From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 10:19 AM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: Blackwater N.W.R., Ferry Neck, April 4-6, 2009 + some off topic
stuff at the end.

 

FERRY NECK, BLACKWATER N.W.R., April 4-6, 2009 + off topic stuff lastly.

            REFORMATTING.  Am trying to eliminate the big gaps that appear
between the paragraphs in my postings, which are not part of the original
documents.  Here goes.

            HEADIN' DOWN THERE.  Saturday, APRIL 4.  Clear, West 25-40
m.p.h, low 60s, low tide.  Near Hope, a herd of 15 deer.  Skunk Cabbage is
now rank (is it ever!) in low areas along Routes 301, 481 & 309, with
thousands in a few spots next to the little creeks.  At mile 118 on Route
301 there's a row of Vorsythia in full bloom that is 0.7 miles long.  Just
N. of the intersection of Routes 309 X 481 -  has become the favorite spot
of my "commute - there are still 610 Snow Geese (overwhelmingly immatures),
10 Blue Geese, and on the little roadside low area/pond there, 39
Green-winged & 4 Blue-winged teal.  FINALLY I see my first Laughing Gulls of
2009, 70 or so along Route 481, also a Horned Lark, a harrier and a kestrel.
Going up the driveway at Rigby's Folly there is a deer herd of 29
individuals with a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying over them.  Bob Anderson and
Thuy Tran treat me to a fine dinner, including a superior martini, at the
Old Brick Inn in St. Michaels.  Bob has come by, for way under its value, a
bargain Ira Hudson shorebird carving. 

            APRIL 5, a.k.a. Sunday.  Rigby's Folly.  52-70, clear becoming
fair, NW 15 - SW 5.  Am only here until 10:45 A.M., then again from 6:30-8
P.M.  We see 6 Painted Turtles hauled out and sunning in Woods 4.  Going up
the drive at 6:30 P.M. there are 42 deer, a record property count - a herd
of 37 plus at least 3 in Woods 2 and 2 in Woods 6.  1 Spring Azure.  130
raucous Fish Crows towards sunset.  3 phoebes.  2 ad. Bald Eagles.  1 Hairy
Woodpecker.  1 Sharp-shinned & 1 Red-tailed hawk.

            Bellevue: Bob, Thuy & I see 20 Canvasbacks from the ferry
landing.   

            Bob, Thuy & I head down to Blackwater N.W.R. and environs,
including Shorter's Wharf (SWR), Cedar Creek & Liner's roads, plus Routes
336 & 335 = Dorchester County's "great circle route."  Some of this is what
I like to call Deepest Dorchester, remote, major marshlands.  Noon-5:30 P.M.
Clear, NW 5-10, 60-70, a gem.  

            Highlights (at Blackwater unless specified otherwise):  1 Golden
Eagle, 28 American White Pelicans (27 opposite Pool 3, 1 still hanging out
at Seward's . because it is injured or sick?), 410 Snow Geese, 275
Green-winged Teal, 11 Snowy Egrets (SWR), 1 female Wood Duck with just one
duckling in a ditch off of Key Wallace Drive, 2 Bonaparte's Gulls, 1 Caspian
Tern, 8 Red-breasted (rather unusual here) and 2 Common mergansers.  Also:
2 (only) Tundra Swans, 20 black ducks, 16 shovelers, 10 harriers, 2
kestrels, 1 Wild Turkey (Wesley Church Road), 30 Bald Eagles, 6 Great
Egrets, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 14 Forster's Terns, 8 flickers (indicative of a
recent little influx), 3 phoebes, 2 Horned Larks, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet,
1 Brown-headed Nuthatch, 1 Brown Thrasher, 1 imm. White-crowned Sparrow (at
the Visitor Center feeders).

            COLD SPRING.  We miss yellowthroat, Willet, Seaside Sparrow,
Least Sandpiper, Purple Martin, and Barn Swallow.   It's been a cold spring.
Other years we might have seen some or all of these. 

            PILEATED WOODPECKER EXCAVATION.  Bob and I examine a small
Willow Oak along Key Wallace Drive, just on the other side of the N. ditch.
The tree is only about 15" in circumference but the chest-high pileated
excavation, a typical rectangular pileated working, is c. 8" high X 4" wide
X 3" deep, enormous for so small a tree.  The rest of the tree seems to be
perfectly healthy.

            NON-AVIAN TAXA.  Butterflies: 2 Spring Azures, 2 Cabbage Whites,
2 Orange Sulphurs.  The turtles are mostly in the water, making them
difficult to ID, but we see a combined c. 20 Red-bellied Sliders and Painted
Turtles.  Lots of very vocal Southern Leopard Frogs.  

            VIRTUE REWARDED.  At the Route 335 Blackwater River paddlers'
put-in spot there's what looks like an empty beer case.  Decide to police up
this litter, and, lo and behold, there's 4 full Bud Lights inside.  Don't
have the cachet of, say, Belgian Trappist ale, but the price is right.  

