From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 3:05 PM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: 83rd Dorchester County May Bird Count (in toto), May 2, 2009.

 

83rd DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD, MAY BIRD COUNT (in toto), May 2, 2009.  Grand
totals:

            common loon 8.  horned grebe 1.  American white pelican 1.
brown pelican 20.  double-crested cormorant 58.  great blue heron 44.  great
egret 15.  snowy egret 8.  cattle egret 1.  green heron 3.  black-crowned
night heron 1.  

            WATERFOWL:  Canada goose 96.  mute swan 2.  tundra swan 1.
[trumpeter swan 1, at Robbins, present for years; not counted here but
included as a point of interest].  wood duck 7.  gadwall 4.  American wigeon
1.  American black duck 13.  mallard 93.  blue-winged teal 1.  northern
shoveler 1.  green-winged teal 14.  lesser scaup 1 male (Cambridge).  surf
scoter 20.  bufflehead 17.  ruddy duck 13.

            RAPTORS:  black vulture 10.  turkey vulture 154.  osprey 57.
bald eagle 45.  northern harrier 5.  sharp-shinned hawk 1.  red-tailed hawk
7.  American kestrel 1.  

            wild turkey 3.  northern bobwhite 3.  BLACK RAIL 1 (calling
repeatedly, COMPLETELY unsolicited, NO tapes used!).  clapper rail 8.  king
rail 4.  Virginia rail 54. common moorhen 3.

            SHOREBIRDS:  semipalmated plover 10.  killdeer 11.  American
oystercatcher 1.  black-necked stilt 8.  greater yellowlegs 74.  lesser
yellowlegs 30.  yellowlegs unID'd 1.  solitary sandpiper 6.  willet 9.
spotted sandpiper 2.  sanderling 2.  least sandpiper 80.  dunlin 185.
American woodcock 1.

            LARIDS:  laughing gull 383.  ring-billed gull 20.  herring gull
55.  great black-backed gull 10.  gull unID'd 3.  royal tern 1.  common tern
3.  Forster's tern 26.  least tern 12.  

            "PRIMITIVE" LANDBIRDS:  rock pigeon 31.  mourning dove 57.
yellow-billed cuckoo 2.  eastern screech-owl 1.  great horned owl 2.  barred
owl 1.  common nighthawk 3.  chuck-will's-widow 25.  whip-poor-will 11.
chimney swift 17.  ruby-throated hummingbird 6.  belted kingfisher 1. 

            red-headed woodpecker 3.  red-bellied woodpecker 12.  downy
woodpecker 8.  hairy woodpecker 0.  northern flicker 3.  pileated woodpecker
4.  eastern wood-pewee 3.  Acadian flycatcher 5.  eastern phoebe 8.  great
crested flycatcher 53.  eastern kingbird 11.  white-eyed vireo 37.
blue-headed vireo 2.  yellow-throated vireo 2.  red-eyed vireo 16.

            blue jay 14.  American crow 28.  fish crow 8.  crow unID'd 41.
horned lark 9.  purple martin 37.  tree swallow 134.  northern rough-winged
swallow 5.  bank swallow 8.  barn swallow 100.  Carolina chickadee 27.
tufted titmouse 48.  red-breasted nuthatch 1.  white-breasted nuthatch 2.
brown-headed nuthatch 6.  

            Carolina wren 47.  house wren 11. marsh wren 28.  blue-gray
gnatcatcher 26.  eastern bluebird 31.  veery 1.  wood thrush 14.  American
robin 208.  gray catbird 6.  northern mockingbird 32.  brown thrasher 2.
European starling 289.

