FERRY NECK, TALBOT COUNTY, MD, April 2-5, 2010. Gannets!! (every
one of them in full adult plumage) Observations are on our property unless otherwise noted. MARITIME MUSEUM DOINGS. RUTHSBURG. BARREN & JAMES ISLANDS.
FRIDAY, April 2. 192 Turkey Vultures on the way down plus 2 Black Vultures, 2 Bald Eagles, 2 Cooper’s and 1 Red-tailed hawk. Perhaps 250 Ruddy Ducks in the Miles River next to Newcomb and 14 Wild Turkeys in the field next to Route 33 just west of there.
Present only from 2:15 P.M. Clear, 67-59, SW 10-15. From Lucy Point in the Choptank River mouth: 27 Northern Gannets, 31 Double-crested Cormorants, 110 Surf Scoters, 7 Horned Grebes. 4 Common Loons 25 Buffleheads, 17 Lesser Scaup and 3 Bald Eagles. Also on the old place: 2 Wood Ducks, 1 female Gadwall (only c. the 6th yard record), a Barn Swallow, 1 Eastern Phoebe, 3 Laughing Gulls, and, at dusk, a nice Spring Peeper chorus near the house. 3 Gray Squirrels, 16 deer, a Spring Azure, 1 Diamondback Terrapin, and, in Woods 4, 2 Painted Turtles.
A full-grown dead doe lies right in the middle of the Choptank River trail, is a real treat to remove (El Stinko Grande). See 4 Ospreys carrying fish. Far offshore, perhaps 3-4 miles distant even, through the scope watch an imm. Bald Eagle chase a fish-carrying Osprey for 4-5 minutes - a really extended chase. Eventually the Osprey eludes the eagle, and keeps its fish. Lots of minnows in land-locked Waterthrush Pond, where Great Blue Herons occasionally hunt, even though the tiny pond is surrounded by mature trees and undergrowth.
Dinner at Chesapeake Landing Seafood Restaurant and Takeout west of St. Michaels with Linda Schwartz and Timothy Thompson. Those 2 have spent the afternoon at BLACKWATER N.W.R.,where they see 36 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS and 20 American Coots.
SATURDAY, April 3. Timothy and Linda visit in the morning. Out at Lucy Point we see 31 gannets, 2 ad. Bald Eagles, a Forster’s Tern, 60 Buffleheads, 1 White-winged & 300 Surf scoters, 65 Lesser Scaup, 3 Common Loons, 6 Horned Grebes, and 2 Northern Shovelers (only c. 10th property record; they land, improbably, well offshore among the scoters).
Also in the ‘hood today: a Chipping Sparrow, 3 Cabbage Whites, 1 deer, a good chorus of Fowler’s Toads after dusk, and a small Spring Peeper chorus just before then. From 1:30-4 I clear the Warbler Trail with bowsaw, lopper, and hedge clippers. My first tick of the year appears on the handle of the saw.
During this visit I’d say what I (perhaps mistakenly) call Hawthorns are at their peak (as are daffodils), dazzling white, as if covered with a great burden of large, wet snow flakes. As brilliant as I’ve ever seen them. It seems the oaks, Tulip Trees, Sassafras, roses, Sweet Gum, and some other plants are coming out early.
49-70, E10-S5-10-SE20+, overcast becoming fair but often with high haze and somewhat overcast, then clear (at night). 61 degrees F. at 9:45 P.M., at which point the toads are really starting to sound off.
SUNDAY, April 4. EASTER. 1 Lesser Yellowlegs (headed due north w/o stopping; only c. 16 records for here), 2 Barn Swallows, 11 Ospreys in sight simultaneously, 127 Ruddy Ducks, 1470 Surf Scoters, 41 gannets, 3 Forster’s Terns, 5 Common Loons, 3 Horned Grebes. The numbers of grebes and loons have been unimpressive so far. A few raptors trickle through headed north: 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks and an American Kestrel. Regarding the scoters, early in the day, when it is windy, I estimate only 330; later on its calm and much easier to see everything that’s out there.
