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

MAY 1, Thursday.  afternoon only.  fair, SE 15, 72-61, tide dropping.  

A late female Red-breasted Merganser hunting at the head of the cove. 
House Wren singing in yard, perhaps will breed in one of 3 new birdhouses
there.  a Chimney Swift.  1 catbird.  a 14" young Black Rat Snake in front
of the house on the driveway turning circle.  a pair of Ospreys has set up
house on Michael Davidson's nesting platform.  1 deer.  Nice chorus of
Green Tree Frogs at dusk.  Sea roaches and periwinkles populating the rip
rap at low tide.  

MAY 2, Friday.  33 species.  fair, SW 10-, 64-82.  Mostly just rest and
gird my loins, as it were, for tomorrow.    

2 Great Crested Flycatchers, 1 Great Egret, 2 ea. of thrasher, catbird &
mockingbird, a Blue Grosbeak, an Indigo Bunting, 2 Pine Warblers, 2
yellowthroats, the merganser again, 12 White-throated Sparrows (verging on
late), and an imm. Bald Eagle.

House Sparrows are trying to take over both bluebird houses, see them
actually tangling with the bluebirds.  The sparrows are surprisingly wary,
evade my efforts to blast them to smithereens with my 12-gauge,
side-by-side Parker, loaded with 9-shot (skeet load).  

Tiger Swallowtails, Cabbage Whites & Spring Azures.  a Mud Turtle in the
ditch along the driveway, south side of Field 4.  5 deer.  Trimmed the
driveway and the Beach Trail of overhanging wild roses, blackberries,
honeysuckle, Smilax, Poison Ivy, and other vege, a process that must be
done continuously until at least mid-summer, affording much-needed
exercise.  

Elsewhere.  2 Black Vultures RIGHT IN Royal Oak feeding on a d.o.r. Gray
Squirrel.  On the way to St. Michaels see a Painted Turtle crossing,
successfully, Route 33, to show the 'possum it CAN BE DONE.  Yo go, turkle!


MAY 4, Sunday.  Sleep in, recover slightly from yesterday's ordeal, but am
up in time to hobnob very briefly with 20 or so Talbot Bird Club members
who are birding Ferry Neck, led by Lester Coble, and have come to Rigby. 
Good to see these good folk, and they add a singing male Baltimore Oriole
to Rigby's 2008 yard list, plus a Black-throated Green Warbler.        

MAY 3, Saturday, 81st (LXXXI, in Super Bowl speak) Dorchester County May
Bird Count.  11 P.M., Friday - 8:30 P.M., Saturday.  21.5 hours, 2 quarts
of coffee, 198.7 mi. by car, 2 on foot.  

129 species:  a very poor total, 4 fewer than the first time I did this, in
1966, with far less knowledge then, poorer binoculars and telescope, no
audio lures, and less effort.  It really makes me wonder if a lot of our
birds and habitats are slouching towards oblivion.  I really think there is
an undefined sickness in the marshes.  

Landbirds in southern Dorchester County, especially passerine migrants, are
much less common than in the extreme north part of the county and in the
interior of the Delmarva Peninsula.   

Abbreviations:  BNWR, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge;  EIR, Elliott
Island Road;  Swan Harbor (north of Hooper's Island).

Mostly sunny, with winds south or southeast 10-25 m.p.h., 60-80 degrees F.,
tide well above normal, water levels in the impoundments high.  GOOD:
sunny, warm.  BAD: winds too strong, water levels too high.  A double
whammy I could not overcome.  Predictably, several portions of Shorter's
Wharf Road are submerged under tidal water.  

There is essentially NO passerine migration today.  Water levels are so
high that few areas are suitable for shorebirds.   

complete NIGHT LIST (ends at 5 A.M.), 21 species (so so), 51 miles of
driving, 6 hours:  

Canada Goose 6, American Black Duck 2, Mallard 1, Great Blue Heron 1,
Black-crowned Night Heron 1, Clapper Rail 12, King Rail 2, Virginia Rail
36, Common Moorhen 4, Killdeer 1, Black-necked Stilt 1, Least Sandpiper 1,
Barn Owl 1, Eastern Screech-Owl 1, Barred Owl 2, Chuck-will's-widow 2
(incredibly low), Barn Swallow 1, Marsh Wren 4, Northern Mockingbird 1,
Seaside Sparrow 3, Swamp Sparrow 3.  

