The attachment Harry refers to is not, of course, attached since attachments
are not allowed on MDOsprey.

 

From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:26 AM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: Ferry Neck & Dorchester County, MD, February 18-23, 2009. Off topic
- Arabian trip attachment.

 

OFF TOPIC ATTACHMENT:  January trip to the lower Saudi Arabian peninsula.
Warning: it's 12,068 words.  Some of you have seen the print version; this
attachment has c. 30 corrections and enhancements.  If anyone has trouble
opening it please let me know. 

 

FORSTER'S TERNS EARLY.  I've now seen Forster's Terns at 3 widely-separated
Dorchester County locations this February.  Along the Atlantic coast this
wouldn't be that remarkable but in the central Chesapeake Bay I believe that
it is.

 

Sunday, February 15 (omitted from my previous report): at Blackwater N.W.R.,
Elise Boeger, Keith Johnson, Liz, and I see a Red-bellied Slider in Pool 3,
in spite of the cold weather.

 

FEBRUARY 18-23, 2009, Rigby's Folly/Ferry Neck & Dorchester County,
Maryland.  A time of oyster stews, broiled striped bass, shad roe, good
white wines, and martinis.

My school- and classmate Gordon Chaplin is our guest.  Unless otherwise
noted sightings below are at the Armistead place, Rigby's Folly.  But much
of the time Liz and I accompany Gordon, who is of a mind to acquire a
property in Dorchester County, to have a looksee at real estate offerings.
The days are characterized by: high winds, cold, sun, and lower than normal
low tides.

 

Wednesday, February 18.  See 3 big flocks of Snow Geese along Route 301.
Spend a few minutes watching the southernmost, at Clark's Corner Road,
foraging.  The flock gradually shambles southwards like an incoming tide
slowly submerging a mudflat.  A Sharp-shinned Hawk flies low over the flock
without disturbing any of the birds.    

 

Thursday, February 19.  Liz and I just hang around the house, reading,
resting, tidying up.  I do slip out for 2 hours with the wonderful triple
extension saw, cut 100 or so Loblolly Pine limbs that overhang the Olszewski
Trails so that a little more sunlight can hit the ground.  On the way up the
driveway at dusk Gordon sees 21 deer and a Red Fox.

 

Friday, February 20.  Clear, NW-SW 15, 40s.  Dorchester County:  

 

Cambridge.  We do the obligatory Canvasback feeding at the end of Oakley
Street.  No huge numbers of anything here but we do see 2 male Redheads, 35
American Wigeon, and an adult Bald Eagle.

 

Church Creek:  25 Wild Turkeys (just NW of the town).

 

Hudson Creek:  an adult Bald Eagle.

 

Beckwith Creek:  another adult Bald Eagle, 1 Forster's Tern actively
hunting, 5 male Red-breasted Mergansers, and 20 of the little Ruddy Ducks.

 

Upper Hooper's Island: from Creighton Road a pretty carefully estimated
1,870 REDHEADS.  I think this is the most I've ever seen in Dorchester
County.  With them are a few Canvasbacks and American Wigeon.  This right
after a good seafood lunch at Old Salty's, where Gordon treats us.  Can
watch most of the Redheads right from our dining room table.

 

Barren Island: 570 Tundra Swans and 2 adult Bald Eagles.  This is a favorite
loafing/rest area for the swans.

 

Lower Hooper's Island: 45 Canvasbacks.

 

Elsewhere on Hooper's Island and at Swan Harbor: 5 Sanderlings, 2 Horned
Grebes, 60 Lesser Scaup, 20 Dunlin, 30 Common Goldeneyes, 75 Buffleheads, 16
Surf Scoters, 8 Red-breasted Mergansers, 5 Chipping Sparrows, and 1 Common
Loon.

 

Egypt Road: 2 Horned Larks & 40 Tundra Swans.

 

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge: 13 American White Pelicans (they clump
together so close it's hard to count them . may have been 1 or 2 more), 3
imm. White-crowned Sparrows, 12 Bald Eagles, 125 Blue and c. 1,000 Snow
Geese (I made NO effort to carefully estimate the geese; this could be WAY
off), 1 male Hooded Merganser, and 3 Northern Harriers.

 

Saturday, February 21.  I've lost my notes but think what's below is about
the extent of them.  710 Canvasbacks out in Irish Creek.  Have started to
throw out buckets of corn and this morning there are 4 Gray Squirrels, 8
male cardinals, and 7 Blue Jays availing themselves of it simultaneously.
The corn is available at the seed/agricultural store (Washington Street
a.k.a. Route 343) that is just east of Kool Ice in Cambridge @ just < $20
for 100lbs.  Kool Ice has an excellent selection of seafood and shellfish.
My thanks to Jared Sparks for making me aware of both places

 

Gordon & I run into 7 ladies from the Frederick County Bird Club at the
county visitor center in Cambridge, where there are 20 Surf Scoters out in
the Choptank.  A quick drive through Blackwater N.W.R. finds the 13 American
White Pelicans at rest and preening opposite Pool 3 in the Blackwater River
and the c. 1,000 Snow/Blue geese resting in the impoundment nearby.  Gregory
Inskip and his friends have just seen a Golden Eagle at the end of Wildlife
Drive but, as usual, I'm just a few minutes too late.  

