MAY 30-JUNE 4, 2009:  DORCHESTER COUNTY ISLANDS, and FERRY NECK, MD.  Observations are at Rigby’s Folly except as noted.
            Abbreviations:  BCNH, Black-crowned Night Heron;  I.S.S., in sight simultaneously;  YCNH, Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
            SATURDAY, MAY 30.  On the way down:  Mile 107 on Route 301, a Bald Eagle.  The Route 481 pond has 6 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1 Semipalmated Plover, a Mallard & 3 Killdeer.  Drive across Field 1 at Rigby’s Folly and scope the Choptank River mouth = 10 Surf Scoters.  Also here: an ad. Bald Eagle, 3 Great Egrets, a big female Five-lined Skink with a bright red throat like a hummingbird’s gorget lit up.  Big chorus of Green Tree Frogs and some Fowler’s Toads, also.  2 mice in the downstairs bedroom traps.
            SUNDAY, MAY 31.  Yellow-billed Cuckoo giving both of the species’ main calls.  The Barn Swallow nest under our dock catwalk has 4 eggs.  A kingbird chases a Red-tailed Hawk.  Butterflies include Silver-spotted Skipper, Cabbage White, Tiger Swallowtail, Orange Sulphur, Eastern Tailed Blue, and an unID’d fold-winged skipper.  A large Diamondback Terrapin is hauled out and is up in the yard, obviously on the way to depositing eggs somewhere.  A single Cedar Waxwing flies over high, headed north.  1 ad. Bald Eagle.  Run the boat for the first time since March 18, 3 miles; O.K., starts up after a while.  Take it out on the ‘Tank but only find a pair of Surf Scoters today.  Fair, hazy, SW5-NW5-10, 68-81.  Wind, heavy rain, and thunder at 5 A.M.  John Swaine says there have been 12.1 inches of rain here in April and May (combined).  Another mouse caught … in the same room.  
            MONDAY, JUNE 1.  Like a cool October day.  60-74, NW-E5-SW5-10.  See the female skink again.  1 imm. Bald Eagle.  Liz and I go for a boat ride up Irish Creek where there are at least 6 Osprey nests and 2 occupied Purple Martin colonies.  Dinner at Jim & Carol Meholics’.  Jared Sparks and Bob Ringler arrive to overnight here.
            TUESDAY, JUNE 2.  A male and a female Great Horned Owl call for minutes on end starting at 4:30 A.M.  Liz sees a hummingbird.  Bob, Jared & I see a Wild Turkey in Field 4 c. 7 P.M.
            TUESDAY, JUNE 2.  SOME DORCHESTER COUNTY ISLANDS.  A 32.5 mile boat trip with Bob Ringler and Jared Sparks.  8:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.  Water temperature c. 68-74, 76 (Fin Creek).  No Cow-nosed Rays, Eastern Kingbirds, or House Wrens found on or near any of the islands today.  American Oystercatchers are present in numbers as good as I can remember.  Gadwalls make a good showing, too. 
            1.  On the way down to the Crocheron launching ramp:  3 d.o.r. Red Foxes, 5 very much alive and scampering Eastern Cottontails, 1 Snapping and 1 Mud turtle.  Leaving Crocheron at 5 P.M. we see a small Red Fox with something in its jaws run south across Crocheron Road right in front of an old woman who is so hunchbacked it seems as if her upper body is almost at right angles to her legs.  Neither she nor the fox, as far as we can tell, notice each other.
            2.  At the Crocheron-Bishops Head area:  2 Royal Terns, 40 Double-crested Cormorants, 1 Little Blue Heron.  There is an active Osprey nest at the end of the long south jetty on the rocks.
            3.  Southeast end of Bloodsworth Island:  2 adult Bald Eagles.  It was many years (25 or so) before I saw any eagles on these islands; now they can almost be taken for granted.
            4.  Spring Island (a unit of Blackwater N.W.R.).  8:40-9:30 A.M.  Right off we head into the considerable chop 11.5 statute miles down to Spring I., hoping the rest of the day the wind will diminish or else develop into a following sea, both of which, to our relief, come to pass.  On the way by hugging the east side of Bloodsworth Island we avoid much of the wind.  Nice high tide, above normal, but soon to begin falling.  High tide is at 10 A.M.  Complete Spring I. list:  10 Seaside Sparrows, 1 female Peregrine Falcon, 2 oystercatchers, a pair of Gadwalls, 1 Red-winged Blackbird, 10 cormorants, 6 Snowy & 3 Great egrets, 2 Great Blue Herons, 3 Great Black-backed & 7 Herring gulls, and 9 Brown Pelicans.  The relative lack of small birds here may be due in part to the presence of peregrines.  In former years, unrelated to the presence or lack of it of peregrines, pelicans, cormorants, Common & Forster’s terns, and Herring, Great Black-backed & Laughing gulls have nested here.   
