WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2008.  Philadelphia, find an 8" Little Brown Snake on
our lawn that somehow has gotten itself into a knot.  Contortionist.  I
untie it.  

FRIDAY, MAY 23.  a Pileated Woodpecker flies across Rt. 309 c. 5 mi. N. of
Rt. 50.  2 Gray Squirrel roadkills in Royal Oak.  

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

FRIDAY, MAY 23, 8-9:30 P.M. only.  38 deer, a record count.  Orchard Oriole
sings in the yard.  2 appealing Red Fox kits run through the yard at 9:05
P.M. yelping, about 30 feet from Liz and I, who are sitting on the back
porch.  overcast, calm, 66-62 degrees F.  3 Fireflies, seems early for
them.  Dump 50 more Philadelphia bricks where the bank is eroding in front
of the house.

SATURDAY, MAY 24.  clear, NW 10-15 becoming SW 5 then calm, 60-70.  Sitting
out on the edge of the lawn, Liz spots 3 high Glossy Ibis in high breeding
plumage flapping and sailing their way north into a 15 m.p.h. wind, a
beautiful sight, the 9th property record.  Over the years records fall
between April 3 and October 8, 4 being in April.  2 Cedar Waxwings.  1
hummingbird.  1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  a Red-tailed Hawk.  7 deer.  Trimmed
the driveway edge on the S. side of Field 4, a c. 1,200 foot stretch. 

SUNDAY, May 25.  Liz sees a Snowy Egret.

MONDAY, MAY 26.  clear, 65-83, S 15-20.  Liz sees an Osprey bustin' on 2
adult Bald Eagles.  Later I see an American Crow aggressively chase an
adult eagle.  2 flying juvenile bluebirds, pursuing the adults wherever
they fly, attended by both parents.  A Semipalmated plover, 17th record. 
An Olive Hairstreak (a.k.a. Juniper Hairstreak) resting, appropriately
enough, in a Red Cedar.  Trimmed the rest of the driveway edge and also the
Warbler Trail, a roughly pie-slice shaped area totalling c. 0.5 mile.      
 

TUESDAY, MAY 27.  1 Raccoon & 1 Red Fox.  Funny to see them at c. 3:45 P.M.

SUNDAY, MAY 25.  DORCHESTER COUNTY ISLANDS (+ Pry Island, Somerset County).
 A 33 statute mile boat trip with Jared Sparks.  Launch at Crocheron at
7:55 A.M., return at 4:30 P.M.  Gem of a day, clear, low 60s to mid 70s,
winds variable, NE 5-10, NW5-10+, but at times nearly calm, low tide at
noon.  Water temperature in the low-mid 60s.

A Royal Tern at Crocheron.  1 Red Fox kit investigating a roadkill that is
probably its sibling at Robbins.

1.  BLOODSWORTH ISLAND, specifically Fin Creek, 8:15-10 A.M.  32 species. 
Active Great Blue Heron nests down to c. 81 (due to deterioration of the
nesting platforms and loss of trees?).  28 Black-crowned & 1 ad.
Yellow-crowned night herons no doubt breeding here also and a suspect Great
Egret pair as well.  Also:  30 Boat-tailed Grackles, 4 Song, 1 Saltmarsh
Sharp-tailed & 45 Seaside sparrows, 1 imm. Bald Eagle, 6 Fish Crows, 3
yellowthroats, 2 harriers, 3 Clapper Rails, a catbird, a pair of Gadwalls,
2 kingbirds, 2 black ducks, 2 Carolina & 20 Marsh wrens, 10 Willets, 6 Barn
Swallows.  Migrant shorebirds: 1 Greater Yellowlegs & 4 Short-billed
Dowitchers.  Of most interest to me: a female Bobolink rising out of the
Juncus grass and flying away. 

2.  SPRING ISLAND (part of Blackwater N.W.R.).  10:30-11:15 A.M.  14
species: 2 peregrines in the hacking tower, 2 oystercatchers, 2 Great
Black-backed, 1 Laughing & 6 Herring gulls, 1 Great Egret, 1 Seaside & 2
Song sparrows, 2 Gadwalls, 1 Clapper Rail, 6 pelicans, 1 Great Blue & 1
Little Blue heron, 4 male Boat-tailed Grackles.  No-see-ums bad.  3 Winter
Jellyfish.  24 Diamondback Terrapin, many of them hauled out.  

3.  PRY ISLAND.  11:25-11:40 A.M.  Find gull nests (presumed to be mostly
Herring but a few no doubt GBBG) with these contents: 1 egg in 12 nests, 2
eggs 12, 3 eggs 7, 0 eggs but freshly-made nests 2 = a total of 33 nests,
many of them with faint streaks of orange spray paint indicating there had
been a census party here earlier in May.  See 2 oystercatchers, a Canada
Goose (probably a cripple), 1 ad. pelican, 3 cormorants, 75 Herring & 12
Great Black-backed gulls and 1 Great Egret.   

