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

May 16-18, 2008.  Liz (LA) and Harry Armistead. 

1.  MAY 16, FRIDAY.  5:30 - 8:15 P.M. only.  overcast, gradually clearing,
64-60, NW 25-30 m.p.h.  ground saturated with standing water.  

1 female SHARP-SHINNED HAWK.  2 adult Bald Eagles.  43 Fish Crows.  1
hummingbird (LA).  Also: 3 Fowler's Toads.  8 deer (5 bucks, 3 does).      

2.  MAY 17, SATURDAY.  clear, 55-74, NW 15+ becoming SW 15, low tide c. 10
A.M.  44 species.  

Best of all, the SHARP-SHINNED HAWK again.  My only other sharpie dates for
here between April 29 and September 1 are a late migrant on May 20, 2007,
and an anomalous bird on June 22, 1999.  Completely different story on the
western shore.  For example the hawk counters at Ft. Smallwood Park near
Baltimore found 23 sharpies on May 6, 13 on May 4, and one or two a day are
still being seen at least through May 18.  

Also:  a Magnolia Warbler.  a female Orchard Oriole with nesting material. 
2 ad. Bald Eagles.  a singing White-eyed Vireo.  2 ad. Eastern Bluebirds
attending 3 flying, stubby-tailed juveniles.  2 Least Terns.  a
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (LA).  

BUTTERFLIES:  2 Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Cabbage White, 1 Orange Sulphur, 3
American Ladies.

MAMMALS:  1 cottontail, 4 deer, 3 Gray Squirrels, and a Red Fox kit.

REPTILES:  a 3.5' Black Rat Snake, with tail tip missing, see twice.  a 3'
Northern Water Snake.  a male Spotted Turtle and a male Eastern Box Turtle,
both on the Olszewski trails.  

AMPHIBIANS.  Good Green Tree Frog chorus at dusk.  3 Fowler's Toads
calling.

2A.  DEEP NECK.  At the request of Dave Brinker, MD DNR, I checked a blind
off of Cedar Point (6591 Cedar Cove Road, just NE of Deep Neck Point) in an
area where Snowy Egrets were reported nesting several years ago on a blind
but found only an occupied Osprey nest and also a Green Heron and 9 Common
Grackles on the blind.  I did not go to the blind but was c. 200 feet from
it (I had to focus down).  

17 Ospreys were in sight simultaneously from Cedar Point as well as 3
other, very distant blinds.  I plan to check all these blinds by boat
sometime in June.  Several more Ospreys were probably in view on distant
nests but I did not have a scope to pick them up with.  I did not see any
offshore blinds farther south on Deep Neck.  Also seen on Deep Neck:  a
pair of Northern Bobwhite at Osprey Point Retreat & Conference Center (at
Deep Neck Point; 6670 Cedar Cove Road) plus a Brown Thrasher, a Wild
Turkey, 6 Laughing Gulls, and a towhee.      

3.  MAY 18, SUNDAY.  fair becoming overcast, 58-64, SW5-10+, sprinkles
early on then steady, light rain in afternoon, 8 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.  46
species.

Species not found here yesterday:  BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH 1.  Spotted
Sandpiper (LA).  American Redstart 1 female.  Double-crested Cormorant 11. 
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2.  Pileated Woodpecker 1.  Eastern Towhee 1
singing male.  Wild Turkey 1 female.  American Robin 1 male. 

Also:  1 Snowy Egret  3 Gray Squirrels, 4 deer, 1 Red Fox kit & an Eastern
Cottontail.  From what I see today it seems Rigby has 2 pairs each of Blue
Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting & Chipping Sparrow, 3 of Great Crested Flycatcher.

Using axe, loppers, and hedge clippers, I cleared the Warbler Trail for one
hour in light rain. 
 
The Brown-headed Nuthatch is only the 4th record after 1984, at which point
they disappeared after formerly having been regularly present in the
Loblolly Pine woods in and around Rigby.  However, Paul & Priscilla Thut
have them regularly at their feeders less than a mile away on Heron Point
Road.  I'm hoping they'll repopulate the woods here.  Below is my BHNU
entry from "The Birds of Rigby's Folly."  

20 or so readers have requested copies of that document.  I'm running late
and apologize.  I expect to mail them out in June. 

"Brown-headed Nuthatch.  13 1/1/55.  10 6/30/56.  9 3/31/55.  8 9/11/76. 
After 1976 highest count 5 10/16/79.  Juv. following an ad. 8/10/57.  After
10/7/84 not seen until a wandering individual was seen and heard 1/23/93
and another such 9/15/96.  No longer seems to be present at Rigby or
adjacent areas of Ferry Neck due probably to forest fragmentation and
lumbering.  Declining at an alarming rate regionally.  1 in yard 10/27/74
and 10/5/75, the only records for there.  4/2/06 at Lucy Point (Wayne Bell
et al.)"

4.  SOMERSET COUNTY vs. DORCHESTER COUNTY MAY BIRD COUNT COMPARISONS. 
These 2 counties have a great deal in common, I'd say, with regard to their
marsh birds, migrant spring passerines, and habitats in general.  The 4
paragraphs (4A-4D) below are taken from my summary of the Dorchester May
Bird Count of May 10 (with a correction [White-throated Sparrow NOT
White-throated Warbler] and a species added [kestrel].  

I've inserted the numbers seen, if any, in parentheses by 2 active parties
in Somerset for May 10:  Bob Ringler in the Fairmount area, and Paul
Bystrak and Marylee Ross in the Irish Grove Sanctuary area, the 2 parties
from Somerset that have been posted so far to MDOSPREY.  

