FERRY NECK & BLACKWATER N.W.R., MARCH 25-29, 2010: 35 white pelicans. Harry & Liz Armistead. Observations are at our place, Rigby’s Folly, unless otherwise indicated.
MARCH 25, THURSDAY. On the way down a gonzo count of 165 Turkey Vultures plus 5 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 Bald Eagles, a Cooper’s Hawk, and, at the routes 481 X 309 wetland area, 3 female Hooded Mergansers.
Rigby’s Folly. A lot packed into a late arrival day, as much as on many full days. Present 4 P.M. until dark only, fair becoming mostly overcast with high ceiling, then entirely overcast, SW 10-20, 70-64, higher-than-normal tide. 41 species, incl.:
Northern Gannet 6, Osprey 9, Laughing Gull 8, American Goldfinch 2, Double-crested Cormorant 1 – these all yard year birds (goldfinch!?), believe it or not. Also: Lesser Scaup 255, Ruddy Duck 70, Horned Grebe 11, Great Horned Owl 2, Wood Duck 3, Bald Eagle 2, Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 (migratin’), Northern Harrier 2 (in migration), 11 Slate-colored Juncos (twitterkins), and Fish Crow 103 (leaving double negatives behind in the dust).
Most daffodils are out. 1 Red Fox, 7 deer. 9 Painted Turtles basking in Woods 4. Spring Peepers calling. Has dried much since last visit = dry enough so I can, again, drive across the Big Field w/o 4WD. Many of the Horned Grebes are in breeding plumage. A mysterious, dead, blackish mammal is floating off north of the dock. I was going to retrieve it with a pitchfork but never got to it. It was not a skunk.
MARCH 26, FRIDAY. A pair of Wood Ducks in a vernal pool in Woods 2. A good day for doing chores. Ergo, not much birding. 36 Fish Crows. I do 105 cuttings of small Loblolly Pines (bent and deformed from the winter’s snow storms) and branches (to let in more sun) along the Olszewski Trails from 3:45-5:30. In the water of these trails, which are mostly submerged, are globular egg masses compliments of some kind of amphibian. Light rain in A.M., temperature mostly dropping during the course of the day 51-47-49, ceiling lifting, dim sun (not to be confused with dim sum) through the clouds in the later afternoon, clearing at dusk. East of St. Michaels are 26 Wild Turkeys in their favorite field just south of Route 33.
MARCH 27, SATURDAY. 37-52, NE10+ becoming SE<10, clear changing to high haze. Liz and I do a seawatch from Lucy Point: 830 Surf Scoters, 8 Northern Gannets, 11 Horned Grebes, 2 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 5 Common Loons, 70 Herring Gulls, 1 Bald Eagle, 90 Buffleheads. Strangely: no Long-tailed Ducks. 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks.
Spend an hour clearing blowovers and other debris from the Irish Creek Trail, which I had not visited in weeks. Bruce Olszewski and his lady friend arrive with 2 dogs and pump out the very flooded goosepit. We remove a big Red Cedar limb that had blocked one of the roadways created by Tyler Contracting Company. Conduct the first cookout of the year. At 8:30 P.M. when it is 42 degrees F. (but feels much colder) a Spring Peeper calls from the small pond adjoining our yard, where I can’t recall ever hearing them before. Make yourself at home, l’il fella. 6 deer.
MARCH 28, SUNDAY:
BLACKWATER N.W.R., 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. Bird Walk, 8 a.m. – noon, with Ellen & Tom Cimino, Bill & Jane Hill, Bill Mattimore, Ellen, Loretta & Patrick Skirvin, Pam Smith, Andrew Voelker & Levin Willey and your truly (note, that makes 12 participants, not 11 as I’d written incorrectly on the V.C. clipboard). Fair but with rain for ½ hour (ergo overcast then), E5-20, 37-50, cold, water levels high everywhere. Saturation city, in fact. 60 species.
Non-avian taxa: 2 Gray Squirrels, calling Spring Peepers and New Jersey Chorus Frogs, 2 Painted Turtles, plus d.o.r. Raccoon and Virginia Opossum.
Avian taxa of most interest: AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, groups of 24, 10, and 1 = 35 in toto, 1 Snowy Egret, 3 Pied-billed Grebes (a grouping in Pool 1; 1 catches a small fish, an action photographed later in the day by Pam Smith), an imm. Red-shouldered Hawk, 25 Bald Eagles, 51 Fish Crows, 15 Wilson’s Snipe.
I get a big head thinking the 35 pelicans are a new state high count but learn later that 3 hardchargers (Brighton, Hubick & Lutmerding, LLC) saw 40 here Saturday. Nice going you three!
All 9 dabbling duck species again, to wit: Mallard 40, American Black Duck 2, Green-winged Teal 35, Blue-winged Teal 2, Gadwall 10, Northern Pintail 3, Northern Shoveler 40, American Wigeon 2, and Wood Duck 4. No Snow Geese are seen.
Also: Tundra Swan 2, Osprey 10, Northern Harrier 2, Greater & Lesser yellowlegs combo 30, Dunlin 20, Laughing Gull 4, Downy Woodpecker 4, Brown-headed Nuthatch 5, Brown Thrasher 1, Eastern Bluebird 8, Pine Warbler 4 (all singers), Eastern Meadowlark 1, Slate-colored Junco 1, Tree Swallow 40. One of the nuthatches is seen gathering cattail seeds out in the predominantly Scirpus marsh, then flying to a dead pine snag on the edge of the marsh, where there seems to be a nesting cavity.
New Jersey Chorus Frogs calling from the little cattail “pond” at Carroll’s Market, Route 33 west of Easton, easy to hear even w/o hearing aids as traffic roars by on Route 33 and various vehicles are idling in the parking area. You go, Frog! 3 Wild Turkeys at Bellevue X Ferry Neck Roads.
2 P.M. until dark only (Rigby’s Folly). 10 Painted Turtles basking on one log in Woods 4, where there is a small vernal pool easily seen from the road. 3 Gray Squirrels. Several spring peepers calling in our yard pond after sunset. Fair becoming partly sunny, then overcast with rain after c. 9 P.M. 61-57. Winds South 20-30+ turning to gale force. Tide a good 1.5 feet above normal. We sit by the cove in the lee for 45 minutes and watch a breeding plumage Common Loon hunting. In this time it catches 2 Hogchokers and continues hunting after swallowing them. With one of the Hogchokers it dips its head into the water 40 times, each time adjusting its purchase on the small but wide fish, then finally … down the hatch it goes. 1 Northern Watersnake. A few Buffleheads and Lesser Scaup dealing with the monstruous (for Irish Creek) waves.
MARCH 29, MONDAY. Steady rain, calm, overcast, 55 degrees F. Our entire property is a swamp with running water in the ditches. Uninspiring but we have to leave for the North anyway, which we do at 10:30. Gloomy day with only 10 Turkey Vultures on the trip, 9 perched on a communications tower at Middletown, Delaware, one more in the soggy air at Plymouth Meeting, PA.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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