4.  HOLLAND ISLAND, south segment.  12:05-1:50 P.M.  A rich tableau, as
always.  37 species.  The heronry, where we do not try to estimate numbers,
has all 10 of Maryland's herons, egrets & ibis, as usual, the one Green
Heron sitting in the lone, flat-topped Loblolly Pine at the south end where
there is a big Bald Eagle nest with 2 strapping eaglets, both adults also
present. 

I'd guesstimate the herons in increasing order of abundance:  Green, Great
Blue, Yellow-crowned Night, Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egret, Little Blue, Great
Egret, Tricolored, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night.  I said "guesstimate."
 State workers will do (or have already done?) a much more systematic
investigation.  

There are 2 hammocks here.  At one time 45 Black-crowned Night Herons are
aloft over the north one, 49 over the south copse.  The south one, in
contrast to recent years, is rather devoid of other herons.  The north one
is loaded, most of the smaller herons nesting in its extensive Baccharis
halimifolia.

On the west side of the island, where we do not go, are 2 proggers (from
the 'Little Skipper' out of Crisfield) who, unfortunately, spend a full
hour looking for glass shards and other bric-a-bric right next to the huge
pelican-cormorant colony.  This is definitely where most of Holland's
pelicans are.  At one time I estimate 580 grown pelis and 135 cormorants in
sight simultaneously.  The proggers find a dead Loggerhead Turtle. 

Also:  2 Carolina & 3 Marsh wrens, 4 Gadwalls (a courtship flight of 3
males and 1 female), 6 Seaside & 5 Song sparrows, 4 yellowthroats, 7
Clapper Rails, 1 kingbird, 2 Royal Terns, 2 Tree, 5 Barn & a migrant Bank
swallow, 10 Fish Crows, a migrant Semipalmated Sandpiper, 20 Boat-tailed
Grackles, 2 black ducks, 2 Mallards, 2 Willets, 4 oystercatchers, and 2
starlings, the latter flush from the marsh graveyard, which somehow seems
appropriate.  

Non-avian taxa.  16 Diamondback Terrapin.  Rather spectacular are 40 or so
Cow-nosed Rays, many of them actively foraging, cutting through the water
like shots, turning the surface at times into a froth, muddying the shallow
bottom.

5.  HOLLAND ISLAND, middle segment.  The old house is still there, just
barely.  Most of the vegetation is gone but there are big numbers of
pelicans, cormorants, Herring and some Great Black-backed gulls that are
obviously nesting.  We do not land.

6.  HOLLAND ISLAND, north segment.  Do not land.  Unfortunately there is no
sign of last year's burgeoning Forster's-Common ternery.  See no terns
whatsoever.  2 probable pairs of nesting Great Black-backed Gulls.

7.  ADAM ISLAND.  2:30-3:15 P.M.  Most of the small number of Red Cedars
along the central "ridge" are now dead.  Looks as if there is but 1 Great
Blue Heron nest, one for Osprey, 1-3 of Yellow-crowned Night Heron and
perhaps a Little Blue Heron.  See 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 5 Seaside
Sparrows, 2 oystercatchers, 2 black ducks, some Boat-tailed Grackles, and
various heron-types trading back and forth between Holland Island and
points north.  We make a landing here and talk to the proggers, who are now
here.

8.  PONE ISLAND (a Bloodsworth I. satellite).  c. 3:35 P.M.  The small
sandbar complex NE of Adam Island and S. of Pone I. and Race Hog Point is
always worth a gander.  In addition to 80 or so roosting big gulls there
are:  8 Dunlin, 2 Short-billed Dowitchers, 5 Black-bellied Plovers, and 4
Royal Terns.

9.  SHELTERED POINT N. of Pone Island and Bloodsworth Point.  There's a
nice sandbar here, too, but it is mostly submerged at c. 3:50 P.M.  Besides
it is so choppy and rough now it's hard to use our 10Xs.  Looks like just a
few gulls anyway.  

10.  OKAHANIKAN POINT.  4 P.M.  We avoid, this time, ploughing into any of
the several submerged Sherman tanks SW of Okahanikan Point.  One of the
great recreations of this circuit - so rich is it in associations,
memories, heritage, and tradition - is to see who can first spot the
projecting lid of the one that is not completely submerged.  Jared wins
this round.  To him go the laurels ... this trip. 

GADWALLS.  Gadwalls seem to be declining in the mainland marshes of the
lower Eastern Shore.  Today it is a treat, and gratifying, to find them at
3 places, as detailed above:  2 at Bloodsworth, 2 at Spring, and 4 at
Holland.  I've never found them at 3 places in any previous boat trip. 

TUESDAY, MAY  27:

NECK DISTRICT, 8:45 A.M. - 2 P.M.  57 species.  A group of biologists and
land managers tour the property of Nan and Jody (President Jimmy Carter's
Press Secretary) Powell and several adjacent properties, primarily to
assess the numerous shallow water impoundments.  I was flattered to be
invited.  Numbers below, as with most of my reports, are approximate.  The
main interest is to see what shorebirds are present.  Very gratifying to
see such concern and effort in enlightened land management on private land.
 The shorebirds we find:  Killdeer 6, Semipalmated Plover 20, Greater
Yellowlegs 1, Dunlin 8, Short-billed Dowitcher 9, Least 2 and Semipalmated
115 sandpipers.   