Both areas have extensive saltmarsh as well as adjacent woodlands for
passerines and were covered intensively on May 10 with lists of c. 90
species achieved in each.  If no numbers are in parens then the Somerset
County folks found none of those species.

4A. "MISSED SPECIES.  Most of these are not surprising misses.  Many are
present but are (in most cases) either uncommon local breeders, declining
local breeders (the 2 nightjars), migrants that may not have lingered this
late (White-throated Sparrow, 1), may not have been present at all
(Bobolink, and, surprisingly, the dowitcher), or migrants that no longer
seem to be as common as formerly (Sora)."

4B. "Little Blue Heron, both bitterns (American Bittern, 1), Gadwall,
American Kestrel, Sora, Short-billed Dowitcher, Whip-poor-will, Eastern
Nighthawk, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Rough-winged Swallow (4), thrushes
other than Wood Thrush, Blue-headed and Yellow-throated vireos,
Yellow-throated Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (1), White-throated Sparrow
(1), Baltimore Oriole, Bobolink."  

4C. "WARBLERS ALWAYS UNCOMMON OR ELSE ABSENT LOCALLY IN MAY.  These
include, especially, what I dub the spruce-montane-or-northern warblers: 
Cape May, Bay-breasted, Tennessee, Wilson's, Nashville, and Blackburnian. 
Less unusual here but still usually missed on these 2 counts are: Magnolia,
Canada, Chestnut-sided, and Hooded warblers plus Northern Waterthrush. 
Palms are also uncommon in spring; to ever see one as late as May is
unusual." (Dorchester folks found only 8 Yellow-rumped Warblers, the
Somerset observers none.)  

4D.  "A lot of these species are commonly to be had in May in the Piedmont
and mountain counties of Maryland as are Rose-breasted Grosbeak (1),
Baltimore Oriole, various vireos (what Floyd Parks jocularly referred to
once as "off-the-wall vireos"), and the non-Wood thrushes.  Add all of this
up (or, more to the point, subtract it), combine that with the limited
coverage in Dorchester, and it is easy to see how my favorite county has
big trouble "competing" with the more populous or higher-elevation counties
to the west and north.  Thank you for listening."  

The SOMERSET COUNTY MARSHES do not seem to be suffering the loss of
abundance that I believe the Dorchester County ones have.  Witness these
impressive numbers (compared to the Dorchester May Bird Count ones in
parentheses, which are mostly lower):

American Black Duck 25 (19).  Clapper Rail 87 (18).  Virginia Rail 21 (31).
 Willet 37 (19).  Marsh Wren 82 (34).  Sedge Wren 2 (0).  Common
Yellowthroat [a marsh edge species] 102 (73).  Seaside Sparrow 146 (71). 
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 1 (8).  Boat-tailed Grackle 26 (5).  

If a Somerset May May count also had parties on Smith and South Marsh
islands imagine how many Clapper Rails would be found.  Deal Island would
add many also although the huge impoundment there has become a near Dead
Zone.  Formerly it thronging with moorhens (over 100 in sight
simultaneously on occasion), a few dozen breeding Pied-billed Grebes, some
breeding coots, and numbers of nesting Blue-winged Teal and Gadwalls.  Once
on a walk around its 7 miles of dikes I set out to see how many Seaside
Sparrows I could find, ending up with 343.  A few years later I counted
less than half that.

The Somerset's 2007 Crisfield Christmas Bird Count listed 9 Clapper, 218
Virginia Rails, and 197 "large rails" (which I bet may ALL be Clappers)
plus 14 Sedge and 73 Marsh Wrens.  I believe it once amassed a total of
Virginia Rails that is still the highest ever achieved on a C.B.C.

One knowledgeable person has suggested the Dorchester marshes may be more
adversely affected by the state's indiscriminate spraying for mosquitoes,
which apparently kills many other insects as well as a host of other
invertebrates.    

5.  WATER WORLD.  Rigby and environs look somewhat like a southern
bottomland swamp after rains on last Saturday (light), Monday (very heavy,
3+ inches, ?), and Friday (heavy again), totalling perhaps as much as 6
inches in toto.  The Big Ditch (parallels the south edge of Field 4, is
2,000+ feet) has a flow in it the entire 3 days we are present, in spite of
its low gradient.  Lots of branches and limbs blown down and a huge oak
fallen across the lane in to Tranquility, which Jim Meholic cleared.  

More rain also on this Sunday afternoon.  On Friday a 25 foot section of
the driveway is submerged, mostly from runoff from Field 6, but within less
than 2 hours this has subsided more than a foot.  The Olszewski Trails are
about 80% submerged - water does not drain off from there, it either sinks
in very slowly or evaporates.  The box turtle I found I saw swimming
submerged, very unnatural, so I captured him, put him on semi-dry ground.

6.  PRIME HOOK (Delaware) N.W.R. POSTSCRIPT.  Wed., May 14, during our
triumphant trip to see the Wood Sandpiper, it was apparent, even with a
high tide while we were there, that the powerful Nor'easter earlier in week
had risen to 3' above today's tide.  

Big windrows of Spartina alterniflora wrack (known as "sea oars" on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia, fide Thelma Jarvis Peterson) were present and I
suppose had been driven all the way over from the Cape May area c. 18 miles
away.  

Much sand was over the Fowler's Beach Road, which was "closed" (we unclosed
it).  Dunes were largely destroyed here.  Impoundments brimming over.  We
saw no Horeshoe Crabs but 2 dead Blue Crabs.  Winds had reached 78 m.p.h.
at Ocean City, NJ.     

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 ....)