From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 3:13 PM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: 870 Brown Pelican nests. South Dorchester islands & Ferry Neck,
June 20-22, 2008.

 

870 Brown Pelican nests with eggs or young on Holland Island, June 21, plus
a number of fresh nests w/o either (see below).  I forget how many were here
last year, many hundreds, but they are still obviously going great guns.
 
RIGBY's FOLLY, Armistead place near Royal Oak, Talbot County, MD:
 
Friday, June 20, 2008.  2 Cedar Waxwings, 15 Ospreys (in sight
simultaneously), 1 ad. Bald Eagle, 26 Double-crested Cormorants (a flock
high up and in apparent north migration), 1 male Blue Grosbeak, 1 female
Orchard Oriole.  Numbers of Fireflies at dusk.
 
Saturday, June 21.  A Great Horned Owl calling at 5:25 A.M.  An Osprey
chasing a Bald Eagle at 6:12 A.M.  5 deer.
 
Sunday, June 22.  The 4 bluebird eggs are gone from the nest box by the back
porch; perhaps I tipped off a Black Rat Snake the previous weekend, or ...
perhaps it would have happened anyway.  2 eggs in the Barn Swallow nest
under the dock catwalk.  2 bucks.
 
DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD, Saturday, June 21:
 
Egypt Road.  No sign of the Dickcissel at the presumed spot, only a dead
Gray Squirrel on the road and a live Grasshopper Sparrow in the field.
 
Blackwater N.W.R.  A quick drive through.  7 Eastern Cottontails.  3 Mute
Swans in Gum Swamp.
 
BOAT TRIP,  10 A.M. - 5 P.M., 30.3 miles.  Lovely day, temps in the 70s,
nice S breeze 5-10 m.p.h., clear or fair, tide low to start but rising most
of the day and a nice high one after 2:30 P.M. or so.  Water temperature
75-77.  1000s of Greenhead Flies.  As with the May outing here, a good trip
for Gadwalls by local standards.
 
Crocheron, the launch site:  No sign of the male Harlequin Duck seen 2 weeks
ago.  A Northern Watersnake at the launch ramp.  15 cormorants and a pelican
at the pound nets just S. of the jetty.
 
1.  Spring Island (part of Blackwater N.W.R.), 10:45-11:45 A.M.:  3 large
young and an adult Peregrine Falcon at the hacking tower.  Also here
(complete list):  3 Boat-tailed Grackles (one carrying food), 2 Herring, 1
ad. Laughing & 4 Great Black-backed gulls, 8 Seaside Sparrows, 6 Great & 9
Snowy Egrtes, 2 Little Blue, 1 Great Blue & 1 ad. Yellow-crowned Night
herons, 1 Osprey, 7 cormorants, 2 black ducks, a pair of Gadwalls, 6
pelicans, and 2 oystercatchers acting territorial.  Good Diamondback
Terrapin show: 27.
 
2.  Holland Island, south segment, noon-12:30 P.M., 25 species.  With
clicker counted 769 pelican nests, almost all with eggs, 15 or so with very
small young.  I did not count the cormorant nests but guesstimate c. 75 of
those.  Nice thing about the pelicans, they settle back on the nests as soon
as I get 100 feet (or less!) away, in contrast to the cormorants, which just
leave.  In my haste, < one half hour there, I may have counted a few nests
2X but this is probably compensated for by nests I may mistakenly not have
counted, thinking I'd counted them on my first pass (north to south) through
the colony.
 
Also:  7 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 7 Fish Crows, 6 adult oystercatchers
(one belly down in incubating posture on the beach at the extreme SW end of
the island), 6 Boat-tailed Grackels, 4 Seaside Sparrows, 2 Willets, 1 Glossy
Ibis, 2 Cattle Egrets, 4 Ospreys, 2 young & 1 ad. Bald Eagle at the nest in
the lone loblolly on the extreme S. end, 1 black duck, 1 Barn Swallow, 1
Eastern Kingbird (not seen earlier this year).  
 
Herring Gull nests:  3 with 2 eggs, 1 with 2 eggs & 1 young (probably more
nests present).  Big pile of bricks about mid-way N-S in the pelican colony
edge.  Found one old soda bottle.  
 
