FORMAT. I compose offline in Word, then copy and paste into e-mail. This results, somehow, in too much space between paragraphs. We’ll work to correct this. Conversely, a recent posting to VA-BIRD, written as a message in Hotmail, appeared as one, big, ugly, LONG paragraph.
August 15, 6 Black Vultures circling near the intersection of Rts. 50 and 213.
RIGBY’S FOLLY, August 15 & 17, 2008.
Friday, August 15. Afternoon only. Didn’t leave the lawn area. The beautiful, moderately hot, low humidity rainless summer weather continues. The Varmint Pool and the Waterthrush Pond have dried up. Even the fields, with their rank growth of grasses and weeds 5-7’ high, are starting to look brown. A Great Horned Owl calls 3X at 6:56 P.M. from Woods 7. 1 Wood Duck. 1 imm. Bald Eagle. 2 Forster’s Terns. 2 Snowy Egrets. 1 male Blue Grosbeak singing (did not hear or see one the entire time here August 8-12). 1 Killdeer. 2 Diamondback Terrapin.
Sunday, August 17. Slept in until 10:15. Just driving out the drive, heading home, see a doe and her small, spotted fawn, an Orchard Oriole (inconspicuous this late in the breeding season; in August they “go underground”), and the 2 adult and 5 Wild Turkey poults (the 6th one, present last weekend, has perhaps been slammed by Reynard).
Saw a Rock Pigeon here Aug. 11; only see them 1X or 2X a year at Rigby.
DEAL ISLAND ROAD (Route 363 and its side roads), Saturday, August 16, Somerset County, Maryland. 16 hours (4:45 A.M. – 8:45 P.M.). 94.6 miles by car, 2 by foot. I explored about ¾ of all of the paved side roads. Left Rigby at 2:45 A.M., returned at 11 P.M. Route 363 hits the towns of Monie, Champ, Chance, Oriole, Wenona, Dames Quarter, Deal Island, and the financial district of Venton.
95 species. 72 by 10 A.M., 80 by noon, 82 by 2:15 P.M.
WEATHER: Fair but hazy in the morning, much better viz in the afternoon, some fog and mist very early on. Winds: light & variable initially & <5, becoming WSW 10-15, then calm at dusk. 74-85 degrees F., comfortable. Tide very low, then a slightly above normal high in midday, then nice and low again towards day’s end. Judging from the puddles on the road and lawns there was a good rain here, probably late yesterday afternoon.
Highlights:
Good HERONS: 11 Green, 3 Little Blue, 13 Tricolored & 3 Black-crowned Night herons, 85 Great & 70 Snowy egrets, 90 Glossy Ibis. 3 Mute Swans. Gadwalls: used to be abundant breeders here. No more. 7 adults and a ½ grown duckling tagging along behind them, the opposite of a crèche. 1 Blue-winged Teal, also in decline here. 4 Northern Harriers. 5 Bald Eagles. 42 Ospreys, one a male screaming from high up, doing the sky dance, with a nice-sized Menhaden in its talons. Peregrine Falcon, an adult roosting in the shade under the bridge at Chance, oblivious to the near-constant vehicular traffic passing over. I was wondering why I saw no Rock Doves at the bridge … until I saw this falcon. I think it was a male. Northern Bobwhite, only 1.
RAILS: 22 Clapper & 11 Virginias. 6 of the clappers were well-seen, taking advantage of the very low tide and foraging in the open on the mud along the marsh edge. Bird counters in Somerset County have taken to calling big rails here “large rails.” I’m betting they are almost all clappers and with hardly any kings. My good views of the 6 clappers today reinforce this feeling. SHOREBIRDS: Not many. 12 Semipalmated Plovers, 1 Spotted, 1 Semipalmated & 10 Least sandpipers, 9 Greater Yellowlegs & 6 Short-billed Dowitchers. Royal Terns, 130, a great count for this area. Most were resting at low tide on an extensive bar in the little bay N. of Rt. 363 in between Chance and Dames Quarter. Look them over carefully but see no Sandwich Terns. 1 Caspian Tern.
