FERRY NECK, TALBOT COUNTY, MD, AUGUST 6-9, 2010.
            FRIDAY, AUGUST 6:  Arrive at 9:30 P.M., fair, 81°F., NW10 m.p.h.  On the way down a Cooper’s Hawk just e. of Churchman’s Marsh, Delaware.  A kestrel at Ruthsburg.  Hundreds of Fireflies along Route 481, one of the best “lightning bug” shows I’ve ever seen.  Lots of Green Tree Frogs calling from Davidson’s property as well as in the vicinity of The Pond.  On the way up the driveway a COPE’S GRAY TREEFROG calls right next to the car and we stop and hear it twice more c. 9:25 P.M.  This is a new amphibian for the property.  See discussion below.*  
            SATURDAY, AUGUST 7:
            52 bird species on Saturday including these migrants: an extremely early MAGNOLIA WARBLER, 2 American Kestrels, a Spotted Sandpiper, 1 Eastern Wood Pewee (does not breed here), Cedar Waxwings in groupings of 10, 17 & 2 (=29), 3 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (hanging out together), 2 ♀ American Redstarts, Prairie Warbler 1, Blue-winged Warbler 1, Bobolink 7, Red-winged Blackbird 145, Tree Swallow 3, and Solitary Sandpiper 1.  That’s a pretty good flight for so early on.   
            ALSO:  Liz finds another Carolina Wren nest in one of the big flower pots by the back porch.  Probing carefully with an unscented yardstick, I can see at least 3 eggs in the cryptic, dome-shaped nest.  Bald Eagle, 10 sightings comprising at least 3 adults and an immature.  2 Great and 4 Snowy egrets.  4 Black Vultures.  3 Forster’s & 1 Royal tern.  1 Eastern Screech-Owl.  2 hummingbirds.  36 Barn Swallows in sight simultaneously, many of them resting on the rail of a neighbor’s boat.  2 Blue Grosbeaks.  22 Wild Turkeys: 2 hens with a combined total of 10 poults in a sort of crèche, 6 big hens, and, off by themselves, 4 medium-sized but flight-capable young.        
            BUTTERFLIES:  17 species, a record for here -  Red-Spotted Purple 3, Spicebush Swallowtail 1, Cabbage White 7, Orange Sulphur 1, Hackberry Emperor 1, Monarch 4, Delaware 2 & Silver-spotted skippers 2, American Lady 1, Eastern Tailed Blue 1, Red Admiral 2, azure unID’d 1, Common Wood Nymph 2, Buckeye 2, Pearlcrescent 7, Question Mark 1, unID’d skipper 3.  Missed: Tiger Swallowtail.  
            DRAGONFLIES:  Shadow Darner 2, Common Whitetail 5.
            Other goodies:  10 Menhaden pods in sight simultaneously from Lucy Point, out about 200 yards.  1 bat, 1 Muskrat, and 3 Gray Squirrels, the latter engaged in a chase in the yard.  Cicadas are now in full cry.  2 Diamondback Terrapin.  
            There’s been good but heavy rain recently as evidenced by the energizing of the tree frogs, the fullness of our 3 small ponds, and the windrows of concentrated pine and cedar needles.  And, the earth is damp with some standing water in the fields, which have been planted earlier this week with soy beans, employing the no till method.    Those north of the driveway were planted first.  The large, 13” diameter Loblolly Pine limb that blew off earlier this summer was, seemingly impossibly, transported 20+ feet away from the tree by strong winds and perhaps lightning, too.  It has 21 growth rings and snapped off 20 feet above the ground, testament to the violence of the weather we sometimes experience in the summer.  
            Today’s weather: Clear, 74-88°F., NW10 m.p.h., low humidity, a gem.  High tide at 1:45 P.M.  Recovering, apparently, from cellulitis present since July 11, I venture forth and do trail work on the Irish Creek, Choptank, and Lucy Point trails.  A vigorous day, my first in a while.  Very few Sea Nettles this summer.  A few Green Frogs in The Pond.  
            SUNDAY, AUGUST 8.  A much more low key day.  Species not seen yesterday: Great Crested Flycatcher 1, Black-and-white Warbler 2 (seen by Liz), Pine Warbler 1, Killdeer 1, and Pileated Woodpecker 1.  Liz also sees the Cooper’s Hawk yet again, flushed out of a Red Cedar right in the yard.  3 fawns in the yard late in the day, presumably triplets.  Off Lucy Point are 2 immature Royal Terns sitting on the water that are flushed by a local boat, ‘the Mallard.’  
