FRIDAY, March 28.  

A Woodchuck along Route 1 S. of Wilmington.

At the wet area 0.2 mi. N. of Rts. 481 X 309:  11 Green-winged & 5
Blue-winged Teal:  slightly strange to have odd numbers at this time of
year when they should all be paired up.

Rabbit Hill Rd. X Rt. 309:  a Bald Eagle and 9 Black Vultures.

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, West
Ferry Neck Road near Royal Oak but nearer still to Bellevue.  5:30-7:30
P.M. only.  63-58, NW 15-20, fair, low tide but rising, official low at
Oxford is 4:34 P.M..

41 Fish Crows.  6 Northern Gannets with much plunge-diving going on.  2
Laughing Gulls, finally, the first of the year; some years we've seen them
as early as March 11.  2 ea. of Common Loon & Horned Grebe.  Rough water
makes waterbirding difficult but there are many Surf Scoter flocks well
offshore and a few Buffleheads.  

BEST OF ALL:  a RIVER OTTER at Lucy Point swims slowly and dives heading
SE; rears up in the water to check me out each time it surfaces.  I'm lucky
if I see them here once a year.

Grass is cut for the first time.  I toss 100 bricks from Philadelphia over
the yard bank to protect an eroding area.  100 more should do it.  1 deer
sprints through the backyard as if being pursued by something. 

SATURDAY, March 29.  fair, high 40s. NW 15-20-10, cold but bad haze made
distance viewing impossible.

Route 50, mile 72, 630 Ring-billed Gulls following 2 huge tractors.

DORCHESTER COUNTY, 12:30-5:30 P.M.

EXTREMELY low tidal areas today to the delight of Green-winged Teal (which
are wannabe shorebirds) and some real shorebirds, too.  Mud, mud, glorious
mud.

DeCoursey Bridge X Drawbridge roads: 8 Tundra Swans in a wheat field, 1
Chorus Frog calling, and an Orange Sulphur.

DeCoursey Bridge Road (at the bridge):  175 Ring-billed Gulls, 1 Bald
Eagle, 2 Ospreys, 1 Greater Yellowlegs., 6 fishermen.  

Bucktown: 1 Great Egret.  

Bestpitch-Transquaking River:  103 Green-winged Teal.  19 Wilson's Snipe. 
4 Red-tailed Hawks.  8 Bald Eagles.  13 Greater & 5 Lesser yellowlegs.  12
Dunlin.  1 Great Egret.  3 Ospreys.  5 Northern Harriers.  2 juncos.  1
towhee. 

Griffith Neck Road:  22 Green-winged Teal in a new impoundment on the S.
side.  1 ad. Bald Eagle.  3 goldfinches.  1 Great Egret.

Lewis Wharf Road:  4 Killdeer.  2 kestrels.  6 Bald Eagles.  5 ospreys.  2
cormorants.  One Bald Eagle chases an Osprey.

Elliott Island Road:  20 Blue-winged & 119 Green-winged teal.  33 Greater &
1 Lesser yellowlegs.  14 Bald Eagles (the active nest just SW of Savannah
Lake has an adult feeding at least one chick; the loblollies around the
nest tree have been badly singed if not killed [yet?] by marsh fires).  9
harriers.  14 black ducks.  15 Tree Swallows.  23 Dunlin.  1 snipe.  1
meadowlark.  2 Mute Swans back in the marsh that I bet will breed there.  2
Buffleheads.  3 male & 2 female Boat-tailed Grackles.  10 Ospreys.  19
Forster's Terns.  only 1 Herring Gull, an ad.  35 Surf Scoters seen from
McCready's Creek.  6 Laughing Gulls.  only 5 mallards.  1 kingfisher. 
strangely .... only 1 Great Blue Heron.  1 Brown Thrasher.  NO egrets.

Also:  1 Diamondback Terrapin.  a small Mud Turtle dead-on-the-road.   
In Fishing Bay near Elliott:  960 Ruddy Dcuks, 30 Canvasbacks & 50 Lesser
Scaup toughing it out in the incredibly murky waters that are lashed with
whitecaps. 

Have nice conversation with Bob Cardwell, who owns the shack w/ trailer
down the gated road near Gadwall Bend.  He is from Harford County.

Cambridge (Malkus) Bridge:  a Northern Gannet easily seen close as I go
over the bridge at 55 m.p.h. at 5:51 P.M. 

At Rigby 34 deer in one group at 6:31 P.M., which run a stretch, then stop
to stare at me, several times.  Plus 2 more in Field 1 a minute later = 36,
a new property high count.  An ad. Great Black-backed Gull, strangely
scarce here sometimes, e.g. we did not see one the entire time from March
17-23.  4 Northern Gannets.  3 flickers feeding on the ground in Field 1,
one without a tail, that flush when an ad. female Sharp-shinned Hawk flies
over.  

SUNDAY, March 30.  fair, winds E 10-15, 38-50 degrees F.  A cold day. 
Tidal areas very low.  Lots of exposed mud.  Impoundments a bit below high.

An Eastern Cottontail on the Rigby driveway at 5:51 A.M.  Another near
Royal Oak a few minutes later.

Blackwater N.W.R.  7 A.M. - Noon.  17 participants in the bird walk,
including Levin Willey et al.  58 species.  Not many ducks.

AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN 37.  I think this is the highest ever for the
refuge, perhaps even for the state.  They clump together so close it's hard
to count them.  My estimate is 34 but when they take flight in 3 different
flocks we are easily able to get an exact count of 37.

Also:  2 Wood Ducks.  only 1 shoveler.  50 Green-winged Teal.  16 Common
Mergansers seen to good advantage at close range, only 1 an adult male.  14
Ospreys.  20 Bald Eagles.  6 harriers.  4 Virginia Rails, calling close. 
16 Greater & 4 Lesser yellowlegs.  1 Pectoral Sandpiper.  1 Pileated
Woodpecker.  2 Horned Larks.  35 Tree Swallows.  12 bluebirds.  3 singing
Pine Warblers.  3 Savannah Sparrows.  1 meadowlark.  1 Tundra Swan, I
suspect a sick or injured bird.

2 Gray Squirrels.  

BEST NON SEQUITUR of the weekend, in Cambridge: "Help protect the Bay; wash
your car here." ??

Headin' home.  Roadkills du jour along Route 301:  juvenile Red-tailed Hawk
at mile 95.2, Red Fox at mile 109.8 & deer at mile 118.6.  Just across the
line in Delaware: a Ring-billed Gull and a Raccoon bite the dust.  An alive
Woodchuck in Delaware next to the Route 299 X Route 1 junction, surveying
its domain from a burrow entrance.  Liz and I also saw one here on March 9,
likewise seemingly in a Weltanschauung mode, contemplative.    

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 ....)