JANUARY 20-24, 2011: FERRY NECK, BLACKWATER N.W.R., ELLIOTT ISLAND ROAD & HOOPER’S ISLAND.  For the most part windy, cold, icy, and clear but with a very good Bald Eagle show and the presence of some good company.
            THURSDAY, JANUARY 20.  Heading down.  Two Bald Eagles over the Route 1 exit to Middleton, DE.  Check for the Golden-crowned Sparrow at Chesapeake Farms but no luck.  The sparrows that are there come out and forage at close range: 4 imm. White-crowned and 5 White-throateds plus 2 mockers, 5 Blue Jays, and some cardinals with 3 Bald Eagles and a Red-tailed Hawk overhead.  Arriving at Rigby’s Folly (41°F.) I see a Bald Eagle, hear a Great Horned Owl, and find 600 Canada Geese in Field 1.  The ground here is soft and damp, almost entirely bare of snow, but most ponds and lakes on the way down are frozen.  
            FRIDAY, JANUARY 21.  Southern Dorchester County with Jane & Bill Hill.  7 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.  Clear, NW 20-30 m.p.h., 33-37-30°F., tidal water low, impoundments pretty high, little ice.  Most surprising is a Redbelly Slider floating in Pool 3C at Blackwater, enjoying water that must have been c. 40°F.  Winter turtles are amazing, esp. on a day when the high is 37°F.
            Egypt Road: 61 Tundra Swans in the fields but there will be more later in the morning (fide the Hills).
            Blackwater N.W.R., 7-11 A.M.: 55 Bald Eagles, 270 Blue & 3400 Snow geese, 1 ♀ Hooded Merganser, 540 Common Mergansers (out on the Blackwater River; the whitecaps make estimating difficult; therefore I think this estimate is low), 10 Northern Shovelers, 25 Northern Pintails, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Northern Harriers, and just one Green-winged Teal.  The highpoint for me is the huge number of Common Mergansers, many of them presumably frozen out from fresh water areas farther north. 
            Near the intersection of Key Wallace Drive and Egypt Road 4 Turkey Vultures and a Bald Eagle are eating a dead Virginia Opossum.  Thus inspired, we lunch at Old Salty’s on Upper Hooper’s Island.
            Hooper’s Island and Swan Harbor, rather depauperate: 20 Redheads, 125 Canvasbacks, 110 Lesser Scaup, 4 Common Goldeneyes, 80 Buffleheads, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, 30 Surf Scoters, 3 Ruddy Ducks, 3 Brown-headed Nuthatches, 2 Tufted Titmice, 6 Carolina Chickadees, 3 Sanderlings, 35 Dunlin, 225 Tundra Swans, 3 American Black Ducks, 2 Eastern Meadowlarks, 2 Slate-colored Juncos, and only 2 Bald Eagles.  Tide high.  
            Just 4 Great Blue Herons seen today, no Killdeer, Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebes, or Common Loons.  No mammals in Dorchester County.
            Maple Dam Road late in the afternoon: 45 American Pipits.
            Rigby’s Folly, 5:20 P.M. until dark only: 2 Bald Eagles and one deer.
            SATURDAY, JANUARY 22. Just hang around our place and mostly do paperwork.  A brief look out from Lucy Point into the mouth of the Choptank River at 2:15 is bleak and reveals only 20 Buffleheads, 1 Surf Scoter, 2♀ Common Goldeneyes, and 22 Tundra Swans.  Curiously, even in these cold, overcast conditions the shimmer (“heat haze”, referred to in German, I am told on good authority [the late Sid Lipschutz], as Schlieren) limits visibility beyond a mile or so.  One Great blue Heron.  Bruce Olszewski and 2 others limit out on Canada Geese in Field 6, shooting six.  Bruce gives me some venison and 100 lbs. of deer corn.  One of his companions has seen 10 Wild Turkeys here today.  They’ve also seen a couple of Red Foxes recently.
            Overcast, 21-26°F., winds NW 15-10 m.p.h.  A Fox Sparrow comes in for the deer corn at the base of the big Willow Oak in the yard.
            SUNDAY, JANUARY 23.  Southern Dorchester County with Grazina and Michael McClure, 7 A.M. – 5 P.M.  Fair becoming mostly overcast then fair again, 19-28°F., winds calm becoming NW @ 15 m.p.h. or more, let me tell ya, one cold day. 
            Lewis Wharf Road:  Birds in the ditches – 45 American Robins, a couple of flickers, and a few blackbirds.