            Do some trimming of the Olszewski, Pond, and Choptank River trails plus the driveway.  Most of this is well enough trimmed now so that further improvements can easily be made with the scissors of a Swiss army knife, my gold standard for well-maintained trails.  A few fireflies still present at dusk.  Adjacent to the yard 7 Southern Leopard Frogs are at the Varmint Pool.  2 immature and 2 adult Bald Eagles.  1 Gray Squirrel.  2 Great and 2 Snowy egrets.  2 Diamondback Terrapin.  5 Tufted Titmice.  Clear, 76-90°F., SW5, hotter and slightly more humid today.     
            BUTTERFLIES:  14 species – Red-spotted Purple 3, Spicebush Swallowtail 1, Cabbage White 4, Monarch 5, Delaware Skipper 3, Silver-spotted Skipper 1, Red Admiral 3, azure unID’d 3, Common Wood Nymph 3, Buckeye 3, Pearlcrescent 6, Snout 1, Question Mark 1, unID’d skipper 3.  
            MONDAY, AUGUST 9.  Leave for PA at 10:30 A.M.  1 Gray Squirrel in the yard.  34 Turkey Vultures on the way home.  See the Ruthsburg kestrel again.  Clear, 78-85, SW5, hotter and more humid still today.
            * COPE’S GRAY TREE FROG AND OTHER ANOMALIES.  The Cope’s (Hyla chrysoscelis) and “regular” Gray (Hyla versicolor) tree frogs are apparently indistinguishable in appearance but have different vocalizations and genetically are very different: “ … the Cope’s Gray Tree Frog is diploid, having two sets of chromosomes per cell, whereas the Gray Tree Frog is tetrapoid, having four sets of chromosomes per cell” (p. 82, Amphibians and reptiles of Delmarva by James F. White and Amy Wendt White, Tidewater Publishers, 2002).  This title describes the call of the Gray Treefrog as “lower-pitched, shorter in duration, and slower than that of Cope’s Gray Treefrog,” (p. 83), in keeping with the Grays I’ve heard in upstate New York (St. Lawrence County).  It’s all somewhat mysterious but the range of Cope’s on the Delmarva Peninsula is held to be the more southern of the two.  The two are treated in the same (i.e., combined) species account in this book as well as in the Peterson guide (3rd edition). 
            Also perhaps of interest are three ground squirrel species in the general Great Basin region that are indistinguishable in appearance but with mostly mutually exclusive ranges.  These are the Piute (a.k.a. Great Basin), Merriam’s, and Townsend’s ground squirrels, not known to interbreed.  Piute has 38 chromosomes, Merriam’s 46, and Townsend’s 36.  As far as I can tell they are all cute.  They’re all accorded about the same treatment by the 3 current mammal field guides on hand here, all of which bear the same title: Mammals of North America (the Peterson 4th edition, Kaufman, and Kays/Wilson guides).  
            These 2 tree frogs and 3 ground squirrels (and the Red Crossbill complex) are big reasons I am perfectly happy to be (and to have been) a weekend warrior or amateur naturalist.  It one needs DNA to rightly call some species it takes something out of the thrill of the chase.  It’s more complex than I’d like it to be but I certainly accept what the experts are saying, and respect them immensely for unraveling these abstruse mysteries, these conundrums … don’t get me wrong.  
            Lastly and unrelatedly one hears frequently of some animals which are said to be endangered species, such as the local Delmarva Fox Squirrel.  The DFS is NOT an endangered species.  It IS an endangered subspecies (or race).  The point is that the Fox Squirrel species in general is doing just fine, but the press and other media often refer to endangered subspecies as endangered species. 
            GREAT BLUE HERON vs. PURPLE MARTINS?  George Reiger of Locustville, VA (on the Eastern Shore) saw, about a week ago, a Great Blue Heron atop the occupied Purple Martin box George erected on his dock in the Rattrap Creek estuary.  The heron stayed on the box for minutes on end.  We both tend to think it was predating on the martins.  It wasn’t sitting there for the fresh air or sparking conversation.  I’ve got wind that Great Horned Owls will sometimes reach into martin houses and pull out the birds. 
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia
 
            “Men of small caliber in public office find scorn of expert knowledge a convenient screen for hiding their own mental barrenness.  So true is this that one of the best measures of his own breadth and depth of mind is the degree to which a public man acknowledges the value of expert knowledge and judgment in fields with which he himself, in the nature of things, cannot be familiar.”  Gifford Pinchot (l865-1946).