FERRY NECK & BLACKWATER N.W.R., SEPTEMBER 15-20, 2010: huge MONARCH influx … huge.  Liz & Harry Armistead.
            SEPTEMBER 15, Wednesday.  On the way down from Philadelphia: 450 cowbirds at Middletown, DE, & 375 Tree Swallows on the wires just across the line in MD, the latter area always a prime spot for swallows in the late summer.  However, these are the only swallows we see this entire visit.  102 Turkey Vultures on the way down. 
            Rigby’s Folly/Ferry Neck. Talbot County, MD.  3 P.M. until darkness only.  Flush a CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW 3 times out past the garage in Woods 8, latest ever for here but by just one day.  This is in broad daylight c. 5:45 P.M.  I think of playing mind games with it by cutting loose on the iPod, but then, it’s best just to leave it in what is left of its peace.  A couple of times in late summer I’ve had chucks fly in in response to my screech owl imitation; this isn’t the case this time.  Find a Black Widow under the big aluminum chock I use to keep the boat trailer from drifting.  5 Royal Terns.  1 ad., 1 imm. Bald Eagle.  83-75°F., clear, NW 5 becoming calm.  
            SEPTEMBER 16, Thursday.  A small migrant fallout, mostly in the yard, with a Chestnut-sided, a Blue-winged, a N. Parula, 2 Magnolia & 5 Black-and-white warblers, 2 redstarts, 5 Red-eyed Vireos, 2 House Wrens, and a Veery plus a phoebe, the latter a surprising, unrealistic new early date, by 5 days.  4 Royal & 3 Forster’s terns, 1 Great and one not-so-great egret.  1 ad. Bald Eagle.  3 Ospreys.  
            HERPS.  While eating lunch on the back porch Liz spots a Hognose Snake (Estern Hog-nosed Snake) trying, and eventually succeeding, in swallowing a big, inflated Fowler’s Toad, their favorite prey item.  This snake is an overdue 1st property record.  At The Pond are 4 Green and 6 Southern Leopard frogs.  While watering flowers in a big pot by the back porch Liz discovers a brilliant green Green Tree Frog there.  1 Diamondback Terrapin.  We take a brief, 3.3 mi. boat trip up Irish Creek of 50 minutes duration.  The new 4-stroke Honda starts up every time with just one brief turn of the key, no messing with a choke or prime bulb.  Water in the cove is in the low 70s. 
            BUTTERFLIES:  Monarch 36, Silver-spotted Skipper 12 (they favor the Rose of Sharon bushes), 3 Red-spotted Purples, 1 Eastern Tailed Blue, 5 Pearlcrescents, 6 unID’d sulphurs, 8 Cabbage Whites, 16 Buckeyes & a Red Admiral.   
            OTHER NON-AVIAN TAXA.  At dusk 2 Fireflies, the latest I’ve ever seen them.  At the boat ramp there are 6 stalks of Marsh Hibiscus, the ones with the subtle, small pink blossoms, the most we’ve ever noticed here.  Out on the Lucy Point (“beach”) Trail 3 adjacent Loblolly Pines, of medium size, have been struck by lightning late this summer, with scars, open seams, running down them their entire length to the ground: 1 is dead, a 2nd is dying, a 3rd seems to be O.K.  I’ve never seen so many grasshoppers, many of them hovering, with the yellow wing trailing edge reminding one somewhat of Mourning Cloaks.  3 deer, 1 Gray Squirreleepoo.      
            70-83, fair becoming overcast, SW 10-15, light rain c. 7 P.M. plus a little more during the night, but not nearly eno’ to make a dent in the extreme dryness. 
            SEPTEMBER 17.  6-7 p.m. The tide is very low and attracts many customers (feeding on Periwinkles??).  Right in the intertidal zone mud are 82 American Crows (!!; no Fish Crows all day), 62 Laughing, 3 Ring-billed & 2 Herring gulls, a Mute Swan, 4 Mallards, a Forster’s Tern that practically dives into the mud for tiny minnows, and a Green & a Great Blue heron, while nearby overhead there’s an Osprey, 5 Monarchs, an imm. & an ad. Bald Eagle, 2 Black & 4 Turkey vultures, 2 unID’d egrets that flash by and then disappear behind the woods before I can diagnose them, and 3 Merlins (ties previous yard high count, achieved both on Oct. 23, 1999, plus the day after Hurricane Isabel passed through). 
            Also: 4 Bald Eagles, a Pine Warbler, 2 House Wrens, 4 Royal Terns, and 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches.  3 does, 1 fawn.  3 Gray Squirrels.  
            BUTTERFLIES:  12 Monarchs, 2 Red Admirals, 2 Cloudless Sulphurs (overdue 1st of the year here although seen previously this summer in many other spots on the Shore), 12 unID’d sulphurs, 8 Pearlcrescents, 10 Buckeyes, 1 Tiger Swallowtail, 3 Red-spotted Purples, 6 Cabbage Whites, 15 Silver-spotted Skippers.   