            Elliott Island Road 8:45-noon:  Marsh mostly frozen and bleak.  Much of Fishing Bay frozen as well.  45 American Black Ducks, 3♀ Canvasbacks, 255 Lesser Scaup, 6 Buffleheads, 4 Common Goldeneyes, a ♀ Hooded Merganser diving repeatedly in Island Creek (the only time I’ve heard one before seeing it), 6 Ruddy Ducks, 24 Bald Eagles (many standing on the ice), 5 Northern Harriers, 3 Great Blue Herons plus a roadkill on the shoulder, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 3 Brown-headed Nuthatches (in trees on the road out to McCready’s Creek – an unusual location; some of them dip down briefly to the bottom of a ditch partially filled with Phragmites, strange behavior for these little sprites), 3 Fox & 45 Song sparrows, and 6 Northern Cardinals.
            Longfield component of Blackwater N.W.R., Bestpitch Ferry Road, west of Bestpitch Ferry, around the chicken farm: 5 Bald Eagles, 13 Black & 14 Turkey vultures, and a mixed group of 55 American & Fish Crows - all coming in for snacks of offal.
            Griffith Neck Road: a Sika Deer out in the open in a big field.
            Bestpitch: 3 Bald Eagles, 1 Great Blue Heron.
            Blackwater N.W.R. 7-8 A.M. & 1-5 P.M.: 1 Cackling Goose (flying with Snow Geese), 115 Tundra Swans, c. 495 Blue & 3000 Snow geese, 2 American Wigeon, 1♂ Northern Shoveler, 45 Northern Pintails, 45 Common Mergansers (very little open water for them now on the Blackwater River, in contrast to conditions on Friday), 1 American White Pelican (seen from the Sewards causeway both in the morning and the afternoon), 5 Great Blue Herons, 3 Black & 5 Turkey vultures (going to roost late in the day S and W of the Blackwater River bridge), 3 Northern Harriers, 44 Bald Eagles (but 55 early in the morning when fewer are flying and many stand on the ice, making it easier to get an accurate count), 1 American Kestrel, 1 Wilson’s Snipe, 8 Eastern Bluebirds, and 8 Eastern Meadowlarks.
            Maple Dam Road S of Cambridge: 2 Bald Eagles.
            Day total of 7 Red-tailed Hawks.  Tides low all day thanks to the, of late, strong NW winds and waning full moon.  Most calm water completely frozen, bays and tidal guts mostly so but hardly any snow cover.
            Dinner with the McClures at Jimmie & Sook’s in Cambridge.
            MONDAY, JANUARY 24.  Leave Rigby’s Folly by 10:15 A.M. and return to Philadelphia.  Overnight all of the cove, almost all of Irish Creek, and a substantial portion of the Choptank River have frozen.  19-24°F., calm or E 5 m.p.h., clear.  Gray Squirrel: 6 of the little things at the corn.  I put out more corn and before I can return the pail to the corn barrel 7 Blue Jays are already at the new corn, plus some cardinals and White-throated Sparrows.
            105 Canvasbacks, 40 Tundra Swans, 1 Red-tailed Hawk.  On leaving, going out the drive, I notice 2 Fox Sparrows and a flock of pipits - a typical, widely dispersed, loose flock - in Field 2.  Walking over towards them obliquely so as not to flush them, I count 33 American Pipits foraging, as they maintain this loose, dispersed flock structure.  That’s the 2nd highest property high count.  On December 19, 1954, I saw 55 here.  I guess I knew what I was looking at back then.  The only other property records of > 5 are of 21 on both January 1, 1955, and November 14, 1982. 
            I think there has been an influx of pipits this winter late in December.  On the St. Michaels Christmas Bird Count (Dec. 19), which includes our property, none were seen.  Nearby on the Denton C.B.C. (same date) in Caroline County – the Delmarva Peninsula’s answer to the Great Plains – just one was found but there were 346 Horned Larks.  Rigby’s Folly is poor for field birds.  An entire year can go by with no sightings of pipits or larks. 
            Heading up Route 301 it’s more interesting than usual.  At Mile Post 105.7 there’s a roadkill Red-tailed Hawk and 2 flying ones nearby.  Two more perched in oaks at M.P. 118.2.  One on a lamp at M.P. 119.4.  Another at M.P. 120.0. Finally, 4 in the general vicinity of the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal.  At the DE-MD border 300 Snow Geese go over.  Back on the Sassafras River are 9 Hooded Mergansers actively diving in the shallows.   
            Bald Eagle egg laying at Blackwater.  I’ve heard 2 dates for the 1st egg, Jan. 13 and Jan. 15.  Either way that is very early.  This nest, the one on the videocam, now has 3 eggs.
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia, where there are 4 Gray Squirrels at our feeders when I arrive, plus the remains of a dead Mourning Dove on the ground, probably done in by the local winter resident Cooper’s Hawk.