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FW: 3,051 Brown Pelican chicks banded at Holland Island & South Point Marsh; Ferry Neck. July 26-28, 2008. 2nd edition

From:

Norm Saunders

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Date:

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 11:02:22 -0500

-------- Begin forwarded message --------
Subject: 3,051 Brown Pelican chicks banded at Holland Island & South 
Point Marsh; Ferry Neck.  July 26-28, 2008. 2nd edition
Date: 8/1/2008 10:30:13 AM
 From: Harry Armistead
To: Norman Saunders


July 26-28, 2008

3,051 BROWN PELICAN CHICKS BANDED in 3 days!!!  Assuming an average of 2 
per nest and throwing in a few unbanded chicks, that would make for a 
total of c. 1,610 nests in the central Chesapeake this summer.

ADDENDA to my report on banding at Holland Island, Tue., July 15.  207 
pelicans were banded on this date, not 203 as I had reported.  With 5 or 
6 banders operating simultaneously with strings of big size 8 bands 
slung around their shoulders like bandoliers (less like a Latin American 
presidential sash) it is not easy in the fog of banding, the heat of 
field work, to come up with an exact total right away.  On July 15 an 
adult pelican was captured and determined to have been banded as a chick 
on June 28, 2002, at South Point Marsh, 14 mi. S. of here.  Counting 
those tagged, as itemized below, that makes an (unofficial) total of 
3,051 banded in 3 days in the central Chesapeake Bay.

SATURDAY, JULY 26:

RIGBY'S FOLLY, Armistead place on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD. 
Present only from 3 P.M. on.  John Weske comes to spend the night and 
pick up his boat, an old Privateer.  SW 10-20, strong most of the time, 
big whitecaps, 84-80 degrees, fair.  Walk down the drive and do the 
Olszewski Trails and back = 1.7 miles.

1 adult Bald Eagle.  41 Barn Swallows on the dock; I've never seen more 
than 4 or 5 there before.  At one time 61 are aloft over the Big Field, 
one of our best property counts.  The Carolina Wrens have left their 
flowerpot nest.  The 2 young Ospreys still hang around their piling nest 
at the head of the cove.  A Cedar Waxwing drinking at the Waterthrush 
Pond.  Still seems very dry here inspite of rumors of heavy rain a few 
days ago.  Fields still unplanted.  3 Snowy Egrets at dusk.  1 adult and 
an immature Red-tailed Hawk, I hope raised locally.  A male Indigo 
Bunting displaying high in the air and singing.  3 flickers.  2 
Red-bellied Woodpeckers.  The 3 expected gull species.  1 deer.  2 Gray 
Squirrels.  a 3' Black Rat Snake lounging on the grass near the 
Pumphouse.  1 Forster's Tern.

TAKE IT EASY, GREASY, THERE'S A FUNGUS AMONG US.  On the Olszewski 
Trails find 2 interesting fungi: 1 looks like a Brain Coral and is 
bigger than a grapefruit, another is like a Bracket Fungi growing on a 
tree and is c. 5 feet off of the ground, the size of a baseball glove, 
about the size and shape of a trombone "mouth" but with curvy "lips."

SUNDAY, JULY 27:  Afield all day, admittedly 4 hours of it by car, a 
couple of more by the pool at the Pines Motel:

The start of the big Brown Pelican roundup.  Dave Brinker and John Weske 
are the principal banders.  This is a project initiated by Dave Brinker 
over 10 years ago.  By now some 17,000 have been tagged.

Cambridge: a Gray Squirrel on a lawn on East Appleby Street in classic 
"banners-to-the-sky" posture, sitting on its haunches, eating something, 
its tail raised so it lies flat along its back.

On the way down to the Crocheron launch site I see along the roadsides 
c. 20 Blue Grosbeaks, a dead-on-the-road Red Fox on Egypt Road, 16 
Mourning Doves, and 16 Eastern Bluebirds.

Wingate: a pair of Northern Bobwhite crosses the road.

