From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:39 PM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: Harlequin Duck; banding pelicans & Royal Terns at Holland I. &
Ocean City, July 15.
A 430-mile road trip today with Jared Sparks. Leave Philadelphia at 5 A.M.,
get back at 1:15 A.M., Wednesday, July 16.
July 15, 2008, Tuesday, banding with Dave Brinker and John Weske. Also
present - those listed below (see under Crocheron) plus Ken Keffer, Laurel
Brinker, and 2 DNR summer interns whose names escape me). Fair, temps
75-80, winds NE 5-10.
Ocean City, MD, 8:45-1 p.m. specifically Reedy Island (c. 10 A.M. - noon),
where 11 of us coralled and banded 270 Royal Tern chicks, leaving behind c.
15 young too small to band, and 7 as-yet-unhatched eggs (which John says
probably will not be successful at this late date). I think this colony is
smaller than last year. It was present also in 2006. John says the colony
at Champagne Island, near Cape May, NJ, has over 100 pairs this year, the
3rd year it's been active, and the northernmost anywhere. 1 Monarch.
Also at Reedy Island, lots of breeding pairs of Laughing Gulls, Forster's
and Common Terns. I've heard this is the only place in MD where laughers
breed in 2008. I saw c. 125 adults in sight simultaneously as well as
scores of well-grown baby terns. 1 Diamondback Terrapin. A couple of dozen
sizeable young, non-flying Laughing Gulls seen.
We did not stop to look at Skimmer Island but it is loaded with loafing
cormorants and pelicans and many of the smaller herons and egrets seem to be
breeding there.
DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD:
Crocheron. 4 P.M. As 6 of us (John Weske, Jared Sparks, Larry E. Johnson,
Steve R. Kendrot, Daniel Dawson, and myself) launch to go band pelicans at
Holland Island we see the subadult male Harlequin Duck on the east jetty,
approached so closely we can see the white head markings with unaided eyes.
This duck seems to have somehow become much drabber since I first saw it on
June 7. I looked for him June 21 with no luck. John bands 3 large, young
Ospreys on a channel marker here.
Larry, Steve, and Daniel are based at Blackwater N.W.R., are with the U. S.
Dept. of Agriculture, which has been concerned in MD, among other projects,
with Nutria eradication, studies of geese and deer, and Piping Plover
predator control.
Holland Island, we band a total of 203 Brown Pelican chicks, 4:30-8 P.M.
under lovely conditions of moderate heat and low humidity, with a refreshing
breeze from the NW. Not much time for birding but I do see 2
oystercatchers, 2 Willets, 8 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and 2 adult & an
immature Bald Eagle hanging around the nest. Tons of herons, especially
white egrets, throng in the hammock of the south segment. I find 2 fine old
bottles. I'd estimate I saw less than 10 nests of both pelicans and
cormorants still containing eggs or eggs and young.
Fair, temps c. 80, winds variously NE, NW and SW 5-10 m.p.h. Absolutely
lovely weather. Excellent visibility - houses at Ewell, Smith Island,
easily visible though almost at sea level and over 9 miles distant.
Holland Island, middle segment. We band c. 155 Brown Pelican chicks. On
June 21 I'd seen 101 pelican nests here. Today I think we tagged all of the
chicks that were of bandable size. 180 adult pelicans in sight
simultaneously one time. 7 Diamondback Terrapin. Scores of fuzzy, young
Herring (and some Great Black-backed) Gulls trundling around, swimming,
toddling along the sands.
Holland Island, south segment. Our second Holland stop, where we simply use
up a few more (c. 48 pelicans thus adorned) bands in order to finish out
band strings and sequences, and also to assess the size of the young with an
eye to a revisit in the near future. 185 flying cormorants in sight
simultaneously. On June 21 I'd counted 769 pelican nests on this segment.
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
_____
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