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

APRIL 25, 2008, Friday.  Afternoon only.  fair, 80-75 degrees F., winds SE
5 or calm, tide low.  Beautiful but dusty yellow-green Loblolly Pine pollen
covers everything, clouds of it blow out of the trees even in today's light
winds.  It also makes other clouds of a murky solution in the water right
next to the shorelines.  There's been a much-needed deluge, an inch or
more, on Sunday but the land still needs more rain.

Good scoping from Lucy Point in spite of much distant haze.  38 Common
Loons, in several pods.  55 Surf Scoters.  7 Common Terns.  1 Green Heron. 
Barn Swallows building a  nest under the dock.  1 Chuck-will's-widow
calling at dusk.  Zero gannets or Horned Grebes.  Eastern Bluebirds are
occupying the nest box on the pole in Field 4.

NON-AVIAN TAXA.  Nice Green Treefrog chorus, a bit early in the year by
local standards.  24 deer in Field 4.  1 Eastern Cottontail.  1 adult Red
Fox with a long, very mangy tail.  1 Gray Squirrel.  In the calm water
Diamondback Terrapin respond to the sun and warmth, basking just offshore:
51 off Lucy Point.  I Fowler's Toad calling.  No Spring Peepers.  1 Tiger
Swallowtail, 5 Orange Sulphurs, 2 Cabbage Whites.  Run into Wendy Miller
who has found a dead, silver dollar-sized Painted Turtle.  

APRIL 26, Saturday.  Another beautiful, warm, sometimes hot even, calm,
spring day.  43 species.  fair, SW<5, 70-85.  

1 Least Tern.  20 Surf Scoters.  an imm. Bald Eagle hunting, halfheartedly,
I'd say, Diamondback Terrapin.  Many eagle nests have multiple terrapin
carapaces on the forest floor underneath.  2 Red-tailed Hawks.  1 Indigo
Bunting.  1 Eastern Kingbird.  1 Tree Swallow.  1 Gray Catbird.  1 Eastern
Meadowlark.  2 Wood Ducks.  

NON-AVIAN TAXA.  Same butterflies as yesterday.  1 Common Whitetail
(dragonfly).  124 Diamondback Terrapin (41 in the cove's mouth, 83 off Lucy
Point).  2 Spotted Turtles (mating, or at least thinking about it, I'd
guess) in the ditch on the S. side of Field 4 next to the driveway, where I
usually see them.  3 Painted Turtles.   1 Green Frog in the Waterthrush
Pond.    

At Fox Harbor Farm in the early afternoon 202 Diamondback Terrapin are
massed, pointed toward shore, in Fox Hole Creek, stageing their own reprise
of the Normandy Invasion, the most I've ever seen at one place in Maryland,
though I've seen many more than this at Port Mahon, Delaware.   

The 1st of 4 amazing coincidences, degrees of separation, stories this
weekend, involves the representative of Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc. who is
hosting the open house at Fox Harbor Farm today, Keri L. Pfeiffer.  Her
daughter is apparently a schoolmate of the grandaughter of my friend Marty
Daniels, who Liz and I stayed with earlier in April near Camden, SC.  Alex
Cooper A. I. is auctioning Fox Harbor Farm, an 165 acre property adjacent
to Rigby's Folly.  The auction begins at 11 A.M., May 3, on the premises at
5289 Ferry Neck Road.  

The kind soul (there are several at-present unconfessed candidates) who cut
down the threatening Loblolly Pine leaning precariously over the driveway
has exposed a cross section with 101 growth rings, as best I could
determine.  If one does the math, it began growing c. 1907.  This tree was
c. 104 feet high.

The yard mockingbird imitates: Pileated Woodpecker, cardinal, towhee &
Purple Martin.

CAMBRIDGE.  Spend the night on board the 53-foot ketch, Aletes (means
variously drifter, seeker of truth, etc., in Greek) as a guest of Tom
Peacock and Jane Ferry (residents of Durham, PA, both of them doctors), and
Kathy and Steve Barndt (of Greenwich, NJ; by coincidence they know my New
Hampshire high school classmate Wright Horne, whose school nickname was
Left Antler).  They'll join me on the Blackwater bird walk on Sunday. 
These are folks that, to my detriment, I did not know previously.  