Liz and I again watch a Common Loon hunting in the cove. It catches 3 Hogchokers. A fastidious diner, it dips one of them down into the water 51 times before, rather quickly, swallowing it. Late in the afternoon 53 Diamondback Terrapin snouts are easy to count at the mouth of the cove but I am surprised to see no Spotted Turtles or Painted Turtles today.
At day’s end it is 66 at 8:45 P.M. and there is a huge chorus of Fowler’s Toads, singing their little hearts out, punctuated by the guttural rattle of a few Southern Leopard Frog utterances and some Spring Peepers with their loud, penetrating, whistled calls. Also: Gray Squirrel, 3 of the little things, Cabbage White 3, Spring Azure 1, and deer 1. Across the cove a rather large Osprey nest with both adults on it has been constructed on top of a neighbor’s boat. It’s almost like blackmail: “You erect a nesting platform on a piling or else I’ll nest on your boat.”
Fair becoming mostly overcast with high cloud cover, 59-76, NW10-calm.
Liz and I visit the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels (www dot cbmm dot org) where there is a splendid exhibit (“A rising tide in the heart of Chesapeake Bay”) of Dave Harp’s spectacular photographs of the Hooper’s-Holland-Smith islands areas accompanied by some video interviews with watermen. The photographs are annotated with Tom Horton’s text. There are lots of maps, some of them historic, others current. It’s a great exhibit. Maritime museum indeed: just offshore are a dozen gannets. Also: 2 Bald Eagles and 2 Barn Swallows. Upstairs are historic as well as recent aerial photographs of different areas Chesapeake Bay.
THE BOUNTY. By happenstance we are at the maritime museum as a replica of HMS Bounty is standing out from the museum, at anchor in the Miles River. This is a 1960 replica built for the filming of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’. Impressive with 3 huge masts. Several crew are athwart what I make to be the main topgallant sail yard, so high above the decks. She’s waiting for high tide c. 8:30 P.M. before tying up at the museum but is due to leave at 5P.M. today.
My friend George Reiger was in Tahiti when the movie was filmed and loves to regale people with the fact that he was “an extra in the second flogging scene.” Captain Bligh, on learning that a partially-punished crewman was dead, is reputed to have said to flog him anyway.
At the St. Michaels library a few days ago for a buck I picked up a book that tells the familiar tale of the Bounty. Men, ships and the sea (no women?), by Capt. Alan Villiers (National Geographic Society, 1962, 436pp.). The Bounty chapter is “the Bounty: mutiny in the South Seas,” pp. 260-272, and has photographs of items from the original ship found by divers at Pitcairn Island as well as photos of descendants of Fletcher Christian, the locales involved, and much else.
When the mutiny took place, April 28, 1789, Bligh and 17 men were set adrift in a 23-foot boat with meager supplies, food, and drink. They navigated for 41 days, 3,618 miles, with only about 7 inches of freeboard to start, from Tofua (Island) west around Australia and New Guinea to Timor, perhaps the most astounding epic of seamanship ever achieved. Bligh was so terrible he endured a second mutiny years later. I remember in the movie Marlin Brando, as Fletcher Christian, referring to Bligh as a “most unusual pig.” It is thrilling to see the Bounty replica today. www dot tallshipbounty dot org Some of the information above, taken from the NGS book, is at variance with the Wikipedia account of The Bounty.
MONDAY, April 5. Leave at 10:30 A.M. From Lucy Point the Choptank River mouth is quite calm but visibility is less than 2 miles. Panning the visible waterways carefully with the 32X scope reveals 171 Northern Gannets, almost all at rest on the water’s surface, making an exact count easy. The previous high count here: 69 on March 16, 2000. This visit they seem to prefer the waters of Broad Creek and the Choptank River mouth; few are seen “upstream.” No plunge-diving this morning.
