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FW: Poplar Island, Blackwater N.W.R., Ferry Neck, May 15-19, 2009.

From:

Norm Saunders

Reply-To:

Norm Saunders

Date:

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:29:10 -0400

 

 

From: Harry Armistead [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 2:32 PM
To: Norman Saunders
Subject: Poplar Island, Blackwater N.W.R., Ferry Neck, May 15-19, 2009.

 

FERRY NECK, BLACKWATER N.W.R. & POPLAR ISLAND, May 15-19, 2009 (Sightings
are at Rigby’s Folly unless otherwise specified):

            ADDENDA to the 84th Dorchester County May Bird Count (LXXXIV, in
SuperBowlese) of May 9.  Just received from Glen Lovelace: his sighting of 2
Vesper Sparrows, an added bird to a total now at 181 species.  I have made
some minor enhancements and corrections to the previous report.  But except
for the vespers the birds and their numbers are unchanged.  However, if
anyone would like the revision please contact me off this list at:
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com   Unmentioned previously, Brendan Klick,
Will Russell, and I twice found Chuck-will’s-widows right on the Elliott
Island Road that sat at close range in the high beams of my car headlights,
one of them, in this situation, continuing to call.  

            FRIDAY, MAY 15: At the Route 481 pond just north of Route 309:
18 Least Sandpipers, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Semipalmated Plovers, and a
male Mallard.  

            3 P.M. until dark only.  Calm, 77-80-74, fair but humid but
nevertheless visibility is excellent permitting productive scoping of the
Choptank River mouth from Lucy Point:  19 Surf Scoters*, 1 female
Bufflehead*, 1 Horned Grebe, 4 Long-tailed Ducks (2 pairs)*, and 5 Common
Loons. (* = some of these birds apparently the same ones that were present
on May 8).  157 Diamondback Terrapin: 110 out from Lucy Point and 47 at the
mouth of the cove.  Butterflies: Eastern Tailed Blue, Tiger Swallowtail, and
American Lady.  14 deer, 2 Red Foxes.  BIG chorus of Green Tree Frogs at
dusk coming from the Tranquility area.  2 Fowler’s Toads. 

            SATURDAY, MAY 16.  3 Black-bellied Plovers, seldom seen here
unless as flyovers, which these are.  An adult Bald Eagle seen 3 times (same
one?), once seen to be missing its innermost right primary, and, once also,
chased by the 2 Ospreys nesting on the piling at the head of the cove.  Liz
spots 2 Five-lined Skinks, one a large, fat female that catches, chews, and
ingests a large fly while a young skink, almost as long but very skinny and
with that bright, neon-blue tail, sits next to mother (?) observing how the
grownups do it.  A Red Fox kit.  20 deer including an amazing 15 bucks.  

            2 Green Herons,  1 Snowy Egret.  12 Wood Ducks, odd so many at
this time of year.  1 Northern Watersnake.  2 Gray Squirrels including one
in a stationary, upside down pose on a tree trunk while on the other side of
the trunk a Red-bellied Woodpecker clings, equally motionless.  A Common
Grackle egg out in the Big Field, present last week, is still there.  A
Red-spotted Purple, a beautiful, perfect specimen, sitting on the doormat
and 2 American Ladies in the Big Field.  

            A pair of Barn Swallows is nest-building under the dock catwalk.
In the ditch on the south side of Field 4 are 12 Mud Plantain clusters and
there are big growths also in The Pond and the low area on the extreme
east-central part of Field 4.  Mostly overcast becoming fair, S 10-15-25,
67-81.  Trimmed overhanging vegetation along the drive all the way to the
woods and also along the Warbler Trail: roses, honeysuckle, blackberries,
Black Locust branches, Wax Myrtle, etc., the usual vege that needs to be
tamed.    

            SUNDAY, MAY 17.  Blackwater N.W.R. birdwalk in the rain with
Levin Willey, Tom & Linda Lightfoot, and Michael & Ofra Auerbach.  The
Auerbachs are from Israel in the area of the towns of Maccabim and Modiiu. 7
A.M. -12;15 P.M.  In spite of the adverse weather we find 63 species,
including the American White Pelican, a King and a Virginia rail, 12 Great
Egrets, 12 Bald Eagles, 2 bobwhite, 5 hummingbirds (at the Visitor Center
feeders), a Horned Lark, 3 catbirds, a male Summer Tanager (great looks), 2
Grasshopper Sparrows, and 20 Cedar Waxwings plus a Box Turtle alive on Key
Wallace Drive.  Overcast, rain, high 50s-low 60s, SW-NW 20 falling to 5-10
m.p.h., rain stopping just as the birdwalk concludes.  Some of the birds
listed above seen before or after the official birdwalk.      

