SOUTH POINT MARSH, ACCOMACK COUNTY, VA, & RUMBLY POINT ROAD, SOMERSET COUNTY, MD, June 28-29, 2010.
MONDAY, JUNE 28. ON THE WAY DOWN: A Red-tailed Hawk, a species not in awe of civilization, perched on a lamp post RIGHT OVER THE ROAD at the intersection of routes 13 and 404 in Delaware. A “Wild” Turkey feeding on the road shoulder at milepost 22.5 on the west side of Route 13 south of Salisbury, MD. I am struck with how unconcerned many of these turkeys are with traffic and people, in spite of the spring hunting season, which has become a big deal in recent years. A Woodchuck near the DE-MD line, a mammal that has expanded to the south in my lifetime.
Quindocqua Road e. of Crisfield: an adult Red-headed Woodpecker. Quindocqua … one of my favorite place names.
RUMBLY POINT ROAD, Somerset County, MD, runs south 1.5+ miles through some of the most beautiful saltmarsh I’ve ever seen just south of the Irish Grove Sanctuary house. I’m only here 5:45-6:45 P.M., when it is 93°F., clear to mostly overcast with distant lightning and storm clouds, SW 15-5, tide low and getting lower fast, occasional light and very brief rain towards the end of this brief visit, but, in a word, HOT.
Complete bird list: Saltmarsh 14 & Seaside 11 sparrows, 14 Double-crested Cormorants, 2 Northern Harriers, 11 Glossy Ibis (actively feeding and probing in some barely wet areas), Boat-tailed Grackle 4, Barn 35 & Tree 6 swallows, Blue Grosbeak 4, black duck 1 (flushed as if from a nest), Red-winged Blackbird 55, Marsh Wren 1, Herring 3 & Laughing 55 gulls, Royal 1 & Forster’s 14 terns, Great Blue Heron 1, Snowy Egret 12, Willet 6 & 1 large but still partly downy young capable of flight, and WHIMBREL 1.
Very brief visit but still am surprised not to find pelican, Bald Eagle, Osprey, yellowthroat, meadowlark, or rails.
Pines Motel, Crisfield. Lovely, well off the main road (Route 413), and with nice Loblolly Pines and a big Fig Bush complex: 1 Glossy Ibis flyover, low, catbird 4, robin 12, Chimney Swift 6, Carolina Wren 2.
SOUTH POINT MARSH, June 29, Tuesday. A boat trip to band Brown Pelican chicks at 4 colonies just south of Smith Island, Maryland. 7 A.M. – 3 P.M. We’re at the colonies c. 8 A.M. – 1 P.M. Twenty-two (I think) of us are on hand including people from the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bat Conservation International, the MD Dept. of Natural Resources, and the National Park Service plus various interns and seasonal workers as well as offhand freelancers such as myself.
The Brown Pelican project, underway since 1987, is directed by Dave Brinker of MDDNR with John Weske as his main assistant. Today 7-8 of us help as banders, the remainder as bird catchers/handlers. Securing the bands requires some strength and skill. I band c. 130 chicks, am rather slow, but getting better. Most use neeedlenose pliers. One of the banders opens a band and suddenly it shoots across the marsh as if propelled by a slingshot.
A total of 1,234 pelican chicks are banded. We run out of time, otherwise 300 or more additional would have been tagged. We do a thorough job at a small NE colony out in the marsh a ways and a larger NW colony. The middle colony is very large and is where most of the chicks are banded today. We do not get to the south colony. Later, we hope.
Today’s crew, transported by 3 boats, includes: Dave Brinker, Nina Fascione, Steve Kendrot, Larry McGowan, Tami Pearl, Jeff Shenot, and John Weske. After today’s effort 22,126 pelican chicks have now been banded. The recovery rate, I am told, is c. 8%, so this means that c. 1,770 birds may eventually be heard from again, many of them to be found dead on beaches. One dead banded adult from a previous year is found today, its origin as a banded chick (in all likelihood, though a few adults are netted and banded each year) yet to be determined.