 

Gordon looks at an enticing property on the north end of Taylor's Island.
Very few birds on T.I. but we do see 12 Wild Turkeys, 1 Forster's Tern, 18
American Black Ducks, 4 Bald Eagles, 16 Surf Scoters, and 215 Tundra Swans.
Visit the Taylor's Island Family Campground, which, as always, is a jumbled,
cheek-by-jowl wonder to behold.  TIFC gives a great view out into Chesapeake
Bay, and where the Bay is quite narrow, but there's little out there to see.
There is a charming Gray Squirrel at the feed just outside the TIFC general
store.  A group of 300 Mallards is just south of the Slaughter Creek bridge.


 

On the way back to Rigby we spot an American Woodcock right on the shoulder
of Susquehanna Road at 3 P.M.  Back the car up until right next to this
engaging little dude but s/he remains, standing in place, and bopping up and
down every few seconds.  After turning around at the end of the road and
passing by that spot again, we see that the timberdoodle is still there.  At
dusk run into John Swaine on the Rigby driveway.  He has been spreading
manure over the fields.  Bruce Olszewski is there, too, and gives us a
cooler full of venison.  

 

Sunday, February 22.  Overcast, low 40s, W 10, with rain developing turning
into a mix with snow and then gradually clearing.  470 Surf Scoters at Rigby
(actually counted from Tranquility, a few feet from Rigby's south boundary).
A Gray Squirrel is at Tranquility gleaning sap from a Red Maple.  130
Ring-billed Gulls on our dock along with a 1st-cycle Herring Gull and a male
Mallard.  In the past it was unusual to even see one or two ring-bills on
the dock but Field 2 has been disked today by John Swaine; this may have
brought the ringers in.  On a wire near McDaniel, Talbot County, an adult
Red-shouldered Hawk.  Nearby a Red-tailed Hawk and an adult Bald Eagle
feeding on something in a field to the west.  Spend most of the afternoon on
Tilghman Island but see little there.  

 

Monday, February 23.  12 Canada Geese and 2 Mute Swans plus a few Mallards
and Ring-billed Gulls at the corn in the water around the dock.  Headin'
home: 5 American Kestrels along the way.  Near Routes 309 X 481 c. 200 Snow
Geese in a field.  Two small Tundra Swan flocks in fields nearby.  On Route
301 at Mile 105 an imm. Bald Eagle.  At mile 118 250 Snow Geese plus 3 Bald
Eagles and a Great Blue Heron flying over them.

 

SNOWY OWL ON PAGE 1 of the Easton, MD, Star Democrat, Wednesday, February
18, the second story after Obama's signing of the stimulus bill!  Great
color photograph of the owl.  Carol McCollough, Bob Ringler, and Dave
Brinker are quoted.  My thanks to clippingmeister Nancy Lytell for this.

 

The TRAP LINE.  So far this month 3 White-footed and 3 House mice have
bitten the dust in our kitchen and downstairs bedroom traplines.  

 

SOME NEWLY ACQUIRED BOOKS CONCERNING CHESAPEAKE BAY:

 

the Sharp's Island Light by Gary D. Crawford (Crawfords Nautical Books,
2000, 8p. & Vanishing island: a true story of Hollands Island, Maryland by
Capt. Irving Mace Parks, Sr. (also publ. by Crawfords, 2002, 1971, 29p.).
Crawfords has a terrific selection of nautical books, is on the west side of
the road on Tilghman's Island (4815 Fairbank Road, P. O. Box 336, Tilghman,
MD 21671).    Gary Crawford is good to talk to.  Gordon
and I stopped into the store on Sunday.

 

Williams, John Page.  Chesapeake: exploring the Water Trail of Captain John
Smith (National Geographic, 2006, 191p., with photographs primarily by David
Harp and Bill Portlock).  Bill recently sent me a presentation copy.
Williams and Portlock are longtime naturalists with the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation.

 

Smith, William Post.  Kiptopeke chronicles (the Center for Conservation
Biology, Williamsburg, Virginia, 219p., has 18 photographs).  Full of
Walter's wonderful reminiscences about the banding exploits of the
Virginians (and characters) who started and ran the Kiptopeke fall landbird
mist-netting station.  Each of the 26 chapters is preceded by a poem of
Walter's, invariably in rhyming couplets.  $14.50.    or
757-221-1645.

 

There's also a great new book by Dave W. Harp & Tom Horton, the Nanticoke:
portrait of a Chesapeake River (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, 144p.,
$29.95).  Super photography and I was pleased the Nanticoke is so strong on
the botany and human culture of this largely unspoiled Eastern Shore river. 

 

An OXFORD DREAM.  Last night I dreamt I was swimming, westwards, off Oxford
in the Choptank River while 5 male Redheads and a male Canvasback swam the
other way.  Then, as I was leaving the water, I saw a striking male duck
that shared features of both a male Blue-winged Teal and a male Harlequin
Duck.  Then the dream shifted to an urban apartment where I was getting
ready to join a birdwalk (presumably of the Talbot Bird Club).  Liz was
concerned that Frank Gill (who has nothing to do with Talbot County) would
be disappointed if she didn't join the bird walk, made up some excuse for
not being there.  I raced out of the apartment to get to the bird walk in
time.  Bob Anderson (who also has nothing to do with Talbot County) told me
in so many words I was too late.  I passed a small corner of a building
where 2 birds were semi-trapped: a Killdeer was flying, trying to get out or
over the buildings. There was a goldfinch there; I squeaked and the
goldfinch flew up and hovered near my face.  I then ran along the Oxford
waterfont to get to the start of the birdwalk in time, anxious to tell them
about the exotic hybrid, but slipped and fell into the Tred Avon.  That's
all I remember of the dream. 

 

Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

 

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