86th DORCHESTER COUNTY MAY BIRD COUNT (in part), May 8, 2010, & FERRY NECK, May 6-10. Below is the report of what Bill Hubick and I see and hear. Several other parties are out today. After I receive all of the reports I’ll submit the complete results, in excruciating detail, perhaps in a week or so. 119 species. # of individuals to be totaled later. To give an idea of how today went, the record one party total, with 2 observers, for this count is 168 species.
ABBREVIATIONS: BNWR, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. EIR, Elliott Island Road. MSS, Moneystump Swamp Unit of BNWR. SH, Swan Harbor. SWR, Shorter’s Wharf Road.
WEATHER. Ugh! VERY windy with near gale force winds much of the day. 65-84 degrees F., winds SW or WSW becoming NW or WNW, 20-35+ m.p.h. 65 degrees at midnight, 69 at 2 A.M., 71 at 3:45 A.M., 84 at 11 A.M., 70 at 8:30 P.M. Sky clear becoming fair. c. 30% cloud cover at 1 P.M. is the maximum for clouds. Hazy with blurry visibility in the distance in the day until c. 1 P.M., then becoming much clearer with excellent visibility after the rain and change in wind direction.
Some light rain noon – 1 P.M. Tides moderate, high at the start, low at the end, high in the areas we are in in the early afternoon. A little tidal water on some of the roads. The windiest of any of the 86 counts. Top wind measurements at Bishops Head in extreme south Dorchester were 32.2 m.p.h. (7:12 P.M.) with gusts to 38.0 m.p.h. (10:12 P.M.). Thanks to Jared Sparks for putting me onto this.
EFFORT: Midnight – 8:30 P.M. 206 miles by car, 1 by foot, 2 observers: Bill Hubick and yours truly.
LANDBIRD FLIGHT: Non-existent. Otherwise the strong winds probably cost us 15 or more species.
Canada goose 40. wood duck 9. American black duck 10. mallard 60. blue-winged teal 3 BNWR Pool 1. northern bobwhite a pathetic 3. American white pelican 1 Sewards (death, taxes and the Sewards white pelican). double-crested cormorant 100. great blue heron 30. great egret 14. snowy egret 9. tricolored heron 1. green heron 1. black-crowned night heron 2.
black vulture 3. turkey vulture 80. osprey 40. bald eagle 83. northern harrier 3 EIR. red-tailed hawk 1. buteo unID’d 1. clapper rail 1. king rail 1 upper EIR. Virginia rail 3. common moorhen 3 EIR. black-bellied plover 2 BNWR Pool 1. semipalmated plover 53. killdeer 8. American oystercatcher 1 SH.
black-necked stilt 3 EIR. spotted sandpiper 3. solitary sandpiper 3. greater yellowlegs 15. willet 13. lesser yellowlegs 20. sanderling 1 SH. semipalmated sandpiper 3. least sandpiper 70. dunlin 520. short-billed dowitcher 1 EIR. sandpiper unID’d (medium-large, perhaps a Stilt Sandpiper but too distant to ID) 1.
laughing gull 400. ring-billed gull 30. herring gull 65. great black-backed gull 17. least tern 17. common tern 8. Comintern 1 Moscow. Politburo 1 Ekaterinburg. Forster’s tern 22. royal tern 9 SH. rock pigeon 16. mourning dove 25. yellow-billed cuckoo 2.
eastern screech-owl 1 Lewis Wharf Road. great horned owl 1 last bird of the day, perched on wire centered between 2 telephone poles near Vienna. barred owl 1. chuck-will’s-widow 7 incl. 1 well-seen at rest and in flight for c. 10 seconds in the car headlights. chimney swift 10. ruby-throated hummingbird 3.
red-headed woodpecker 10 a new May count high total. red-bellied woodpecker 2. downy woodpecker 1. northern flicker 5. pileated woodpecker 1 MS. eastern wood pewee 17. Acadian flycatcher 2. great crested flycatcher 35. eastern kingbird 11. white-eyed vireo 3. red-eyed vireo 6.
blue jay 3. American crow 20. fish crow 6. horned lark 7. purple martin 55. tree swallow 35. bank swallow 3. barn swallow 115. Carolina chickadee 14. tufted titmouse 15. white-breasted nuthatch 1 BNWR Wildlife Drive. brown-headed nuthatch 9.