Crocheron.  No sign of the little Harlequin Duck today.  16 Royal Terns 
and 16 Ospreys in sight simultaneously in the morning, 29 royals in the 
afternoon at 3 P.M.

Bishop's Head.  3 Glossy Ibis and 17 Snowy Egrets.

Bloodsworth Island, SE point: a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

HOLLAND ISLAND, south segment, Dorchester County, MD, c. 8:45 A.M. - 
2:30 P.M.  23 of us in 3 boats comprise today's crew, including, Dave 
Brinker, Nina Fascione, Ken Keffer, Steve Kendrot, John Weske, et al., 
incl. several from the U.S.D.A. quartered at Blackwater and a teen youth 
group from Warminster.

Mostly cloudy, sometimes fair (sometimes unfair, but that's life; get 
used to it), 80 degrees, winds SW 10-20, quite comfortable.  Tide goes 
from high to low.

We band 1,574 Brown Pelican chicks, the most ever banded in one day 
anywhere in the Chesapeake, the previous high being 960 done by Dave 
Brinker, John Weske et al. once at South Point Marsh.  Actually, it 
would not surprise me if this is the most ever banded anywhere in one 
day.  We leave c. 150 pelican chix unbanded because we run out of bands. 
If we'd had the bands we could have done those 150 in an hour or less.

John also bands 27 Double-crested Cormorant chicks.  I estimate 205 
young cormorants in sight simultaneously; they tend to band together in 
tight, mobile creches.

Also: A flock of 21 Boat-tailed Grackles, a Peregrine Falcon flushes 
from the otherwise-empty Bald Eagle nest, 1 oystercatcher, and various 
heron/egret species.  1 Tree Swallow.

Stopped in to Blackwater N.W.R. to tell them the news and also to write 
it on the clipboard.  Tom Miller said he'd seen a Ruddy Duck on the 
Little Blackwater River yesterday.  Chatted with Cynthia and Duncan 
MacDonald.  Duncan said his favorite bird to band was a female Northern 
Pintail; they're very docile; his least favorite the American Coot.

Crisfield.  Stay at the Pines Motel, where I relax in the nice pool and 
watch dusk settle over the old town, where there are many traditional 
chimneys favored by Chimney Swifts.  See some swifts descend into those 
chimneys.  There ARE nice Loblolly Pines at the motel and a Gray 
Squirrel works its way along a hurricane fence in back of the pool.  At 
dusk 2 bats take over patrolling the skies from the swifts.  A pudgy 
Fowler's Toad seems intent on getting into my room.  Toads seem 
attracted to well-lit areas of rural motels.

A big rain storm with lightning, thunder, and very strong, albeit brief 
winds, has left big limbs down, huge pools of water, and other signs of 
minor devastation preceeding my arrival at Crisfield.  North of here 
apparently the storm was not so severe.

MONDAY, JULY 28.  Afield 7:30 A.M. - 5:30 P.M.:

SOUTH POINT MARSH, Accomack County, VA, c. 2 mi. S. of Smith I., MD. 
Fair weather, winds NE at 10+ then diminishing, 80-85 degrees F.  More 
humid, less windy, and hotter than yesterday yet I crave liquids less 
than then for some reason.  Tide high becoming low.

26 of us in 4 boats work the several sub-colonies here from c. 8:45 A.M. 
- 2 P.M., banding 1,270 pelicans.  Among our group are Steve Kendrot, 
Andy Maskell, Bradley Kennedy, and Linh Phu, with Dave Brinker and John 
Weske the banders-in-charge.

There are 3 small sub-colonies at the N. end, but the largest is c. 1/3 
mi. S. of these, a squareish area bounded by Baccharis halimifolia and 
Iva frutescens bushes with a sizeable "pond" in the middle (old cattle 
watering hole?).  A few of these pelican chicks are what are called 
"bruisers", almost the size of adults, but most are "whities", 
medium-sized chicks easy to handle.