Before an on board dinner consisting of a martini, brie and crackers,
Spanish red wine, and delicious steak - among other goodies - see a
Ruby-throated Hummingbird and 8 Purple Martins over the Cambridge Municipal
Yacht Basin, and, later, hear a Black-crowned Night Heron, unusual for the
Cambridge area.

APRIL 27, Sunday.  BLACKWATER N.W.R.  Almost everything goes against us: 
it's cold, overcast, windy, rains occasionally, and the tidal waters at the
refuge are not at an optimal level.  overcast, low 50s, NE 15 m.p.h. or
more, occasional light rain, cold, damp, and windy.  Much of the day I wear
4 layers and light gloves.  Water levels inside the refuge impoundments are
somewhat low, which is good, and this is where most of the shorebirds and
Green-winged Teal are today.

In spite of the gloomy weather 17 show for the refuge birdwalk, including,
in an amazing surprise 2 people I knew from work, my esteemed Jefferson
library colleague, Nancy Calabretta (the world's best and nicest medical
reference librarian) and her husband, Anthony, and Jefferson biochemist
Robert Metrione and his wife.  

Green Frogs plucking their banjos at "the prothonotary spot" on Egypt Road,
7:15 A.M.

The "walk" goes on officially from 7 A.M. to noon, then us 5 "boat people"
continue until 4 P.M., visiting the Shorter's Wharf Road marshes and Cedar
Creek Road.  Combined total a modest 74 species.

The Trumpeter Swan of dubious provenance still present, after several
years, at Robbins.  a pair of American Wigeon.  85 Green-winged Teal.  a
female Canvasback actively diving at the Cambridge marine.  2 bobwhite
hanging around the refuge Visitor Center feeders.  1 AMERICAN WHITE
PELICAN, resting and preening opposite Wildlife Drive.  10 Great & 8 Snowy
egrets.  20 Ospreys.  30 Bald Eagles.  3 harriers.  7 Virginia Rails (heard
at 4 locations).  28 Greater & 6 Lesser yellowlegs.  3 Solitary Sandpipers.
 only 1 Willet.  only 6 Least Sandpipers.  95 Dunlin.  3 Short-billed
Dowitchers.  Black-necked Stilt, 0, (but seen by many yesterday).  only 2
Forster's Terns.  1 Least Tern.  

LANDBIRDS, many notable for their paucity; it IS a late spring birdwise,
isn't it?  1 screech-owl.  15 Chimney Swifts.  0 Purple Martins.  2 adult
Red-headed Woodpeckers.  1 crested flycatcher.  1 kingbird.  185 Tree & 2
Bank swallows.  only 1 Marsh Wren.  only 1 Pine Warbler.  2 yellowthroats. 
7 Savannah, 4 Grasshopper, 10 Seaside, 5 White-throated & 4 Song sparrows. 
2 Blue Grosbeaks.  3 meadowlarks.  5 Orchard Orioles.  

The Seaside Sparrows are all on the west side of Shorter's Wharf Road,
which is unburned.  But I suspect they'll build in fine on the burned east
side as soon as the grasses there grow a bit more.        
SWALLOW SPECTACLE.  What I enjoy most are the scores of agile, acrobatic
swallows of 3 species, plus 15 or so swifts (the latter forage mostly but
not always [some of them are hunting bugs at my shoulder level] at higher
altitude), swooping and dipping within a few feet of us along the last
stretch of the refuge's Wildlife Drive, catching tiny flying insects that
we can't even see.  On this adverse day they're coping as best they can,
with more adverse weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday.      

1 Red-bellied Slider.  2 Fox Squirrels.  1 Nutria.  

Headin' home.  TRAPPE, 2 adult Bald Eagles tangling right over Route 50. 
One forces the other to drop its fish, which the agressor then catches in
dramatic fashion in mid-air after it drops 100 feet or so.  A d.o.r. adult
Red Fox nearby.  A lovely ad. Red-shouldered Hawk perched right next to
Route 213 on a small speed limit sign.  Another adult Bald Eagle over Route
301 at mile 91.6.     

82nd DORCHESTER COUNTY MAY BIRD COUNT, Saturday, May 10.  For whatever
reason this never seems to get listed in the "Maryland Yellowthroat."  If
you'd like to help out please contact me.   

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 ....)