Carolina wren 16. house wren 15. marsh wren 25. blue-gray gnatcatcher 18. eastern bluebird 12. wood thrush 2. American robin 110. gray catbird 4. northern mockingbird 10. European starling 90. cedar waxwing 2 BNWR Visitor Center.
pine warbler 20. prairie warbler 1. blackpoll warbler SWR. prothonotary warbler 1. worm-eating warbler 3. ovenbird 7. common yellowthroat 50. yellow-breasted chat 5.
summer tanager 5. eastern towhee 12. chipping sparrow 35. grasshopper sparrow 13. saltmarsh sparrow 2 EIR. seaside sparrow 85. song sparrow 1 SWR. swamp sparrow 2 singers EIR. northern cardinal 45. blue grosbeak 15. indigo bunting 25.
bobolink 5. red-winged blackbird 350. eastern meadowlark 2. common grackle 150. boat-tailed grackle 8. brown-headed cowbird 35. orchard oriole 18. house finch 7. American goldfinch 20. house sparrow 24.
MAMMALS: Sika Deer 87, 1 Muskrat (plus 1 d.o.r.), Eastern Cottontail, White-tailed Deer 5, Gray Fox 1 EIR, Red Fox (5 or so kits plus a grown animal s. of Shorter’s Wharf staring at us from atop a dirt mound & photographed by Bill; a local fellow I run into every year at EIR is friendly enough but makes a specialty of shooting foxes, perhaps the reason we saw a couple of dead kits there), Raccoon, Gray Squirrel.
“When Daniel Boone goes by, at night/the phantom deer arise/and all lost, wild America/Is burning in their eyes.” – Stephen Vincent Benét: “Daniel Boone.” This fine epigraph was used by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher in their iconic travel adventure, so well-described by their “Wild America: the record of a 30,000 mile journey around the continent by a distinguished naturalist and his British colleague” (Houghton Mifflin, 1955).
On May 8 Bill Hubick and I encounter dozens of Sika Deer between 4 and 5 A.M. in the area between the Transquaking River marshes and Elliott Island Road. They stand transfixed by my 1,000,000 candlepower spotlight (which it is illegal to use for such purposes … so sue me), their eyes glowing back at us. Non-native animals, but Wild America certainly seems to be “burning in their eyes.”
“Wild America” and Peterson’s “Birds over America” (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1948) transfixed many of us in our youth. As school boys, Will Russell and I had each read “Birds over America” 6 or 7 times. We could pick out any 4-word phrase from that book, spring it on the other, and he’d be able to fill in completely its context and often finish the sentence.
“Wild America” is beautifully reprised by Scott Weidensaul in “Return to wild America: a yearlong search for the continent’s natural soul” (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).
REPTILES: Painted Turtle, Snapping Turtle (4 big ones seen, several laying eggs on high ground; an intimidating dreadnought of a reptile, not to be trifled with), Diamondback Terrapin (1 captured & photographed by Bill at Beaverdam Creek-Smithville Bridge), Black Rat Snake, Northern Watersnake (2 mating, openly and in public, in Pool 1 of BNWR), Mud Turtle, Red-bellied Slider.
AMPHIBIANS: Bullfrog (calling plus a couple of roadkills), Green Frog, Cope’s Gray Tree Frog, Green Tree Frog (a few subdued, half-hearted choruses as well as scratchy-voiced individuals), Fowler’s Toad, Southern Leopard Frog, Cricket Frog (widespread, esp. common at BNWR MSS unit).