Also seen here:  11 Mute Swans, 7 Seaside & 1 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed 
Sparrow, 16 American Oystercatchers (incl. 2 half-grown young; 6 of the 
adults that I am able to check are unbanded), 1 Northern Harrier, and a 
Black-bellied Plover.  Non-avian taxa: 12 Diamondback Terrapin and 1 
Monarch.  I estimate c. 170 cormorant young, 19 of which John Weske 
bands.  One of our party finds a nice arrowhead right on the beach were 
the boats are anchored.

Off in the hazy distance to the South, towards Tangier Island, are 2-3 
miles of extensive flats, barrier-island-like beach strands, and 
shallows where many, many hundreds of cormorants, pelicans, and gulls 
plus oystercatchers rest, an impressive sight, this in one of the most 
remote areas of the Chesapeake, or the East for that matter.  The 
fecundity of this area is remarkable.

Ewell, Smith Island, MD.  Afterwards we have the traditional triumphant 
and celebratory lunch here at Ruke's, crabcakes, french fries, cole 
slaw, and Pepsi for me.  See an Eastern Kingbird and what Duncan 
MacDonald refers to as the "3 Stinkers" - House Sparrow, Rock Pigeon, 
and European Starling.  Funny they're established at this remote place. 
Outside the restaurant I see a male House Sparrow, for reasons best 
known to itself, hover, kingfisher- or kestrel-like, 7 times over a 
patch of Spartina alterniflora, then descend into the marsh.  Only 1 
Yellow-crowned Night Heron.  13 American Black Ducks in the area. 
Across the channel from Ewell are 11 goats along the shoreline of Goat 
Island, which is for sale.

DRANG NACH NORDEN.  Yes, pressure (expansion) to the north.  In the 
previous 20 years or so there has been a gradual shift of the largest 
Brown Pelican breeding colonies from south to north.  Initially 
Fisherman Island, VA, was the biggest colony for many years (where 
pelicans are not banded).  Then the South Point Marsh area in VA just 
south of Smith I., MD.  This year for the first time Holland Island, MD, 
has the largest regional pelican shebang.

Of course they've been breeding in Virginia since 1986 (unsuccessful 
attempt) and 1987 (first successful breeding), cf. "Virginia's 
endangered species" edited by Karen Terwilliger (McDonald & Woodward 
Publ. Co., 1991), p. 488.

THE DAMAGE.  Over these 2 days I sustain 54 minor scratches, only a 
couple worthy of being called cuts, on my arms and hands; 6 on my legs; 
2 in the face; 3 bruises in various places.  All of this is minor; long 
sleeves and gloves, shed due to the heat, could have prevented most. 
Bend over a lot to grab the chix but the lumbar region comes through 
like a champ.  No leg cramps, which I often get when I do this.

I chose to be a bird catcher.  I dislike banding which requires more 
skill, strength, and patience than I usually have.  It is not hard to 
grab bills and thereby immobilize and hold 3 pelican chix with each 
hand.  Compared to the minor lacerations that cormorant chix inflict 
with their claws and bills the pelicans are pussy cats but they are 
intimidating as they snap their bills.

MORTALITY.  In these 2 days I don't think I saw a combined total of even 
10 unhatched (dirty and therefore bad) eggs of either cormorants or 
pelicans, and less than 6 each of dead chicks (dead before we got 
there).  Therefore, both species seem to have excellent production. 
There are less than 10 "naked chicks" (as it were), baby pelicans too 
small to band, without any feathering or down.

HEADIN' HOME.  It's 183.1 miles from Somers Cove Marina at Crisfield to 
the Philadelphia house.  John Weske takes off for Oregon Inlet, NC, even 
farther, to band on Tuesday.  Just south of Felton, DE, at 8:12 P.M. 
(milepost 37, Route 13) a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flies across the road right 
in front of the car, reinforcing my impression that sharpies and 
Cooper's are more in evidence this summer on the Delmarva Peninsua than 
I've ever seen before.

Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

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