FERRY NECK/RIGBY’S FOLLY, MARCH 17-21, 2011. GANNETS!!!
This is the 25th anniversary year for seeing gannets here. The first one was an adult seen by George and me March 29, 1986. We’ve seen them ever year since. This visit only a few plunge-dive. All are gleaming white adults except for one second year bird.
How nice to spend 3 full days just on the back 40.
THURSDAY, MARCH 17. Liz and I stop by Fort Smallwood Park 1-4 P.M. on the way down and spend an enjoyable afternoon with Sue Ricciardi, Hal Wierenga, and a few others. We see several Ospreys, one with a small fish, chased by a Bald Eagle, a few redshoulders and Coops (incl. one with a c. 1/3-length normal tail), 5 Surf Scoters, 65 Greater Scaup, a few Buffleheads and Red-breasted Mergansers, 4 Green-winged Teal, a Pied-billed Grebe, 6 Common Goldeneyes, a pair of Killdeer copulating on the beach (no doubt inspired by Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster), 40 Turkey and 3 Black vultures, 8 Gadwalls, and 3 coots.
Non-avian taxa: a Muskrat, calling Spring Peepers and Southern Leopard Frogs, a batch of Painted Turtles and 2 Redbelly Cooters. Over time I’ve heard these latter called Redbelly this, Red-bellied that, sometimes Turtle, sometimes Slider, sometimes Terrapin. The 3rd ed. of the Peterson guide has them as Redbelly Turtle. Whatever the case, they’re a nice looking reptile, a big Middle Atlantic region freshwater turtle, and have a disjunct population just N of Cape Cod. Pseudemys rubiventris according to the Peterson guide. One unID’d medium-sized butterfly.
An adult Bald Eagle over Kent Island.
Don’t get to Rigby’s Folly until 6:15 P.M. but that leaves time to see 310 Surf Scoters, 2 Horned Grebes, a Bald Eagle, 2 Common Loons, 9 Northern Gannets (first of the year), 3 Great Blue Herons, and 3 Common Goldeneyes. With the promise of warmth tomorrow there is a dusk flight of waterfowl headed north: 69 Tundra Swans (in groups of 33, 17 & 19) and 465 Canada Geese. These will be the last swans we see this winter; I miss’ em sorely. However, the Ospreys are in and about the time the last ones wing south here the first returning autumn Tundra Swans will appear. For that matter, by the time we leave on March 21 the Canada Geese seem to be gone, too.
In the distance a Wild Turkey gobbles and Spring Peepers and Chorus Frogs call. 62-58°F., S 5-10, partly cloudy. 9 deer. 1 Gray Squirrel.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18. A real spring day just past the equinox. 56-73°F., party cloudy becoming mostly overcast, SW5, and yet, no noticeable bird flight under such favorable conditions. I want my money back. 65°F. at 7:45 P.M., 61°F. at 10 P.M.
80 Canvasbacks, 38 Buffleheads, 51 Canada Geese all seen from the dock. At 1:11 P.M. a Great Horned Owl flushes from the Waterthrush Pond area, pursued by several American Crows. 4 Painted Turtles in the vernal pool of Woods 4, 3 in Frog Hollow.
Liz and I spend 11:15 A.M. – 1 P.M. out at Lucy Point and see 142 Northern Gannets, almost all of them resting on the water at the mouth of Broad Creek plus a Laughing Gull, 25 Lesser Scaup, 2 Common Loons (1 in pretty good breeding plumage), 1ǿ Red-breasted Merganser, and 2 Common Goldeneyes. Visibility is good only out about 1 mile, then it gets hazy. There is quite a bit of debris in the water from the recent rains, reminding me of long-ago Hurricane Agnes, when logs and wood came all the way down here from the Susquehanna River. Only 1 oyster dredger in sight.
At 2 P.M. there are 260 Surf Scoters off of Lucy Point, 51 of them right in the mouth of Irish Creek, and many of these catching small mollusks.
Also: a group of 39 Fish Crows. 120 Common Grackles foraging in Field 6. The first Eastern Phoebe of the year flycatching in the yard during our first-of-the-season cookout. Four Ospreys, one carrying a White Perch. 3 Gray Squirrels. 4 deer in Field 4, 4 others on Holland Point. Big Spring Peeper choruses at the E end of Field 3, in Woods 4, and at The Pond plus a few Southern Leopard Frogs at The Pond. A Red-winged Blackbird sings at 7:20 P.M., a cardinal at 7:37. Two medium-sized unID’d butterflies.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19. Not much out-of-doors activity. Partly cloudy, NW 15+, 53-63°F. 80 Fish Crows in one group, very vocal. 9 Northern Gannets. Deer: 6 on Holland Point, 10 in Field 5, 2 in Field 4, and 1 “flushed” in Woods 7 = 19 total. Two plastic chairs blew off the dock, giving me an excuse to wade in the cove to retrieve them. Southern Leopard Frog calling from the Varmint Pool near the yard. A Red Fox in Field 4. Today’s total includes a paltry 2 White-throated Sparrows and 2 Myrtle Warblers to give you an idea of how bleak this place can be sometimes. Full moon looming over the piney woods at the head of the cove, as bright as I’ve ever seen it. 11 Turkey Vultures in sight simultaneously. 1 adult Bald Eagle.