3.  Holland Island, middle segment (one with the old house), 1-1:30 P.M.:
101 pelican nests plus 12 or so w/o eggs or young.  A baffling mixture of
nest contents, some nests empty but freshly constructed, others with vocal
young almost large enough to band, most others with eggs.  82 cormorant
nests, the same mix of occupants as the pelicans.  38 Herring Gull nests
plus 30 or so fuzzball young trooping around.  1 Great Black-backed Gull
seen on its nest with 1 egg.  A Cow-nosed Ray offshore ploughing along.
 
Two Royal Terns overhead, one with a fish.  110 cormorants and 180 Herring
Gulls in sight simultaneosuly, these all adults. 
 
4.  Holland Island, north segment, 2-2:30 P.M..  A bit over an acre.  Lovely
mat of blooming Morning Glories covers c. 1/7 of this island segment but
otherwise Spartina grass with a few Baccharis bushes and some Phragmites.
Basically just a small marsh tump bereft of the hundreds of terns that
nested here last year.  Flybys: 4 Gadwalls, 3 Mallards, 3 Purple Martins.  1
oystercatcher, 40 cormorants, 6 Great Black-backed Gulls (acting territorial
but no nests of these or anything else found here), 1 Osprey, 2 Herring
Gulls.  Unusual is a Song Sparrow hopping around; hard to believe they'd be
nesting on this small, isolated island.
 
5.  Adam Island.  2:30-2:45 P.M. 19 species.  Just motored by, no landing.
3 Fish Crows, 1 Glossy Ibis, 2 oystercatchers, 1 Seaside & 1 Song sparrow, 2
Osprey nests, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 20 cormorants, 4 pelicans.    
 
6.  Pone Island, sandbars to the SE.  2:50 P.M.  Mostly covered by rising
tide but:  5 Royal Terns, 4 ad. Laughing, 115 Herring & 12 Great
Black-backed gulls, 60 pelicans, 1 Great Egret, 6 cormorants, and an ad.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron.  1 terrapin.
 
7.  Pone Island, sandbar area on N. end.  3:15 P.M.  1 oystercatcher, 1 male
Northern Harrier, 2 Mallards, 7 Mute Swans, a Great Egret (wading on a
submerged remnant sod tump c. 200 feet offshore).  A cormorant perched atop
the Sherman tank lid that protrudes above the surface even at high tide N.
of here.
 
8.  Fin Creek (NE Bloodsworth Island), 3:45-4:30 P.M.  21 species, most
unusual is a Turkey Vulture, not seen often out here, but also 12
Yellow-crowned Night Herons, my best ever count for Fin Creek plus only 3
BCNHs.  Also: 10 Boat-tailed Grackles, 1 ad. Bald Eagle, 1 male Gadwall, 11
Seaside & 1 Song sparrow, 3 Great & 6 Snowy egrets, 2 Fish Crows, 6 Marsh
Wrens, a Green Heron apparently nesting, 8 Ospreys, 50 cormorants and 6
pelicans (these 2 spp. on the pound net SE of Fin Creek), 4 Tricolored & 1
Little Blue heron, and 2 Willets.  Only a few terrapin in the creek.
 
North of Crocheron on the way home a Turkey Vulture feeding on a roadkill
snake.
 
Royal Oak on the way in to Rigby after the boating trip: a big female
COOPER'S HAWK flying low over the town.,
 
BLACKWATER REFUGE.  Plans are to close most of Wildlife Drive during July
and August to repair the "causeway" that runs between Pool 1 and the Little
Blackwater River.  As I understand it, when this happens the only access to
W.D. will be from Key Wallace Drive via the Sweetgum-lined road that is a
couple of 100 yards west of the entrance to the Visitor Center.
 
PURPLE MARTIN PUBLIC HOUSING.  The road down to Crocheron has loads of
martin houses, 2 yards each have 6, another 30 (thirty!!), and 6 or so more
just 1-3 houses.
 
Boat repaired with new VRO pump (pre-mixes gas and oil), ran perfectly.
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.         

  _____  

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