FERRY NECK, CAMBRIDGE & BLACKWATER N.W.R., January 6-10, 2011.  Liz & Harry Armistead.  All sightings are at Rigby’s Folly unless indicated otherwise.
            OFF TOPIC:  If anyone wants the report on the 46th Cape Charles, Virginia, Christmas Bird Count of Thursday, December 30, 2010, please contact me offline at: harryarmistead at hotmail dot com .  Highlights include 759 woodcock (this is NOT a typo), a Mountain Bluebird, 19 shorebird, 13 sparrow & 29 waterfowl species, and 333 Fox Sparrows.  Perfect weather.  One observer quipped “it was just like the old days.”  The good old days.  About a dozen minor enhancements have been made from an earlier report I sent out to many of you.
            THURSDAY, JANUARY 6.  
            44 Turkey Vultures on the way down.  Both today and on January 10 we dip in our brief search for the Northern Shrike along Kibler Road in Queen Annes County.  18 Black Vultures are on the water tower by the St. Michaels fire station.  There’s a Snow Goose in with hundreds of Canada Geese in one of John Swaine’s fields.  
            Two Mute Swans in the cove.  Almost all the snow is gone except for stretches of it on the N side of hedgerows and woods.  Most still water is frozen.  The driveway has been plowed earlier.  Two deer. 
            Present from 3:15 P.M. until dark only.  Clear, calm, 37°F., visibility exceptionally good, especially for scoping out over the Choptank River mouth, where there are 1390 Surf Scoters, and 1975 Canada Geese, 200 Buffleheads, 30 Tundra Swans, and a Bald Eagle but only 15 or so gulls.  This is the only time it is calm enough to make scoping the mouth of the ‘Tank worthwhile; for example, on Saturday, I see only one Surf Scoter vs. 1390 today.    
            FRIDAY, JANUARY 7.  Liz finds a White-breasted Nuthatch along the driveway near Woods 2 & 6.  They are not found here every year and do not breed locally but in some years/winters there is a small “flight” of them.
            7 Black & 9 Turkey vultures, 2 Lesser Scaup, 1 Bald Eagle, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 5 Tundra Swans, 20 White-throated Sparrows, 1 Great Blue Heron, 2 Eastern Towhees and 25 Slate-colored Juncos.  4 deer.  It feels like it’s going to snow.  
            Overcast becoming fair then overcast again, 34-39°F., calm to NW 10-15-5, low tide at 12:22 P.M.  The Olszewskis arrive at 3:30 to deer hunt with muzzleloaders (50 cal., effective range can be 250 yards).    
            SATURDAY, JANUARY 8.  The Olszewskis shoot 5 Canada Geese from their goose pit in Field 1 (They bagged 10 and 4 Mallards last weekend).  Overcast becoming fair, somewhat more than a dusting of snow last night, 31-36°F., E5 very early then NW 5-30, with 2 periods of flurries … beautiful.  
            Spend much of the day in the house watching birds at the deer corn, esp. at the base of the big Willow Oak, and see 1 Fox, 5 Song & 20 White-throated sparrows, 1 Tufted Titmouse, a ♂ Red-bellied Woodpecker, 5 Blue Jays (which swallow the kernels whole and immediately), 4 Northern Cardinals, and a Gray Squirrel.  The squirrels almost always keep their backs to the trees, facing outwards, while they make their depredations on the corn.  
            Out on Irish Creek are 2 flocks totaling 155 Canvasbacks plus a ♂ Common Goldeneye and a few Herring Gulls.  Some of the cardinals drink meltwater that drips off of the roof onto the ground below.  Most of the snow melts by day’s end.
            Also, from the house, 3 American Robins, 7 Eastern Bluebirds (eating Eastern Redcedar berries, which we are told are really cones), 2 Mute Swans, 3 Buffleheads, 4 Northern Flickers, 400 Canada Geese, and Tundra Swans (heard only).      
            Cambridge, Oakley Street and Cambridge, briefly, from High St. to Hambrooks.  c. 3 P.M.  We go to feed the Canvasbacks a big white bucket full of deer corn, which is well-received.  465 Canvasbacks, 5 American Wigeon, 55 Lesser and 3 Greater scaup, 1 American Black Duck, 1 American Black Duck X Mallard hybrid, 12 Tundra Swans, 45 Buffleheads, 1 American Coot, 95 Mallards, 1♂ Common Goldeneye, 1 ad. Bald Eagle, 10 Rock Pigeons, 185 European Starlings, and 130 Canada Geese.  
            Off in the distance on the Talbot County side of the Choptank River c. 630 Snow Geese are aloft.  Lots of gulls mostly at the end of High Street: 425 Ring-billeds, 250 Herring, and 40 Great Black-backed.  We do not look them over very carefully, otherwise we might have seen Les Rosland’s Lesser Black-backed Gull (for which I believe there are very few county records).  No Redheads seen.  Fair, NW 15-30, 35°F.  Tide high. 
            SUNDAY, JANUARY 9.
            Matt Whitbeck, Diane Cole, and I enter a restricted area on the refuge S of Shorter’s Wharf to search for a possible Blackburnian X Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler hybrid Diane had seen on the Christmas count on Dec. 26 just before the blizzard began then.  No luck with that, the 25-35 m.p.h. winds don’t help and its’ 23-33°F., clear, with most still water frozen.  But it is a pretty place to explore and we do see 2 Brown-headed Nuthatches, 8 Great Blue Herons, a Great Egret, a flicker, an ad. ♀ Sharp-shinned Hawk, a harrier, and 3 goldfinches plus a handful of conventional Yellow-rumped Warblers. 
            Blackwater N.W.R.  The stalwart American White Pelican is still visible from the Stewards causeway, mostly surrounded by frozen water, and there’s an additional one resting out on the Blackwater River ice.  The Snow Geese are resting, too, at mid-day in Pool 3, c. 2950 Snows and 330 Blues.  Also present, 38 Bald Eagles seen during a brief drive through c. 7:30 A.M.  5 American Black Ducks, 600 Mallards, 2 Great Blue Herons, 200 Common Mergansers, 10 Northern Pintails, 6 Eastern Bluebirds, 1 American Kestrel, 2 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 Northern Harriers, and, strangely, NO Tundra Swans.  
            Run into Greg Inskip today c. 11 A.M.  He has seen 2 Golden Eagles this morning off of the refuge.
            Egypt Road: 86 Tundra Swans in a field, 215 Canada Geese, and 1 American Kestrel.
            Back at Rigby’s Folly late: 14 Turkey Vultures on the N side of Field 1 (the Big Field), in the sun, out of the wind, some with wings spread, nothing dead there, it looks as if they’re just “chillin’” in the sun.
            MONDAY, JANUARY 10.  Overcast becoming fair, temps below freezing, NW5.  Cold.  Most of the cove water froze last night.  Liz sees a White-breasted Nuthatch again, but in a different location - the yard.  An adult Bald Eagle over Irish Creek.  Gray Squirrel alert: 4 of the little things at the deer corn in the yard, as their kind is wont to do.  33 Turkey Vultures on the way home, a very low total.  I guess their congeners were grossed out by the cold weather and have departed for warmer climes.
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.