APRIL 29-MAY 2, 2010, Ferry Neck and 85th DORCHESTER COUNTY MAY BIRD COUNT.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29. Two Bald Eagles at milepost 105 Route 301. Pond off Rt. 481 near Hope – 2 Canada Geese and 2 Red Fox kits next to the pond. Route 481 pond n. of Rt. 309: 2 Wilson’s Snipe, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Mallards, and a great blue.
Rigby’s Folly: 22 deer in fields 4 & 2. A 2-foot fish jumps out from Lucy Point. At 8:05 P.M. a Great Horned Owl flies swiftly along the shoreline, seen from the back porch. Black Cherries are blossoming. Fair, SW5-10 but basically breezy, mid-low 60s, late afternoon only. The active Osprey nest on top of the neighbors’ chimney has become substantial, big, in fact. They’re in for a noisy, messy time.
FRIDAY, APRIL 30. 57-81, SW 5-15-5, clear, a beauty. 10 gray Catbirds, a new spring high count surpassing the 8 that Marshall Iliff, George Armistead and I saw on May 7, 1999. 93 Diamondback Terrapin. A ♀ Wild Turkey in Field 4. 6 White-throated Sparrows. 7 Southern Leopard Frogs. Butterflies: 41 Cabbage Whites, 6 sulphurs & 1 American Lady. 2 Hairy Woodpeckers.
Cut a subtle, see-through passageway in Woods 4 so that it is easier to see from the road the Painted Turtles that bask there. Right next to this someone has tried pathetically to anonymously establish their “street cred” by blasting 17 holes through the speed limit sign with double aught buckshot. Of course, when I was a teen punk Van Hubbard and I once went sign hunting with a 20-gauge.
New for the year here: a kingbird, a crested flycatcher, an Orchard Oriole. 3 Common Loons, which have thinned out or disappeared very early this spring. Only 3 deer today. Took photographs of the large areas of yellow flowers in Field 1, locust and cherry blossoms, and the shoreline as seen from the dock at low tide. There’s a big oak in Woods 2 out of which a 30-foot high Sweet Gum grows right from the center of the oak’s trunk. The base of the gum disappears into the center of the oak’s trunk base about 3 feet off the ground.
SATURDAY, MAY 1, the LXXXVth (85th) Dorchester County, MD, May Bird Count. 11:15 P.M., Friday until 8:30 P.M., Saturday (21.25 hours). 208 miles by car, a mere 1 or so on the tootsies. 124 species. 61 (not bad for an overnight low) to 92 degrees, clear becoming fair then partly overcast, winds (a little too strong for my purposes) SW 10-15. 64 at 2 A.M., Still 88 at 5:30 P.M., 77 at 7 P.M. Tide sequence: high, low, high, falling at the end. Humidity not too bad. Moon c. ¾ full, rising c. 10 P.M. on Friday night.
MY THANKS to the Blackwater refuge staff for granting me access to the Moneystump Swamp tract, which is unlike any local habitat I have ever seen anywhere else. Hundreds of acres of swampy woodlands have countless thousands of Loblolly Pines that are mostly either dead, dying, or fallen over, due to saltwater intrusion, I’d guess, these mostly on the south side of the access road. Tree Swallows, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Wood Ducks, Brown-headed Nuthatches, and House Wrens love the place. At one point 4 adult calling Bald Eagles flew low overhead in a compact group.
ABBREVIATIONs: E.I.R., Elliott Island Road. BNWR, Blackwater N.W.R. d.o.r., dead on the road.
NELSON’S SPARROW 1, E.I.R., 1:47 A.M., a singing bird I’d say closer than 50 feet. Am familiar with the song from birds I’ve heard in Maine and Nova Scotia but just to verify it played the recording on my iPod. This is a 1st for the Dorchester May counts and is new for my MD and county lists.
American White Pelican 1, at Sewards. Brown Pelican 24 (Hooper’s Island). Least Bittern 1 (Shorter’s Marsh). Black-crowned Night Heron 4 (1 flushed from under the Bestpitch Ferry Bridge at 4:42 A.M., where perhaps it may have been feeding on Barn Swallow eggs ?). Glossy Ibis, 2, BNWR Pool 1. Mute Swan 1 (E.I.R.). Blue-winged Teal 12. Green-winged Teal 10. Northern Pintail 1 ♂, BNWR Pool 5. Ruddy Duck 30, Fishing Bay.
