From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 2:38 PM
To: Norman Saunders; 
Subject: Ferry Neck, June 13-15, 2008

 

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Royal Oak.  Mostly a work weekend but there's always something to see.
 
Friday the 13th, June 2008.  7PM - dark only.  clear, SE 5-10, 82-79 degrees
F.  Great Horned Owl calling, sotto voce, but at least voce, 8:30 P.M.  Liz
sees a family group of 7 Carolina Chicakadees.  2 adult & 4 large young
Canada Geese in the mouth of the cove.  Has dried out a lot since last
weekend.  Many mosquitoes, more than in years (= bird food).  A Five-lined
Skink on the front porch.
 
Saturday, June 14.  fair becoming overcast then fair again, 76-92, SW5
becoming NW 25-5.  Oppressive, hot.  We're awake for various reasons at 2:30
A.M..  Smoke fills the house.  Don't know why the alarms don't go off.
Smoke gets in our lungs, sinuses, chest.  Check the kitchen stove.  Look
around outside.  Jared Sparks and Nancy Lytell later tell us it is from
wildfires in SE Virginia and NE North Carolina.  That's 80 or so miles away.
Amazing.
 
Eastern Bluebird nest with 4 eggs in the nest box by the back porch on the
Yellow Poplar tree.  3 Eastern Kingbirds engage in a very egergetic,
acrobatic chase of each other.  1 Pileated Woodpecker.  Nice, new Barn
Swallow nest under the dock catwalk but no eggs (yet).  8 Diamondback
Terrapin off Lucy Point.  A few Sea Nettles in the cove, the first ones, one
of them huge, unfortunately.  A number of young Fowler's Toads, widespread
on the property, as they never were in last year's drought.  a hummingbird.
2 Black Vultures.  a male Blue Grosbeak.  2 Chipping Sparrows dealing with
demanding, capable-of-flight juveniles.  a male Indigo Bunting.  Bluets
(damselflies) are aloft settling on floating debris in the cove.
 
A splendid fireworks display at dusk, as impressive as any of the July 4
ones put on by local towns.  But the Green Tree Frogs keep calling through
it all.  The fireworks also accompanied by some real thunder and lightning.
A great son et lumiere show!
 
Butterflies:  Red-spotted Purple, Orange Sulphur, 1 Monarch, several Little
Wood Satyrs, Cabbage Whites, a Buckeye.  1 Gray Squirrel.  8 deer.
 
Worked on all the trails from the garage around the waterfront to the border
with Tranquility.
 
Sunday, June 15.  What better father's day than to work with a chainsaw and
have ribs for lunch (the only fly in the ointment is that the Phillies
lost)?
 
overcast becoming beautifully fair with almost cool N winds.  76-88.  NW
5-10, almost a fall day, at least in the afternoon.
 
Did 3 hours of chainsawing and brush work.  Sawed Honey Locusts at Lucy
Point, a Loblolly Pine limb on our driveway, and the huge fallen oak on the
shared drive right-of-way, my token work as a good neighbor (or
not-so-good).
 
The Pileated Woodpecker in Woods 7 continues drumming and calling all
through the chainsawing and brushwork.  2 Red Foxes in front of the house on
the drive, a big young one and an adult.  Butterflies not seen yesterday:
Spicebush Swallowtail, American Lady, and Tiger Swallowtail.
 
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

  _____  

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