FERRY NECK/RIGBY’S FOLLY, POPLAR ISLAND, AUGUST 20-24, 2009.
Observations all at Rigby’s Folly unless indicated otherwise.  Liz & Harry Armistead.  A time of higher than normal tides with frequent rises and splashings of medium-sized fish in the cove.  It has been weeks since any mice were trapped in the house and no snakes or snakesheds have been found inside so far this year.
            HORNED GREBE.  Present during this entire visit in the cove.  Has been here since late May.  I have yet to see it dive.  Has persisted here, removed from others of its species, in water over 80 degrees F., presumably diving for small fishes in waters abounding with jellyfish, bravely soldiering on.  So sad to think it is doomed, probably wounded and flightless thanks to some heroic sea duck hunter who doesn’t know a scoter from his …   
            THURSDAY, August 20.  Present 3 P.M. – dark only.  From out of nowhere - not seen all year until now - a family of 2 adult and 8 very large Mute Swan cygnets appears and forages up at the head of the cove during our entire visit.  This is curious.  The eggs of our resident pair were oiled earlier in the year (not by us).  In Field 2: 11 deer - 2 Bucks (8 and 6 points respectively), 6 does, and 3 fawns.   2 Green Herons.  An American Robin roost, unprecedented for here, is across the cove.  From 7:15-7:45 P.M. I count 403 robins and 25 Cedar Waxwings heading in to it.  
            Everything is still delightfully green, especially the lawns, and the ponds have considerable water following the frequent rains after the July drought.  The driveway areas around the house have become nice and grassy, the stone almost obscured by vegetation - the way I like it.  Only a week or so ago the fields with nothing but newly planted soy beans and bare soil have sprouted all manner of weeds, especially Jimson Weed, which have mostly obscured the beans.  93-86 (8:45 P.M.), fair, SW10+-SE5-10.  Hot, muggy, humid.
            FRIDAY, August 21.  Poplar Island, 9 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.  A trip organized by Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper and attended by Danny Poet, Stan Arnold, Bob Ringler, Les Roslund, Ron Gutberlet, Phil Davis, Liz A., and 8 or 9 others.  Together we bring a dozen scopes to bear on today’s birds.  These numbers/estimates are mine and not the official totals, just what I saw (The official totals are higher):  
            1 Wilson’s Phalarope (conspicuous enough that I spotted it from the moving bus), an immature male Cooper’s Hawk, 1 male Ruddy Duck, 9 Surf Scoters, 7 Bald Eagles (in sight simultaneously, 7 of them immatures), dozens of Ospreys (almost all of them with fish), hundreds of Great Black-backed Gulls, hundreds of Common Terns, 24 Snowy Egrets (but just 1 Great Egret), 24 Black Terns, and hundreds of Mallards.  6 species of terns.  
            18 species of shorebirds, including many hundreds of peep of the most expected 4 species (but almost all of them Semipalmateds), hundreds of Lesser Yellowlegs (but just 1 Greater), 22 Stilt Sandpipers, 18 Pectoral Sandpipers, only 16 Short-billed Dowitchers, 3 Willets, and 5 Dunlin.  This place is a spectacle.  Also: 1 Cloudless and 2 Orange sulphurs.  Seen recently but missed by us today: oystercatchers, avocets, Black-necked Stilts, and the imm. male King Eider.  
            Switch back to Rigby’s Folly:  Do a longer robin roost count, 6-8 P.M., and see 449 this time.  During the count also: 1 Common Nighthawk, 1 Great Horned Owl, 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (in apparent migration), 2 flickers, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, 6 Wild Turkeys, a bat, and 0 waxwings.  Also observe 129 Fish Crows.  9 Ospreys carrying fish in the usual SW to NE route from the Choptank River mouth to Irish Creek.  A fawn feeds on willow leaves in a neighbor’s yard.  
            Earlier in the afternoon:  a gnatcatcher chasing a moth on the driveway in front of the house, 1 American Kestrel, 1 adult and 1 immature Bald Eagle, 3 Blue Grosbeaks.  Non-avian taxa: 7 deer, 1 a small buck, in Field 2, a 2.5’ Northern Watersnake, and 4 Diamondback Terrapin.  Fair, SW15-20, 82-91 dropping to 78 after a rain, then up to 83 by 5:28 P.M., still 81 at 9 P.M.  Thunder, lightning, wind, and rain 3:20-4:50 P.M.    
            SATURDAY, August 22.  3 Snowy Egrets, 2 Bank Swallows, 2 American Redstarts, 3 Black Vultures, 1 Eastern Screech-Owl.  8 deer, a Fowler’s Toad in the yard, a Red Fox kit.  There’s a d.o.r. Box Turtle on the driveway.    2 Gray Squirrels.  8 deer.  This has been a poor year for frogs, bluets (none seen), and Yellow-billed Cuckoos.  A good August for toadstools.  Some rain around sunrise, mostly cloudy, 76-83-75 (5:30 P.M.), 74 (6:30 P.M.), 73 (10:30 P.M.), SE5-NW5.
            Out in front of John Swaine’s I find a medium-sized Snapping Turtle.  I don’t especially like picking them up so am pleased when this one scrambles away into the ditch.
            Butterflies:  singles of Pearlcrescent, Red Admiral, Cloudless Sulphur, Common Wood Nymph, and 3 Red-spotted Purples.  Numbers of Common Whitetails, favoring the driveway, as usual.
            In the afternoon: heavy rain 3:30-4:30, moderate rain from then until 10:30, by which time it starts to taper off.  Tremendous amounts of standing water everywhere, the ditches overflowing.  In nearby Caroline County 9.5” fell.  Several inches at Rigby’s Folly, at least.  
            Dinner at the Bay Hundred Restaurant on Knapps Narrows with Kathy & Tom Harig (who run a bookstore in Oxford), Kathy Schwartz and Timothy Thompson, 3 of us 6 being librarians, a 4th the daughter of one.      
            SUNDAY, August 23.  Of most interest: a very early SWAINSON’S THRUSH seen on the Olszewski Trails.  Good look at the upperparts (no reddish plumage) and the conspicuous buffy eyering.  The previous earliest fall record for Rigby’s Folly was August 30.  2 Cedar Waxwings, 4 Wild Turkeys, 2 adult and an immature Bald Eagle, 4 Black Vultures, the little screech-owl again, and a female Black-and-white Warbler.  The dusk robin roost count dips to 269.  
            For the first time in weeks I hear Green Tree Frogs, energized by the recent deluge.  A fawn.  2 Gray Squirrels.  3 Diamondback Terrapin.  Butterflies:  3 Tiger Swallowtails, 4 Sachems, 2 Common Wood Nymphs, 3 Red-spotted Purples, and 1 each of Pearlcrescent, American Lady, Silver-spotted Skipper, and Monarch.  This has been an especially bad year for Silver-spotted Skippers and Buckeyes.  The shortage of butterflies locally has drawn the attention of newspaper and television media in Philadelphia.  Linda Schwartz, Timothy Thompson, and Kathy Harig visit in the morning.  Fair, 74-86, NW5-SW5.
            MONDAY, August 24.  Present only until 10 A.M.  A hard day to leave given the lower humidity and temperature, fair weather, and the refreshing north wind.  A Royal and 3 Forster’s terns, a Baltimore Oriole (a migrant),  1 Spotted Sandpiper, a Green Heron, 2 adult Bald Eagles, a Wild Turkey in Woods 2, 4 deer, and a Diamondback Terrapin.        
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
_________________________________________________________________
With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and share your photos.
http://www.windowslive.com/Desktop/PhotoGallery