            WARBLERS:  northern parula 7.  yellow warbler 1.  black-throated
blue warbler 1.  yellow-rumped warbler 60.  yellow-throated warbler 8.  pine
warbler 32.  prairie warbler 54.  blackpoll warbler 2.  black-and-white
warbler 21.  American redstart 1.  prothonotary warbler 17.  worm-eating
warbler 23.  ovenbird 56.  Louisiana waterthrush 5.  Kentucky warbler 1.
common yellowthroat 60.  yellow-breasted chat 15.  

            summer tanager 23.  scarlet tanager 7.  eastern towhee 47.
chipping sparrow 79.  field sparrow 18.  Savannah sparrow 3.  grasshopper
sparrow 9.  saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow 4.  seaside sparrow 50.  song
sparrow 6.  swamp sparrow 2.  white-throated sparrow 11.  northern cardinal
65.  blue grosbeak 57.  indigo bunting 14.

            bobolink 8.  red-winged blackbird 466.  eastern meadowlark 9.
common grackle 64.  boat-tailed grackle 7.  brown-headed cowbird 179.
orchard oriole 24.  Baltimore oriole 7.  house finch 9.  American goldfinch
210.  house sparrow 40.  

            TOTAL SPECIES:  154.

            COVERAGE.  Bill & Karen Harris, Danny Poet, and Amanda Spears,
working together, covered an 85-mile route north of Route 50 from 5 A.M. - 5
P.M. and had excellent success with landbirds.  Some of their more notable
totals include: 11 Whip-poor-wills, 8 Eastern Phoebes (which don't nest in
south Dorchester), 30 White-eyed Vireos, 25 gnatcatchers, 54 Prairie, 21
Black-and-white & 23 Worm-eating warblers, 49 Ovenbirds, and 7
ScarletTanagers (scarce in south Dorchester), 37 Blue Grosbeaks, 194
goldfinches, and 7 Baltimore Orioles.  THAT is symptomatic of a good list
and a great effort!  My own route as usual consisted of a c. 190-mile drive
that included Elliott Island Road, Blackwater N.W.R., Hooper's Island, and
in between.  Diane Cole was able to do some work in Cambridge and kicked in
with the only Great Horned Owls.  Shirley Bailey wrapped up her birdwalk at
Blackwater and then found the day's sole Black-throated Blue Warbler.

            COMMENTARY.  For weather and much other commentary that won't be
repeated here please see the summary for my own "party" (of one), posted a
few days ago.  Today's numbers are disappointing with regard to herons,
owls, woodpeckers, and corvids.  Poor numbers continue for Blue-winged Teal,
Sora (none; used to get 5-10 w/o great effort), and bobwhite (3, the result
of 274 miles of driving, over 40 hours of field work; 20 years ago the total
would have been dozens).  I personally tried for screech-owls 10 times and
only 1 responded, but they can be persnickety in the spring and my poor
success is probably not related to any decline of theirs.   

            EFFORT.  11 p.m., Fri. - 8:30 P.M. Sat.  2 parties plus
part-time effort by 2 more for approx. 274 mi. by car, 40+ hours of field
work.

            AS DIFFERENT AS NIGHT AND DAY.  The north party has the good
landbird habitats.  They recorded 25 species I missed (only 4 of them
waterbirds [thank you, Hurlock W.W.T.P.] but 2 of them raptors).  The south
party, where I was, has the marsh and open water.  I recorded 50 species
there that north party didn't find, 36 of them waterbirds, 4 others
landbirds but of a marshy persuasion.  North party found 14 warbler species,
5 swallows, 4 vireos, and 5 flycatchers;  I found 9, 4, 2 and 4
respectively.         

            MISCELLANEOUS:  Back in mid-April I received a message from
Larry Hindman, MD D.N.R., that there was a Mute Swan nest with 6 eggs on the
shoreline of Rigby's Folly.  I'd suspected they were nesting but hadn't
looked for the nest.  The state's efforts to control Mute Swans have
probably been even more successful than their surprising success with
eliminating Nutria.  Note above that in spite of all the extensive coverage
in Dorchester County on May 2 only 2 Mute Swans were found, at Blackwater.

            ISN'T THAT ALWAYS THE WAY?  Yes, it is.  On arriving back at
Rigby's Folly at 9:45 P.M. Saturday I stepped out of the car and a Great
Horned Owl called, once, a species I missed in 21.5 hours of birding in
Dorchester.

            Best regards to all. - Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

 

  _____  

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