            Fair, NW 15-20-10-5, 73-82.
            SEPTEMBER 18, Saturday.  While I’m gallivanting around Dorchester County Liz sees an Ovenbird, a Bald Eagle, a Snowy Egret, and several Gray Squirrels.
            SEPTEMBER 19, Sunday.  3 P.M. (when it’s 81°F.) until darkness only, rest of the day at Blackwater (see below).  1 Brown Thrasher, 1 Bald Eagle, 1 Osprey, 1 Green Heron (likes to roost in Woods 8), 2 Gray Squirrels, 1 Royal Tern, 8 Monarchs.
            SEPTEMBER 20, Monday.  Just close down the house and leave for Philadelphia.  But before doing so we see an adult and a sub-adult Bald Eagle.  Liz also spots 6 unID’d peep in flight over the cove.  There are 8 Horned Larks in a field near the intersection of routes 481 and 301.  There’s an adult Bald Eagle near where 301 crosses the Chester River.  In our PA yard a black cat almost catches a Gray Squirrel only minutes after I put out some corn.
            SEPTEMBER 18, Saturday.  15th DORCHESTER COUNTY FALL BIRD COUNT (in part).  Below are only the partial results of my day.  There are 7 other party areas (6 parties consist of 1 person, and a few of those for just part of the day).  I’ll have to report our complete combined totals with commentary much later as I am leaving for Kiptopeke, Virginia, on Thursday and will be there until October 11.  96 species, none of them unusual.
            On the way there: a doe and a little baby fawn on the outskirts of Royal Oak at 3:26 A.M.  
            4:30 A.M. – 8 P.M.  113.3 miles by car, 1.5 by foot.  WEATHER: 53-74°F., winds NW5-10 becoming calm at dusk, briefly NE 15 around mid-day, clear, a beauty, cool with winds not interfering too much with hearing.  Tides: low in the A.M. at Hooper’s Island, becoming high by noon, then very low at day’s end at Elliott Island.  Tidal water levels lowish at Blackwater with refuge impoundments very dry.
            My (usual) route: Hooper’s I., Swan Harbor & Meekins Neck until noon, Blackwater N.W.R. in early afternoon, Elliott Island Road in late afternoon until after dusk.
            ABBREVIATIONS:  B = Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  EI = Elliott Island Road.  HI = Hooper’s Island.  SH = Swan Harbor.
            Of most interest:  Mute Swan 9 (6 imm., 3 ad., SH, not many left in the county due to the very effective eradication program).  Blue-winged Teal 2 (really low).  Pied-billed Grebe 2, EI at the Moorhen Spot.  American White Pelican 1, B.  Brown Pelican 34, HI.  Tricolored Heron 1, Ransome Chesapeake Bay Retreat.  Osprey 7 (scarce at this time of year).  Bald Eagle 49 (36 of these at HI & SH, excellent total for thereabouts).  Northern Harrier 8.  
            Clapper Rail 2.  Virginia Rail 5.  Common Moorhen 5, EI at the Moorhen Spot.  Solitary Sandpiper 1, Bucktown pond.  Sanderling 53, SH, a high total for this fall count.  Pectoral Sandpiper 1, B.  Laughing Gull 1,070.  Great Black-backed Gull 185 (most at Middle HI).  Caspian Tern 12, B.  Royal Tern 148 (a new high).  Forster’s Tern 140.  Eastern Screech-Owl 4.  Great Horned Owl 3.  Barred Owl 1.  Red-headed Woodpecker 2 adults, B.  
            Eastern Phoebe 9, a lot for this early in the fall; I’m used to them peaking around Columbus Day.  Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 (apparently an invasion year).  Brown-headed Nuthatch 19.  Marsh Wren 6 (2 at Great Marsh, 4 at EI).  Pine Warbler 17 (1 of them singing).  Northern Waterthrush 1, SH.  Summer Tanager 1.  Scarlet Tanager 1.  Savannah Sparrow only 1, EI.  Seaside Sparrow 4, 1 of them sings once, EI, at dusk, in Spartina cynosuroides, which they seem to favor at this time of year).  Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3.  Blue Grosbeak 4.  
            In the morning there are a few neotropical migrants at SH and HI but disappointing in view of the presumably favorable NW winds and low temperature.  This September count is always of interest in light of what is usually NOT seen, which in this case involves these birds, most of them not surprising misses:  No swallows (!!), vireos, thrushes, grackles, robin, swift, towhee, meadowlark, crested fly., kingbird, or Horned Lark, nor any Song, Field, or Swamp sparrows.     
            MAMMALS:  2 Sika Deer, 3 White-tailed Deer, 1 Eastern Cottontail, 1 Gray Squirrel.
            BUTTERFLIES:  Not looking REAL hard for them but do see these: 116 Monarchs (counted with a clicker), 9 Cloudless Sulphurs, 6 unID’d sulphurs, 25 Buckeyes, 2 Red-spotted Purples, 1 Spicebush Swallowtail.