INSECTS: Red-spotted Purple, American Lady, Viceroy, Mourning Cloak, Red Admiral, Tiger Swallowtail, Variegated Fritillary, Question Mark, Spicebush Swallowtail, Common Whitetail, Needham’s Skimmer, Painted Skimmer, Swamp Darner, Fragile Forktail, Blue Dasher (last 5 all at BNWR MSS unit, where the Painted Skimmers are abundant). Thanks to Bill for IDing these dragonflies.
NIGHT LIST: 18 bird species. The night list for the May 1 count was 23 species.
FERRY NECK-RIGBY’S FOLLY:
THURSDAY, MAY 6: 99 Turkey Vultures on the way down from Philadelphia. At the routes 481 X 309 pond, just 2 Painted Turtles. Shrubs are growing up here, making it less attractive to shorebirds and waterfowl.
2 Wild Turkeys in Field 4. First of year Green Tree Frogs, Green Heron, and Least Tern. Also first of year, for under the dock, 5 Barn Swallows. Fair, NW 20-10, 90-78.
FRIDAY, MAY 7: 1 imm. Bald Eagle, 1 male Indigo Bunting, 1 Brown Thrasher, 1 crested flycatcher (foraging on the front porch), 2 kingbirds (sitting atop the outdoor rocking chair), 2 catbirds. Butterflies: 3 Mourning Cloaks, 6 Red-spotted Purples, 2 Tiger Swallowtails, 20 Cabbage Whites, 3 American Ladies & an unID’d skipper.
Caught in the act, and captured, too: a 12” young Black Rat Snake resting on the deck of my boat and, elsewhere, a 5’11” one, a splendid-looking, well-fed (on mice, I hope) reptile. At 9 P.M. Liz sees a large Five-lined Skink on the front porch, our only nocturnal record. About this time I discover big problems with my car’s heating/cooling system; Bill Hubick comes to the rescue with his car for tomorrow’s bird count. 1 Diamondback Terrapin.
Clear becoming mostly overcast, 60-75, NNE5-W10-SW15, weather deteriorating to way-too-windy for my purposes. Bill sees a Raccoon and a Virginia Opossum as he goes in our drive.
SATURDAY, MAY 8. Liz spends a few hours and finds 26 species for the Talbot County May Bird Count, including a Cooper’s Hawk, 3 Snowy Egrets, 2 Bald Eagles, a Least Tern, and a yellowthroat. She also sees a Silver-spotted Skipper. Dan Dixon of St. Michaels Automotive Center fixes the car. Liz deals with reports of our Philadelphia security system going off.
SUNDAY, MAY 9: Clear, 47-63, NW 25-35. We see a male Cooper’s Hawk, no doubt the one Liz saw yesterday. 1 imm. Bald Eagle. Purple Martins, Chimney Swifts, crested fly., kingbird Mostly I just recover from yesterday’s workout but do make 2 cuts in a large, fallen, dead Black Gum that has fallen across the Olszewski Trails, and remove it so the trails can be mowed. Good to use the axe … once in a while. Butterflies: Red Admiral, American Lady, Red-spotted Purple, Cabbage White & unID’d foldwinged skipper.
MONDAY, MAY 10. Close down and leave. Fair, cool, breezy. A Wild Turkey in Field 4, 2 in front of the Old Church on Ferry Neck Road. Just a Great Blue Heron at the 481 X 309 pond. 53 Turkey Vultures on the way home.
A small ANTLER somehow appeared on our Philadelphia lawn, where deer are unheard of, and has enjoyed some slight gnawing thanks to Gray Squirrels.
MAY 1 at Elliott Island Road. As happens sometimes there was a blizzard of insects over the roadways after the completion of the count that day.
TULIP TREES. In our MD yard they were already starting to bloom April 29-30, another early tree this year. A.K.A. Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar. Best to all, ‘til the next time.- Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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