Before today 20,892 chicks have been tagged since 1987, 72% at South Point Marsh, 25% in Dorchester County, MD. At our traditional celebratory crabcake lunch today at Ruke’s in Ewell, Smith I., MD, Dave hands out copies of a one page, elegant graphic summary of the work so far, with colorful tables, pie charts, etc., showing: 1: locations of colonies in NC, VA, and MD. 2: locations of recoveries in n. Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and the U.S. 3: number of chicks banded each year (high of 3,344 in 2008). 4: % of bandings by location in MD & VA.
Concerning recoveries there is one in inland Maine, lots in Cuba, a few in central America, and several in South America (not shown), but most are in the coastal stretch from Florida to Maryland, with apparently none from NJ. This population seems to stick to the Atlantic coast mostly; there are fortunately, very few recoveries from the Gulf of Mexico and apparently none on the Florida Gulf coast north of the St. Petersburg-Tampa region.
Early in the project most of the bandings were done in the rather small coastal colonies in Worcester County, MD. Fisherman Island, VA, site of a large colony for many years, had no birds in 2009. Banding has never been done there.
Other birds noted at South Point Marsh: Fish Crow 4, American Black Duck 1, Boat-tailed Grackle 3, Tricolored Heron 2, Glossy Ibis 1, Forster’s Tern 4, Seaside Sparrow 7, Northern Harrier 1, Osprey 4, and Great Egret 2. Dave likes to point out that this may be the most remote area in terms of distance from any highway system of any place on the east coast. Today I see 8 large black butterflies, all moving north, often across large stretches of open water, most of which seem to be Spicebush Swallowtails. There’s also one Monarch.
Nests still with eggs: Brown Pelican – 1 egg 7 nests; 2 eggs 4 nests; 3 eggs 1 nest. Double-crested Cormorant – 1 egg 6 nests; 2 eggs 3 nests; 3 eggs 4 nests. At one point in the middle colony I make a scan and come up with an estimate of 435 large cormorant young in sight simultaneously, most of them in 2 large crèches.
Weather: temps in the low 80s, high tide in early afternoon, winds NW 10-15, mostly overcast to partly sunny, great weather for us and the birds. The passage across from Crisfield is rough with much spray and one of those times when a rubber mouth guard to protect one’s teeth occurred to me. Once my pliers slipped and caused a large bruise at the end of my left middle finger. In spite of wearing cutoff white cotton gloves a blister develops on my right palm. Perhaps leather gloves would work better.
Ewell, Smith I., MD. 3 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 2 Willets, 7 Mute Swans (at a distance, up in the Martin N.W.R.), 12 Fish Crows, 2 Purple Martins, 30 Barn Swallows, 5 Little Blue Herons.
John Weske, having overseen the banding of c. 3,400 Royal Tern and 500 Sandwich terns at Oregon Inlet, on Monday, comes in at 9 P.M., Monday, ready to do today’s strenuous work, drive his boat, etc., Tuesday, then heads down to southern North Carolina, Beaufort, for more of the same tomorrow, Wednesday.
HEADIN’ HOME. A roadkill, small fawn at Milepost 35.5, Route 13, MD, near Salisbury.
On the way down Monday I plan to play Ein Heldenleben (a Hero’s Life) but in my haste to get off, forget to bring the CD. But, going down 95 by chance it is on WRTI. Yes! Full of Sturm und Drang at the start, herky jerky back and forths, eventually the great tone poem transforms into the exquisite, elegiac, long, attenuated, and triumphant ending, full of rich horn phrases and poignant strings as the Hero prevails over various adversities. I’ve listened to this regularly for half a century, but the genius of Strauss is still a wellspring. Turning off to 495 at the Wilmington by pass, my hands clutching the steering wheel, the goosebumps build in on my forearms, the hairs lift off from my skin, as if this is the first time I was so affected by this piece, the “theme song” of my Army years in the 1960s. As with Wagner, a composer with even stronger prejudices, Strauss is a person many have problems with. I believe he was the conductor Hitler chose for the 1938 Olympics in Germany. But much of his music is overwhelmingly compelling. Today the music helps as I, an antihero, overcome the adversities of El Stinko I-95 and go on to the “triumphs” of the Crisfield-Smith Island area. A bit of a stretch but when one’s life is not writ large one has to grasp at the straws available.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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