BIRDS NORMALLY SCARCER in the first week of May than in the second (I often
miss some of these the 1st Saturday in May):  Semipalmated Sandpiper 2. 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 0.  Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 (BNWR).  Acadian Flycatcher 1
(Old Field Road).  Yellow-breasted Chat 4.  Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
1.  Scarlet Tanager 0.  Indigo Bunting 6.  Baltimore Oriole 0.          

Also of interest & some final totals:  

a pair of Canada Geese with 3 small goslings and a female American Black
Duck with 8 downy ducklings, EIR.  Mute Swan 4, EIR, the only ones (!).  1
male Blue-winged Teal only, BNWR.  26 Green-winged Teal.  1 male
Bufflehead, Cambridge (only the 3rd or so record for the count).  2
Red-breasted Mergansers, SH.  only 2 Northern Bobwhite (this fine species
is dropping like a rock).  1 American White Pelican, BNWR.  6 Brown
Pelicans, Hooper's Island.  4 Glossy Ibis, EIR.  

1 Cooper's Hawk, soaring over Egypt Road (only the 3rd count record).  1
Peregrine Falcon, soaring over BNWR HQ (also seen by Terry Allen and Diane
Cole).  3 King (1 of these calling from Pool 1, BNWR) & 38 Virginia Rails. 
5 Common Moorhens.  1 American Oystercatcher, SH.  4 Black-necked Stilts,
EIR.  only 6 Willets.  210 Dunlin (almost all at one small tidal pond on
EIR).  only 10 Least Sadnpipers.  16 Royal Terns, SH & EIR.  

only 1 Great Horned Owl.  4 Red-headed Woodpeckers.  only 2 Red-eyed Vireos
(the 104th species).  7 Brown-headed Nuthatches.  only 12 marsh Wrens.  10
Cedar Waxwings.  NO migrant warblers other than 7 Yellow-rumped Warblers. 
45 Seaside Sparrows (the saltmarsh just north of the Shorter's Wharf Road
bridge has the densest concentration of them I've ever seen).  14
Bobolinks.  only 2 Boat-tailed Grackles.      

MAMMALS:  1 Raccoon, 3 Fox Squirrels (one, even lower SAT scores than Gray
Squirrel, ALMOST ran under my tires on Henry's Crossroad), 3 bats, 44 Sika
Elk (as usual mostly between the Transquaking River/Bestpitch and EIR), 11
White-tailed Deer, 4 Red Foxes (2 of them kits), 0 Muskrats, 0 Nutrias, 0
Virginia Opossums.  

TURKLES:  8 Painted Turtles, a Mud Turtle, a small d.o.r. Snapping Turtle,
and 10 Diamondback Terrapin.  A non-turtle, a 3' Black Rat Snake crossing
the road, aber schnell, lickety splt.

FROGS & TOADS:  in small numbers:  Bullfrog, Green Frog, 1 Gray Tree Frog,
but lots of Green Tree Frogs & Southern Leopard Frogs.  1 Carpenter Frog. 
one nice chorus of Fowler's Toads.  All these along EIR.  No peepers,
cricket, or chorus froggies.  

BUTTERFLIES:  very few.  Several Tiger Swallowtails.   1 Monarch.  

IN THE SKY.  One meteor streaks by so low I expect to see an explosion near
Griffith Neck Road, where it seems to be headed.  The near-new moon finally
rises c. 4:55 P.M., a fingernail clipping in the sky.  No overhead night
migrants heard.

Terry Allen, Diane Cole, and others are on a BNWR bird walk today and add
some species and higher counts to my totals.  Still anticipating Diane's
late afternoon Cambridge list, but the BNWR walk added these species I
miss:  Spotted Sandpiper 2, Common Snipe 1, Downy Woodpecker 1 (1st time
I've missed it in 81 starts), Eastern Phoebe 1, Yellow Warbler 2, and
White-throated Sparrow (1, ?, didn't get their number).     

Many thanks to the Blackwater N.W.R. staff for permitting access to Money
Stump Swamp, where I found my only Wood Ducks, plus a million mosquitoes,
but nevertheless a place of great beauty, and great Red-headed Woodpecker
and Brown-headed Nuthatch habitat.

Next Saturday, God willing ... do it all over again.

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 ....)