlegs - 3
Ring-billed Gull - 6
Herring Gull - 4
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Forster's Tern - 8
Mourning Dove - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker - 2
American Crow - 2
Fish Crow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 3
Carolina Wren - 2
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER - 1 (singing his heart out)
Eastern Bluebird - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 2
Brown Thrasher - 1
Myrtle Warbler - 23
Pine Warbler - 5
Eastern Towhee - 1
Song Sparrow - 3
Swamp Sparrow - 1
Northern Cardinal - 4
Red-winged Blackbird - 6
Eastern Meadowlark - 1
Brown-headed Cowbird - 2


When I got home in the evening, there was a V of Tundra Swans flying 
west at a very high altitude just before sunset. There are still at 
least 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at the feeder.

Paul Bystrak

3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804
410-572-9950
443-783-1268 (cell)