            Spring Island: Non-avian taxa:  1 Winter Jellyfish, 9 Diamondback Terrapin, c. 35 Seaside Dragonlets and 2 Black Saddlebags (the latter 2 are dragonfly species), a beautiful Mourning Cloak, and some Saltmarsh Skippers.  Bob is good at IDing insects.  Once today he remarks: “A skipper has come aboard.”  Feeling somewhat slighted, if not threatened, my instant riposte is: “Bob, The skipper is ALREADY aboard.”  Winds SW 10-15.
            5.  Holland Island, South Segment.  10-11:30 A.M.  33 bird species.  78-85 degrees F.  Winds drop to SW @5 or near calm.  As always the richest of these islands with the most extensive woods.  The heronry on the north end of this segment is as thriving as I’ve ever seen it, although there are fewer Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets & YCNHs than when there were more large trees.  But hundreds of smaller herons are at home here, esp. in the low shrubs, Baccharis halimifolis thickets, Poison Ivy, etc.  Bob counts 130 egrets I.S.S..  I see a wheeling group of 11 Glossy Ibis.  The high count of Little Blue Herons I.S.S. is 17.  There are a few Cattle Egrets uttering their guttural, gargling calls.  I see 9 YCNH & 20 BCNH I.S.S.  All of MD’s heron types are nesting here except we miss Green Heron on any of the islands today.  The small copse on the south side of the south segment only has a few BCNH, YCNHs, and Glossy Ibis, as far as we can tell, but the isolated, somewhat umbrella shaped Loblolly Pine has a Bald Eagle nest with 2 adults present plus 3 strapping young that look as big as condors.  Once we see 2 Fish Crows pursue a male Peregrine Falcon to the extent that he is grounded, but he soon takes wing again and outdistances them handily.
            Non-avian taxa:  a few Saltmarsh Skippers, a few unID’d darners, many Seaside Dragonlets, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur, an unID’d skipper, and 8 Diamondback Terrapin.  
            This segment’s pelican-cormorant colony is much diminished, presumably due to the degradation of the west side of the islands, esp. the destruction of most of the bushes.  But there are 485 pelicans and 80 cormorants I.S.S., many of the pelis sub-adults.
            Other birds:  8 Song & 10 Seaside sparrows, 2 Gray Catbirds, 12 Red-winged Blackbirds, 2 Peregrine Falcons (a male & a female, probably from Spring I.), 10 Fish Crows, 14 Boat-tailed Grackles, 9 oystercatchers, 4 Gadwalls, 4 Willets (a little low for here), 1 distant Royal Tern, 5 Clapper Rails, 4 Ospreys, 1 yellowthroat, and 1 Carolina & 2 Marsh wrens.  Bob spots a non-breeding plumaged Black-bellied Plover on the extreme south end, strangely the only migrant shorebird see all day.  
            The little woods at the north end consists mostly of American Hackberries, Persimmons, and a few Black Locusts and is becoming entangled with Honeysuckle, Wild Grape, Poison Ivy, and a mat of Morning Glories (what Jared says is Bind Weed) around the edges.  Quite a few large young great blues and Great Egrets are visible in the high nests in the bigger trees but the content of the nests of the smaller herons - in bushes and concealed by the dense vegetation, which we do not (and should not) enter - remains a mystery.    
            6.  Holland Island, Middle Segment.  11:45 A.M.  Rather stark.  For the first time see no Barn Swallows, which have always nested in the sheds, now gone.  The old house is still there, just barely, and essentially IN the water.  Over the course of the winter the rather luxuriant stands of Spartina cynosuroides, have about disappeared, as have most of the Baccharis halimifolia.  What pelicans (140 I.S.S.) and cormorants (120 I.S.S.) there are seem to be nesting on the ground mostly.  I estimate these nesters also: 
 Herring Gull (230 I.S.S.) and Great Black-backed Gull (25 I.S.S.).  We do not land here.  Seven Brown Pelicans are at rest on the house roof.  2 Ospreys.
            7.  Holland Island, North Segment.  Noon.  Now a small, sod bank tump with some sandy areas and a dense mat of Morning Glories from out of which a female Gadwall, no doubt from a nest, flushes.  We also see 2 male Gadwalls, 2 Common Terns (which seem to be prospecting for a nest site), 10 Great Black-backed Gulls acting as if they want to nest, 2 oystercatchers, and 2 Song Sparrows, the latter with a land domain as small as any I can remember for this species.  A few flyby pelicans and cormorants.  Butterflies: an Eastern Tailed Blue and 3 Cabbage Whites in the midst of the Morning Glories. 
            8.  Adam Island (U. S. Navy).  12:30-1:30 P.M.  Wind nearly calm.  Make 2 landings, one on the extreme south end, a 2nd about ¾ of the way north up the island.  Lots of Tiger Beetles in the sandy areas.  Other inverts include some unID’d darners, Cabbage Whites, a Question Mark, many Seaside Dragonlets, and some Saltmarsh Skippers.  On Adam Great Blue Herons still persist as breeders, with 5 nests, in spite of the death of most of the trees in the elongate central hammock.  3 Osprey Nests.  Most unusual is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher way out here that Jared sees.  Strange misses are Red-winged Blackbird and Marsh Wren but we find 4 YCNH (probably nesters), 1 BCNH, 2 Song & 5 Seaside sparrows, 1 catbird, 1 Clapper Rail, 6 American Oystercatchers, 2 male Boat-tailed Grackles, 5 Fish Crows, 4 Tricolored Herons, and an adult Laughing Gull, one of the few seen all day.  We find what are probably Red Fox footprints. 