            Rigby’s Folly, 1:30 P.M. until dark only.  14 deer in the Big
Field including the smallest fawn I’ve ever seen, that is nursing.  A
bewildering, unpredictable species, Cedar Waxwing stages a genuine flight
today, flying north right into the 20 m.p.h. winds in flocks of 4, 29, 22,
12, 32, and 9 = 108 total.  This after 15 of us only find 2 during c. 588
miles and 115 hours of observation in Dorchester County, May 9.  1 Snowy & 2
Cattle egrets, 3 Wood Ducks, 1 ad. Bald Eagle.  Overcast, very high ceiling,
62, NW 25, cold.   

            MONDAY, MAY 18.  Poplar Island, 9 A.M. – 2 P.M., a trip
organized by Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper with Bob Ringler, Fred
Shaeffer, Jim Stasz, Ron Gutberlet, Dale Murphy, George Jett, Sherman Suter
et al.  c. 38 species (I was dopey during the tally and forgot to mention a
Great Egret at its nest on nearby Coaches Island, which did not make it onto
the final list).  This trip netted me 4 species new to my Talbot County
list: 2 ea. of Black-necked Stilt, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, and Purple
Sandpiper plus the PACIFIC LOON.  

            Jim Stasz gets on the loon’s case immediately and we all pile
out of the bus and subject it to withering examination.  George Jett’s
photographic armamentarium is brought to bear.  13 telescopes train on the
bird, in basic plumage.  George’s apparatus, seen casually by peripheral
vision, perhaps might be mistaken for a tuba or the Stanley Cup, so
impressive is its heft.  

            The 2 female phalaropes, along with kingfishers, are a prime
example of “reverse sexual dimorphism,” (RSD; females more brightly-plumaged
than males) and are in drop-dead breeding plumage, very close to us in good
light.  Of course, as far as the females are concerned, human or otherwise,
there’s nothing reverse about it, perhaps calling to mind these lines from
Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end/To rust
unburnished, not to shine in use!”  Perhaps not.  In any case, there are
several 1,000 shorebirds: Semipalmated Sandpiper and Dunlin the most
numerous.  

            Also seen are all 6 swallow-martin species including 2 Cliff
Swallows.  We see a male and a female Peregrine Falcon, the big female
executing an impressive, long stoop right overhead and angling down sharply
like an F-16 on a large flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers, but to no avail.
The less-enlightened consider that SHE is an example of RSD also, being
considerably larger than a mere male.  1 Muskrat swimming with
freshly-harvested vegetation for its lodge.  

            4 Bald Eagles.  2 oystercatchers on the mainland at Knapps
Narrows.  During the tally on Tilghman Island Jim Stasz spots a Juniper
Hairstreak on its preferred vegetation, a Red Cedar.  Strange to see no
Black-bellied Plovers and few Semipalmated Plovers.  c. 16 shorebird
species.  Overcast becoming fair, NW 20, high 50s – low 60s, cold and windy,
tide dropping.  Several Mallard broods.  c. 200 Double-crested Cormorant
nests.  2 White-rumped Sandpipers.

            Back at Rigby’s Folly.  3 Bald Eagles, a hummingbird, 4 deer,
seen by Liz.  Fair, NW 20, low 60s, continued cold.  Early in the mawnin’
Bob Ringler finds a Warblin’ Vireo, only Rigby’s 4th ever, and singin’ away
at several spots.         

            TUESDAY, MAY 19.  Until 9:15 A.M. only.  Clear, 48-53 degrees
F., cold, <5 – NW 10 m.p.h.  White-winged & Surf scoter 1 each, both strong
flyers and presumed to be healthy birds.  The female Bufflehead still
present.  2 Pileated Woodpeckers, only the 6th date on which >1 (i.e., 2;
have never found 3 in one day) have been seen.  1 American Black Duck.  4
Common Loons.  1 Wild Turkey, suspected to be on a nest since I’ve now seen
her 3X in the past 5 days in exactly the same area she’s flushed from.  4
Cedar Waxwings.  2 Bald Eagles, an imm. and an ad., the latter being chased
by an Eastern Kingbird.  A pair of Blue Grosbeaks.  In the past 5 days 9
waterfowl species seen here, good for mid-May.  A half-grown Red Fox kit.  4
deer in Field 4.    

            HEADIN’ HOME.  The Route 481 pond (bone dry during the droughts
of the summers of 2007 and 2008) just north of Route 309:  45 Semipalmated
Plovers and a combo count of 10 Least and Semipalmated sandpipers (traffic
on the curve next to the pond mandated a brief, incomplete diagnosis).  1
Great Blue and 1 Green heron plus a d.o.r. Red Fox kit.  Near Hope a Wild
Turkey.

            “LAST NIGHT I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM … “  I woke up the morning
of May 18 just after a dream in which the birding tour group I was on had
all parked their vehicles on one side of an isolated, open, multi-story
parking garage that was threatening to tip over from the unbalanced weight
distribution.  At the base of the garage I hand-captured what in my dream
was called a Blyth’s Champlain Starling, which looked like a dull-plumaged
juvenile European Starling.  That’s all I remember from the dream …
probably just as well. ¿La vida es sueño?  There’s no such species as a
Blyth’s Champlain Starling.  

            Best regards to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.

 

  _____  

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