George and I first saw gannets here on March 29, 1986, and have seen them every year since, esp. in the late March-mid-April period.
Also out there: 960 Surf Scoters, 125 Buffleheads, and a Red-throated Loon. 57-64, mostly high, hazy overcast but becoming clear, winds south @ 5. 9 Painted Turtles in the Woods 4 vernal pool.
HEADIN’ HOME. Not much. My favorite pond on Route 481 has no birds, has been strangely barren this spring, but 5 Painted Turtles are hauled out in the sun. Seen along the way: 98 Turkey Vultures, an ad. Bald Eagle (perched near the pond), 2 Red-tailed and 1 Cooper’s hawk.
The drive home passes along route 309, and then 481, is a few minutes and a couple of miles longer than just going up Route 50 to Route 213, but is bucolic and birdy, esp. along 481, with its bluebirds, Blue Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, meadowlarks, Horned Larks et al. Quite a few fallow fields where others have found breeding Dickcissels. This may change.
A 2,000 acre “campus” has been proposed near Ruthsburg as an “anti-terrrorism and diplomatic-security training center.” Many residents oppose this and we see signs that say: “Save the farms. No training center.” Cf. Time, April 12, 2010, p. 10, “Postcard: Ruthsburg: a new State Department facility would bring hundreds of jobs to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. But some locals aren’t happy. How a proposed government project went sour,” by Alex Altman. There would be firearms ranges, detonations of explosives, and other good stuff. If this happens we’ll revert to Route 50 and deal with the beach traffic.
RECONSTITUTED ISLANDS. Chesapeake Bay journal, March 2010, vol. 20, no. 1, p. 7, has an article, “Bay islands rising from the depths, thanks to dredge materials,” by Rona Kobell. Many birders (as well as school and other groups) have benefited from the dredge spoil deposition projects that have resulted in the “new” Hart-Miller and Poplar islands. On the docket are plans for 2 more massive replenishment efforts. It will be great if birding opportunities develop at these 2 sites also. The statements below are based on statistics in this article.
The Poplar Island project began in 1998, is projected to end in 2027, at a cost of $667,000,000, and is 1,715 acres. Hart-Miller went from 1984-2009, costing $305,000,000, is 1,140 acres. Next will be 2 Dorchester County islands:
Barren Island, a unit of Blackwater N.W.R., is projected to go from 2017-2022, @$30,000,000 and will result in 72 additional acres. It has declined from 754 acres in the 1800s to 200 now and loses c. 5 acres a year. It has a Bald Eagle nest and a substantial Great Blue Heron and Great Egret colony plus mature Loblolly Pine woodlands and is one of the few places in MD where Eastern Narrowmouth Toads have been found (sound like the very loud and long bleating of a sheep).
Volunteers have done much planting of marsh grasses here and there are already some rip rap and geotubes in place to slow erosion. I have visited the area off and on since the early 1970s. Previously there was a large mixed heronry here with all MD heron-egret-ibis species nesting except Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, and Black Skimmers have bred here in the past as well as Common, Forster’s, and Least Terns, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, and American Oystercatchers.
Farther north, just offshore from Taylor’s Island, is James Island (not to be confused with Janes Island State Park in Somerset County), two small separate islands. The project there is said to be from 2018-2027 @ $1,600,000,000 and will result in a 2,072 acre site (90-95,000,000 cubic yards of dredged material). Sika Elk established on James Island escaped to mainland Dorchester where they are now common in the southern part of the county. It is privately owned. I have done some atlassing there and did not find much except for an active Bald Eagle nest. The island(s) - what is left - has (have) some nice large Loblolly Pines. I predict there will be NO islands here by 2018.
This article presents such staggering statistics. The dredge spoil has to go somewhere. If it can help sustain some of the Bay’s rapidly eroding islands, so much the better. Lots of interesting news in this journal, that is worth subscribing to just for Dave Harp’s splendid photography. subscribe dot bay journal at earthlink dot net
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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