            HERPS:  1 Red-Bellied Slider, 14 Painted Turtles, 2 Southern Leopard Frogs.
            GROUP REPRESENTATION:  generally poor – 8 waterfowl, 5 heron types, 8 raptors, 3 rail types, 8 shorebirds, 3 owls, 5 woodpeckers, 3 flycatchers, 3 wrens, 6 warblers (a miserable showing), 3 sparrows. 
            SOCIAL NOTES.  Part of the charm of the Eastern Shore is the serendipity of randomly running into people.  Jenny Gootee stops with 2 friends to chat briefly at Swan Harbor.  I drop in to Percy Ransome’s Chesapeake Bay Retreat but just miss him.  At Harry Elzey’s place in Golden Hill, always loaded with 100s of gulls and ducks (including today’s only 30 Northern Pintails), I ask his permission to have a look-see; his son, who it turns out works as part of the USDA Nutria extermination program based at Blackwater, comes out to talk, accompanied by his own son.  At Blackwater Wolf Hehn, Tom Miller & I chat.  At McCready’s Creek, Elliott I. Rd., a Mr. Price, from York, PA, comes over to talk, which we do for half an hour.  He rents a house there, hunts, fishes, and says he’s seen my car several times.    
            SEPTEMBER 19, Sunday.  Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge bird walk, 7 A.M. – noon.   21 Participants:  Cindi Alvey, Michelle Alvey, Harry Armistead, Liz Armistead, Norris Brock, Fran Fanshel, Bill Hill, Jane Hill, Qingzue Li, Helen Luo, Neil Luo, Jeanne Maglaty, Ellen Makar, Paula Salhle, Linda Schwartz, Alicia Sheinbach, Jerry Smith, Linda Smith, Timothy Thompson, Kening Wang, Levin Willey.  A congenial group but not all can boast of neat penmanship.  I apologize if some names, in the fog of field work, are misspelled. 
            57 species with even poorer neotropical representation than yesterday.  62-79°F., winds calm or NW5, fair, a gem of a day.  Some of the birds below are seen before or after the walk:  
            American White Pelican 1.  Great Egret 12.  Snowy Egret 4.  Osprey 4.  Bald Eagle only about 10.  Sharp-shinned Hawk 2.  Cooper’s Hawk 1.  American Kestrel 6.  Virginia Rail 1.  Least Sandpiper 6.  Pectoral Sandpiper 3.  Caspian Tern 12.  Forster’s Tern 40.  Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 (missed yesterday).  hummer 1.  Red-headed Woodpecker 2 adults.  Pileated Woodpecker 1.  Brown-headed Nuthatch 6.  American Robin 30 (missed yesterday; these at the school on the n. end of  Egypt Rd.).  Black-and-white Warbler 1 (missed yesterday).  Summer Tanager 1.  Eastern Meadowlark 1 (missed yesterday).    
            Highlights include huge numbers of Monarchs.  Early on there are at least 215 around the Visitor Center, most of these clustered in their roost in the Loblolly Pines, others wafting in to the Butterfly Garden.  At the end of Wildlife Drive, next to where the old house has been removed, are hundreds more Monarchs availing themselves of the brilliant, bright yellow, field full of Tickseed Sunflowers.  In the air, moving through, are many, many more Monarchs.
            Other butterlies: 5 Silver-spotted Skippers, 6 Cloudless Sulphurs, 1 unID’d hairstreak, 1 Black Swallowtail, 2 Red-spotted Purples, 30 Buckeyes, 1 Viceroy, 2 Red Admirals, 3 Cabbage Whites.
            Other non-avian taxa: 1 Fox & 2 Gray Squirrels.  31 Painted Turtles (including many small young of the year), 2 Red-bellied Sliders. 
            In the aftermath of the bird walk Timothy, Linda (Schwartz), Liz, and I have a pleasant, leisurely lunch at Old Salty’s on Upper Hooper’s Island.  Our table offers a lovely prospect, on this gem of a sunny, clear, and calm day, looking out to Chesapeake Bay, the Calvert Cliffs, and Barren Island - a view that cries out for an impressionist master to depict all of this to inform a world unappreciative of things Dorchester.  While there 31 gigantic Brown Pelicans go galumphing by, 2 Bald Eagles float in the distance above Barren Island, and several 100 Monarchs pass over the lawn, headed, for reasons best known to themselves, north, where there is no Mexico that I know of, save the hamlet of Mexico, New York.  At Old Salty’s the preferred prey item of many is baked pineapple.   
            WILDLIFE DRIVE PARTIAL CLOSURE is scheduled to begin Mon., Sept. 20, for a week or so and will include areas from the entrance and up to the road in to the HQ that is just past the big woodlands stretch.  
            JUST A LITTLE OFF TOPIC.  Son, George, is co-leading a field trip to Bolivia now, calls to say they’ve seen a small flock of Hudsonian Godwits high overhead in this landlocked country, presumably on their way to their wintering grounds in the Argentine.  Such heroic migrations inspire awe in us.  
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia, home of the Phillies.