SUNDAY, MARCH 20. Mostly overcast becoming mostly sunny, NE 5 – NW – WNW 10-15, 41-53°F. Cool. The fields have dried up enough so I can dive across Field 1 to Lucy Point, a distance of just over 0.2 mi. from the front porch to where there are 2 chairs on the shoreline. There we see 785 Surf Scoters and 7 Northern Gannets. Next to the garage is a dead White-throated Sparrow, perhaps victim of a collision with the building. Off to the N is a kettle of 11 Black Vultures, actually one of the highest counts for here.
There are the remains of a Wild Turkey in Woods 7. A dead loblolly has fallen across the Pond Trail in Woods 7. I half it with the 2-bitted axe and line that trail with this and other small logs to differentiate the trail from the otherwise uniform forest floor. Six Ospreys today, with some sky dancing going on. 28 Lesser Scaup in Irish Creek. Two Tree Swallows, the first for 2011 here.
The so-called “living shoreline” that authorities mandated be set up as part of our shoreline protection project of 2008-2010 is dead, with no sign of the Spartina alterniflora sprigs that were planted last fall. I predicted this would happen. That area is too exposed. I am hoping the roots of the grasses are still there and will regenerate. Since our entire shoreline had a lovely skirt of Spartina 30-50’ wide around it up until the 1960s that has almost completely disappeared, I wondered why attempts to restore some of it were thought to have any chance of success.
A WALK IN WOODS 1. Woods 1 is at the N edge of the property, a strip of primarily Loblolly Pines. Back around 1950 I asked my parents if that strip could be allowed to just grow up in trees, there already being many pine saplings in what was then a field. That was my first “conservation project,” at c. age 10. There are also by now big oaks and Sweet Gum. Our largest Trumpet Creeper vines are there, some so large I can’tencompass them with my 2 hands. Some of these vines are big enough so that they have recognizable Pileated Woodpecker workings.
Today I spot what I initially think is a big raptor nest but it turns out to be 2 large Raccoons resting about 55 feet up in a loblolly. They seem big as bear cubs. They do not respond to 3 of my whistles. I’ve had people get up and move away from me in an uncrowded stadium I can whistle so loud, especially with my 2 thumbs. After I beat the tree base with a stick the ‘coons stir some, but still seem almost oblivious.
In another time I would have returned with my 12-gauge side-by-side and killed them since perhaps 20 years ago we had Raccoon break-ins in our house 5 consecutive winters, through tears they made in the peak of the roof. Repairs weren’t that expensive but getting somebody to do a small job like that was the biggest pain-in-the-neck.
Today in Woods 1: a pair of Pine Warblers, close range and low, the ♀ with more yellow than most have. A medium-sized Diamondback Terrapin shell, carapace and plastron still connected. Two old cardinal nests from last year, and 2 cardinals. A singing titmouse. A ♀ Sharp-shinned Hawk. Two deer skeletons. I clear fallen branches from some young hollies. From Woods 1 I see the Great Horned Owl chased by 2 American Crows, one of which delivers a strong peck to its back as it flies by the base of the dock. 2 Eastern Bluebirds.
Woods 1 is approximately 800’ long and 150’ wide on its west end but tapers to perhaps 100’ on its east end. It is quite open and I am disappointed that it is so uniformly pine woodlands.
MONDAY, MARCH 21. Overcast, rain ending by c. 9 A.M., 47°F., wind SE-5-10 becoming NW 15-20. Before getting up from bed count 41 Common Grackles (and then stop counting) descending to the base of the big yard Willow Oak for deer corn. A Gray Squirrel gets the soggy leftovers. Just N of routes 404 X 309 are 800 Ring-billed Gulls in one field with 2 Laughing Gulls in with them. Liz sees an adult Bald Eagle at routes 309 X 481. Near the intersection of routes 481 and 301 are another 100 or so ringbills. A Great Blue Heron is sitting on a Wood Duck nesting box on the Sassafras River. Not a single Canada Goose seen the entire trip. 116 Turkey Vultures on the way home.
SURF SCOTERS. Skunkheads are in the ascendancy here. Many - me, too - think of scoters as primarily haunting the seacoast, but Surf Scoters have become one of the commonest waterfowl in parts of Chesapeake Bay. From our shoreline they have increased phenomenally beginning circa 1990. Prior to that our high count was 81 on March 25, 1989. Since then there have been numerous estimates well in excess of 1000, mostly during late March and early April, with totals of up to 5000 in one day.
What I am wondering is: what are they eating? If it hasn’t been done already it would be good. although repugnant, to accompany one of the sea duck hunting boats sometime and retrieve some scoters - do a stomach content analysis - since the birds these so-called sportsmen kill are seldom eaten. The scoters have largely displaced Long-tailed Ducks as the most abundant diving duck species in the Choptank River mouth in late winter/early spring.
Just recently, February 20, my estimate was of 4060 Surf Scoters out in the Choptank River as seen from Lucy Point. As a point of interest, the combined total of the 10 coastal Christmas Bird Counts this past December ranging from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, south to Back Bay, Virginia, is 5,380 Surf Scoters, with the 4 highest totals 2145 at Cape Charles, VA, 847 at Cape Henlopen, 665 at Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel, VA, and 571 at Wachapreague, VA.
So the Surf Scoter populations on the Bay are nothing to sniff at, in spite of anomalous estimates of 60,000 (!!) at Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel on February 4, 2004, at an approximate time when comparable, and equally unprecedented, numbers where found at Cape May.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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