MISSISSIPPI KITE.  At about noon a "first summer" MIKI appears from our
left (north), flies past at low altitude c. 200' away at Covey Point on
Covey Creek (off of Trippe Bay).  My first fraction-of-a-second impression
is of a peregrine, then a harrier, but almost instantly it's obviously a
MIKI.  I yell "Everyone get on this bird."  All do.  It is a dark,
peregrine-shaped raptor with brown under the wings, no white on the wings. 
Beautiful.  Nice, buoyant, graceful flight, rather harrier-like.  A few
minutes later the MIKI is seen again at a distance over woodlands to the
south.  Observers:  Jody Powell; from MD DNR:  Donald Webster, Bill Harver,
Glenn Carowan; from USF&WS:  Julie Slacum, Dan Murphy; from MD Coastal Bays
Program:  Roman Jesien.  Please don't chase this bird.  It was on private
property and seemed to be moving on down the line anyway.  I think the only
other record for Dorchester is one seen in June a couple of years ago while
atlassing by Lynn Davidson and Hal Wierenga.  

COMPLETE LIST (other than shorebirds & the MIKI):  3 great blue & 2 green
herons.  4 great & 1 snowy egrets.  2 cormorants.  8 Canada geese.  10
mallards.  a female wood duck.  12 turkey & 2 black vultures.  3 bald
eagles.  10 ospreys.  2 bobwhite.  2 laughing gulls.  6 mourning doves.  6
chimney swifts.  1 male hummingbird.  2 red-bellied & 1 downy woodpecker. 
3 flickers.  3 kingbirds.  6 crested flycatchers.  5 martins.  4 tree & 14
barn swallows.  2 titmice.  7 American crows.  4 jays.  6 Carolina wrens. 
3 mockingbirds.  2 catbirds.  1 thrasher.  6 robins.  4 bluebirds.  6
starlings.  4 pine warblers.  1 meadowlark.  16 red-winged blackbirds.  30
grackles.  4 cowbirds.  2 house finches.  2 goldfinches.  2 towhees.  2
chipping sparrows.    2 blue grosbeaks.  3 indigo buntings.  3 orchard
orioles.  1 summer tanager.  2 house sparrows.      

NON-AVIAN TAXA:  1 box turtle + another d.o.r.  1 d.o.r. black rat snake. 
cricket frogs at 2 spots.  Butterflies: 1 ea. of red-spotted purple, orange
sulphur & American lady, 2 cabbage whites.

NIGHTJAR.  During the course of the day interest is expressed in the origin
of the name "nightjar."  Here is what Ernest A. Choate has to say in "The
dictionary of American bird names" (Gambit, 1973, p. 48): "The song [sic]
of the European Nightjar is, according to Peterson, "a loud rapid churring,
rising and falling and sustained for as long as five minutes."  Its effect
is jarring and E. [i.e., English] "jar" is likely derived from imitation of
the song."  Will Russell and I once stayed at Ernie's house at Cape May
Point.  Afterwards Ernie could not remember our names.  I became Harold
Steatsmeyer and Will became Alfred Williams in his update chapter for the
Dover reprint (1965) of Witmer Stone's "Bird studies at old Cape May",
where we are credited (p. xvii) with the first record for Cape May County
of Red Crossbill on Nov. 11, 1959.  Much later on I named one of our new
cats Steatsmeyer the Magnificent to commemorate Ernie's faux pas.  A
beloved fixture of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club for many, many
years, salty, pithy, and persnickety Ernie Choate nevertheless never
responded to my rather sarcastic, puerile letter pointing out this mistake
as well as my mispelled name of "Armisted" for Cape May's first
Black-throated Gray Warbler, that I found September 30, 1961, but correctly
spelled for the Black-headed Gull, Cape May's 2nd, that Herb & Dave Cutler
and I saw on Dec. 22, 1957.  What price glory.  But ... I digress from the
matter at hand.  Formerly known as goatsuckers, the nightjars, or
caprimulgids, were thought to nurse on goats.  "Capra, a nanny goat;
mulgere, to milk," James A Jobling, "A dictionary of scientific bird
names." (Oxford, 1991, p. 42)  l,envoi!     

JURASSIC PARK.  I love the ending of this movie.  Laura Dern, the man, and
the 2 kids are whisked away from the horrors of Jurassic Park.  The great,
heroic theme music plays in the background.  Their helicopter is outlined
in the setting sun's reflection on the waters.  They look down once on a
small flock of Brown Pelicans.  Then again at one pelican, whose wings are
impossibly long, as pelicans' wings are, and which flap impossibly slowly,
as they do.  Laura smiles.  It's as if they're thinking: "There's enough
prehistoric life going on right now; we don't need to go back there."  The
pelicans say it all.  Throw in a few Horseshoe Crabs for good measure.  And
there are a thousand or more pairs of pelis breeding in the central
Chesapeake Bay, right now, and room for Laura on my boat. 

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 ....)