            9.  Pone Island (a sort of satellite of Bloodsworth Island, essentially part of it): sand bars just south of there.  Winds S. @  Water temperature 75.1.  2:20 P.M.  Just motor by, stop briefly, and survey the bars from a distance.  75 Herring, 1 Laughing & 8 Great Black-backed gulls, 45 pelicans, 1 Royal Tern, 11 Canada Geese, 1 adult Bald Eagle, and 2 oystercatchers.  Beyond to the east is small Northeast Island, where I’ve never landed.  It seems to have little of interest as seen from the boat, no herons, but perhaps a few Seaside Sparrows, redwings, and Clapper Rails reside there.  In William W. Warner’s fine book Beautiful swimmers, which won the non-fiction Pulitzer Prize, he says the best oysters he’s ever eaten were from near Northeast Island. 
            10.  Bloodsworth Island north end:  2 immature Bald Eagles.
            11.  Bloodsworth Island – Fin Creek.  2:45-4 P.M.  Winds SW @  Water temperature 76.1 degrees F.  Make several listening stops, although a bad time of day for singing landbirds but we hear 3 Common Yellowthroats, 4 Song & 12 Seaside sparrows, 8 Marsh Wrens, and 8 Clapper Rails.  Also here, 12 Red-winged Blackbirds, today’s only Marsh Harrier, 20 Ospreys, 5 Boat-tailed Grackles, a ”calico” Little Blue Heron, 4 Willets, and 1 Glossy Ibis.  Most surprising, a first for me here, is a Great Horned Owl (possibly 2) that flushes from the west hammock and perches in full view at close range, and then is pestered by Willets and Ospreys as it flies off.  I estimate 87 Great Blue Heron nests.  5 adult BCNH flush, a species probably nesting here also.  We fail to see any YCNH; usually they’re seen here.  Inverts:  some Seaside Dragonlets and 2 unID’d skippers.  6 Diamondback Terrapin.  The tide is just beginning to rise again.  Time to mosey back to the landing at Crocheron.
            12.  Blackwater N.W.R. – Sewards.  The American White Pelican, present here since mid-winter, is still on hand.  I have yet to see it fly.
            13.  Egypt Road.  We make a good try for the Dickcissels, to no avail.  They have been seen (and heard) in the lush field just south of the Cambridge Corporate Limits signs. 
            The MARITIME NATURE OF THESE ISLANDS.  Although over 75 miles from the sea, these south Dorchester islands exhibit certain muted maritime qualities.  In some sandy areas Sea Rocket (Cakile edentula) grows in small patches.  Delicate, exquisite Angel Wing shells (Cyrtopleura costata) lie on the beaches, sometimes in immaculate, unbroken condition.  It is not unusual to find dead Loggerhead Turtles washed up onto the hightide line.  On the southwest side of Holland Island’s south segment is a line of genuine sand dunes five to six feet high.  Then there was the Harbor Seal I saw on Holland Island’s north segment on March 18.  Humpback Whales and once a Manatee have ploughed nearby waters on rare occasions.  Dolphins are sometime visitors.  Not so many years ago Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, and Laughing Gulls bred here in low numbers for a while.  Spanish Mackerel and drum fish penetrate up the Chesapeake this far.
            “It’s almost the sea,
            Jellyfish and Loggerheads,
            occasional Whales.”   from ‘Chesapeake haiku.’  
            WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3.  Fair, 68-84, humid, SW5.  Much thunder and lightning for a while in the wee small hours but with little wind and rain.  Some of the peals of thunder every few minutes last from 15 to as much as 26 seconds and are punctuated occasionally by especially loud, dramatic, artillery-like thunder claps.  The lawn service comes at 10 A.M. converting the lawn from what looked like the beginning of an abandoned field to a delightful, near putting green-like level.  I catch an 11 inch young Black Rat Snake that is trying to get into the garage – beautiful markings – and the little sucker bites me, 3 tiny puncture wounds on my left hand.  Jared fixes the bilge pump in ‘the Mudhen’ as well as the water hydrant that is out by the garage.  See 4 Question Marks, a new high count for this striking butterfly.  Also see Eastern Tailed Blues, Orange Sulphurs, and Cabbage Whites.  The Red Fox kit is at the bend in the driveway.  About 5:15 P.M. massive Cumulus Clouds billow in the south and gradually shift northeastward.  Dinner with Nancy Graham at Ben & Frances Weems’.         
            THURSDAY, JUNE 4.  The young Red Fox is out by the bend in our driveway.  Recent rain has made the Route 481 pond too high for shorebirds but there are 2 adult Canada Geese there with 6 small, downy goslings.
            ADDENDA for May 27: find a dead shark on the beach at Slaughter Beach just over 3 feet with a long tail fin.  I drove 382.1 miles May 26-27, not 282.1.             Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.  
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