Bald Eagle 38. Northern Bobwhite all of 2. Clapper Rail 6. Virginia Rail 24. Black Rail 0. Common Moorhen 4 E.I.R. American Oystercatcher 2 Swan Harbor. Spotted Sandpiper 6. Sanderling 30 Swan Harbor. Pectoral Sandpiper 4 BNWR Pool 1. Black-necked Stilt 3 EIR. Royal Tern 5 EIR. 1 each of screech, horned & Barred owls. Chuck-will’s-widow 22. Red-headed Woodpecker 7 (commonest woodpecker!). pewee 1.
Blue Jay all of 3. Brown-headed Nuthatch 8. Marsh Wren 25. Yellow Warbler 4. Common Yellowthroat 74 (used the clicker to count this species). chat 5. Summer Tanager 6. Savannah Sparrow 11 (+ 1 d.o.r.). Seaside Sparrow154 (71 along Shorter’s Wharf Road, 77 at E.I.R. [a single, non-stop count of singing birds from the moving car after sunset, when they really start to cut loose] and 6 elsewhere). Swamp Sparow 3 (singing, no doubt breeders). Blue Grosbeak 12. Eastern Meadowlark only 2. Boat-tailed Grackle only 3.
MAMMALS: 2 Gray Squirrels, 5 Red Foxes (young kits, way cute, but will grow up to kill and eat other animals I’m fond of), 1 skunk, 3 Eastern Cottontails, 49 Sika Elk (all of the latter seen from between Bestpitch Ferry to E.I.R., as usual), 1 Raccoon (d.o.r.), 1 Virginia Opossum (d.o.r.). The Sika count would be much higher except that I encountered several vehicles and chose not to shine the 1,000,000 candlepower spotlight across some of the fields.
AMPHIBIANS: 1 Gray Tree Frog (entrance to Tubman Trail), 20 Green Tree Frogs (EIR), 12 Fowler’s Toads, 1 Carpenter Frog (EIR), 2 Cricket Frogs (Moneystump Swamp), 14 Southern Leopard Frogs, 10 Green Frogs, 6 Bull Frogs. No Spring Peepers or NJ Chorus Frogs.
REPTILES: 8 Red-bellied Sliders, 3 Mud Turtles, 28 Painted Turtles, 1 Snapping Turtle (d.o.r., Egypt Road), 12 Diamondback Terrapin, 1 Black Rat Snake (d.o.r.).
BUTTERFLIES: 20 or so Cabbage Whites, 2 Spicebush Swallowtails, 7 sulphurs, 1 Monarch, 1 Pearlcrescent. Also of interest, 100s of fireflies over and in the E.I.R. marsh at night.
Today, although it has some great moments, is very disappointing. It’s not just the lack of a passerine flight, but some of the resident birds seem to be just barely present. Grant it I will be 70 soon and haring aids only partially restore skills I had as a 30-year-old hotshot, but there is something missing that perhaps may never come back. As Wordsworth put it, in a vastly different context: “It is not now as it hath been of yore./Turn whereso’er I may/By night or day/The things that I have seen I now can see no more.” Several times during the course of May 1 I wondered why I was even doing this count.
Still … having completed yet another spring count here, there is satisfaction in that. As I like to tell Liz, I go to try to see as much as I can of what is there (what is left?). If I feel I have made a good effort, and seen much of what is there, that is some considerable recompense.
And it’s nice that, in the 45 years I’ve been doing these May things, oystercatchers and pelicans have become regular nesters in the county and bluebirds and Bald Eagles have rebounded so strongly.
Ran into Tonto Hughes at 4:36 A.M. along the Transquaking River marshes. He owns c. 700 acres nearby and through the Christmas count has come to know Chan Robbins. When a battered pickup truck passes you in the darkness, then backs up, there is cause for apprehension, so it was a relief to meet this friendly man, who commented on how Whip-poor-wills have become scarce in the south county. He wanted to know if I was lost.
SUNDAY, May 2. Overnight low of 73, as if it were summer. After a 10-hour sleep, I just close down the house, clean up the messy car from yesterday, which I was in for 25 straight hours, and head home. A big immature Bald Eagle over one of John Swaine’s fields. At the Rt. 481 pond near Route 309, which has dried up a lot, 4 Least Sandpipers, 3 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 13 Painted Turtles.
BLACK LOCUSTS are in full bloom, as luxuriant as I’ve ever seen them.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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