            On the way over the Route 50 (Malkus) Bridge n. of Cambridge: 20
Surf Scoters "downstream".  Most unusual is a flock of 30 elegant
Long-tailed Ducks that fly right over the bridge, headed west, and in front
of the car, quite close.

            APRIL 6, Monday.  CUT TO THE CHASE.  Don't have to.  Today
STARTS with the chase.  My little window to the world, as I lie in bed
before getting up, looks up and out into the big Willow Oak in the yard and
Pileated Woodpecker workings in a half-dead Black Locust.  First off there's
3 Gray Squirrels in about as many seconds engaged in a chase down one of the
big oak's branches.  It's better to be chased than unchaste and I have a
feeling these squirrels have no interest in chastity.  Be fruitful and
multiply, little squirreleepoos.  

            HEADIN' HOME.  Going out the driveway stop and scan the Choptank
River mouth for Northern Gannets.  A thunder storm is rolling in from the
south, great bass rumblings and a little rain, but with big drops.  It is
unbelievable that I STILL have not seen gannets here this year by this time
in spring - for the first time since 1986.  Outside of St. Michaels south of
Route 33 is a group of 48 Wild Turkeys (the new starling?).  Things are
jumpin' again N. of Routes 309 X 481 with 28 Green-winged & 4 Blue-winged
teal on the pond plus a Wilson's Snipe.  Off in the distance are 180 Snow
Geese but they're on a knoll and there may be more on the hidden side that I
can't see.  265 Ring-billed and 55 Laughing gulls are in a nearer field.
Near Hope are 6 Green-winged Teal in a pond, 590 Ring-billed & 30 Laughing
gulls in the fields.  

            OFF TOPIC , but of possible interest:

            WATER STRIDERS.  For the past 3 weeks there have been some on
the water's surface of the tiny ponds at Rigby's Folly.

            BIRDERS and HUNTERS: an interesting perspective: " . my many
years of sitting on the fence between birding and hunting have generated
thoughts that might be useful in clarifying the positions of these two users
of wildlife.  I do not believe that bird watchers, photographers,
naturalists, and others who enjoy minimally-disruptive contact with wildlife
should feel guilty for not buying licenses the way hunters are required to
do.  One should keep in mind that refereeing hunting requires the services
of wildlife management bureaucracies in every province and state in North
America.  License fees cover a fraction of the cost of these full-time
hunter-dependent civil servants whose job it is to cater to, and be
advocates for, hunters ."  Bob Waldon in BirdWatcher's Digest, March/April
2009, pp. 12-23.

            BIRD FLIGHT EULOGIZED.  "There's an insouciance about birds in
their element that always feels to me like a comment on the human species.
I see a vulture looking side to side as it slides by overhead, and it looks
to me as if it's artfully and intentionally ignoring the skill of its
flight.  I saw the same thing in the Chilean fjords a year ago.  We sailed
past dozens of black-browed albatross, and every one of them - serenely
afloat - looked up at me from the waves with the self-confidence of an
athlete, effortlessly drifting on the tide and wondering what element humans
call their own."  Verlyn Klinkenborg, New York Times, "Week in Review, p. 9
(op-ed page), April 5, 2009.

            COLLOQUIAL NAMES TO END 'EM ALL.  It's not a bird.  "Old lasagna
sides."  Refers to the Ozark Hellbender, cryptobranchus alleganiensis
bishopi, America's largest salamander, reaches over 22 inches.  "A huge,
grotesque, thoroughly aquatic salamander . each side of body with a
wrinkled, fleshy fold of skin .  Extremely slimy." (p. 241 of the 3rd ed. of
the Peterson reptiles and amphibians field guide).  The fold of skin is
where the lasagna comes in apparently. Because of its sometimes greenish
cast and/or slimyness it's sometimes called "Snot Otter."  In precipitous
decline.  Good article about them in National Parks, Spring 2009, pp. 22-23,
by Jennifer Bogo.  Other species of the giant salamander group are named
amphiumas, waterdogs, mudpuppies, and sirens.

            OKIE NOODLING was on Public Television recently.  Did you see
it?  Noodling is a method of catching fish with bare hands.  Participants,
fully dressed often, grope in muddy waters under log jams, rock piles,
undercut banks, for huge catfish, sometimes Snapping Turtles.  The catfish
can weigh 40 pounds or much more.  Noodlers often get their hands in the
catfish's mouth, up to the elbow, struggle to bring them out of the water.
Often these folks get totally submerged as they grope.  Noodling is legal in
Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Tennessee.  Then there's the Mekong
Giant Catfish of Southeast Asia.  The record is 646 pounds.  Shot of one in
Time, April 13, 2009, p. 57.  Noodle that.  I don't think so. 

            DEGRADATION AT WAWA.  Not talking white slavery, bondage and
domination, or any number of other humiliation tableaux, but instead
slippage at some Wawas, where birders can go in and out in a few minutes
after procuring good food, drink, money, fuel, maps, and/or newspapers,
decent restrooms, etc., which have installed hand dryers (blowers) that are
so loud it's like standing next to a jet engine at takeoff.  A step in the
wrong direction, Wawa.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.  I liked you the way
you were.      

            Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

 

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