OWLS: 3 Eastern-Screech and 4 Great Horned. My first stop, at 4:45 A.M., is E. of Oriole on Rt. 627, where a great horned is calling along with 2 Green Frogs and some Fowler’s Toads and Katydids. Got a screech to respond after a few minutes. Red-headed Woodpecker. 4. All in the very extensive stands of dead Loblolly Pines towards the end of Crab Island Road. 3 adults and a flying juvenile. One of the adults is entering a tree cavity carrying food. Crab Island Road extends for c. 1.5 miles and is bounded by extensive areas of low scrub, ideal for Field Sparrows, Prairie Warblers, White-eyed Vireos, yellowthroats, and chats, and has 1000s of dead pines.
Brown-headed Nuthatch. Seen in 3 places with a total of 7. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 6, an influx of migrants. Prairie Warbler, 2, 1 a stunning adult male. American Redstart, a migrant female. Bobolink, 2, migrants. Blue Grosbeak, 14. Indigo Bunting, 6 (singing males). Seaside Sparrow, 8, all flying birds, their singing season about over, they’re starting to “go underground.”.
WORST MISSES: Killdeer, Rock Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Fran Dresher, Red-bellied & Downy woodpeckers, Eastern Meadowlark. Deal Island used to have dozens of Pied-billed Grebes, scores of Common Moorhens, as breeders. Not 1 of either today, a commentary on how the huge impounded area there has deteriorated. Odd to only see 9 robins, 1 Chimney Swift, 2 Boat-tailed Grackles, and 6 Tree Swallows.
SINGING. These species still singing: bobwhite, titmouse, Song, Chipping & Field sparrows, Pine Warbler, wood pewee, crested flycatcher, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Carolina & Marsh wrens, White-eyed Vireo, and goldfinch. Nothing surprising here.
4 OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
Beautiful moonrise just after sunset seen across an expanse of miles of marsh. A huge, full, reddish moon, with the distant mainland under it.
Running into Simone Jenion at the end of the “Dumpster” Road, which is in the middle of nowhere. Simone used to live in Salisbury, now is near Fort Worth. She recently did a big year in Texas. Think she said it netted 522 species. Last time we saw each other was at a Yellow Rail walk at Anahuac N.W.R. 2 years ago.
Watching the skipjack ‘Helen Virginia’ hove into my ken miles to the north and eventually enter the harbor at Deal Island at 6:26 P.M. On the mainsail in big letters: “Chesapeake Bay Foundation” with the CBF logo also on the sail.
Countless 1000s of the small pink-flowered hibiscus, but few of the ones with the bigger white blossoms. Some nice beds of Marsh Pinks.
MAMMALS: 1 unID’d bat, 2 deer, 2 Red Foxes (1 foraging on one of the jetties at Wenona at 5:08 P.M.), 1 Raccoon (foraging on an adjacent jetty at 4:57 P.M.), 6 Eastern Cottontails. Roadkills: a Gray Squirrel & 1 Raccoon (the latter El Stinko Grande, but right in the middle of a patch of woods that cries out for a good spishing session. That area is bounded by Pine Pole, Black, and Drawbridge roads, going from N to W to S respectively. It is characterized by open stands of big Loblolly Pines with an attractive understory of deciduous trees and shrubs.)
BUTTERFLIES. I can only ID c. 20 species, so miss many subtle, fussy little skippers and others. Widespread today are Monarchs (40) and Cloudless Sulphurs (55). Also: 1 Cabbage White, 2 Red-spotted Purples, 1 Black Swallowtail, 2 unID’d azures, 3 Orange Sulphurs, and 2 Spicebush Swallowtails. No turtles or snakes today.
SOMERSET vs. DORCHESTER counties. A case could be made for Somerset being Dorchester lite, or vice versa. This could also be expressed as Dorchester is Somerset write large, or vice versa. Both have vast marshlands. Somerset is better for herons and rails. Dorchester much better for Bald Eagles and geese.
HEADIN’ HOME: A roadkill, unbanded Red-tailed Hawk at mile 97.7, Route 301, August 17.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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