FERRY NECK/RIGBY’S FOLLY, MAY 4-9, 2011:  MISSISSIPPI KITE.
            Liz & Harry Armistead.
            May 4, Wednesday.  We tally 94 Turkey Vultures on the way down from Pennsylvania.  Near routes 544 X 301, close to milepost 111, are 2 swimming Muskrats and a Bald Eagle.  A Great Egret at the pond S of Hope, Route 481.  Foraging in the pond N of routes 481 X 309 are 1 Lesser & 16 Greater yellowlegs, a Great Blue Heron, and a Painted Turtle.  A medium-sized Raccoon next to the Campers’ main field.  
            Present at Rigby’s Folly only from 3:30 P.M. onwards.  A Great Horned Owl flushes from the yard Tulip (Yellow Poplar) Tree at 7:40 P.M.  1 Bald Eagle.  1 Gray Squirrel.  Rainy becoming fair, NW 20-25-15, 50-60°F.  Trimmed both sides of the driveway from the house out 700’ to the bend.  
            The tremendous, prodigious growth of vegetation in the past few weeks puts one in mind of Dylan Thomas: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/Drives my green age: that blasts the roots of trees/Is my destroyer./And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose/My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.”  Whatever. 
            May 5, Thursday.  Finally find the year’s 1st Spotted Turtle in the driveway ditch on the S side of Field 4, a beauty.  Three Painted Turtles in the Woods 4 vernal pool.  One Bald Eagle, 5 Gray Squirrels in the yard, 2 deer.  Trim the vegetation overhanging the driveway on the S side of Field 2.  
            Clear, NW 20-10, 52-72°F.  
            May 6, Friday.  MISSISSIPPI KITE, yard bird species 268, 2:30 P.M., 2:45-2:55 P.M.  First seen only for c. 4 seconds at perhaps a quarter of a mile before it disappears behind the woods at the head of the cove headed S but clearly the upperparts are gray, the tail dark, quite long and squared.  I think to myself:  If this were South Carolina I’d just say, “Oh, how nice, a Mississippi Kite, and then go on to see what else was around.”  But it’s Maryland and more care is needed here.  
            After scanning like crazy for c. 15 minutes the bird reappears, this time higher and headed north c. 1/3 of a mile in the distance.  Liz gets on it, too.  Falcon shape, more graceful and less bulky than a harrier and without a harrier’s white rump.  More compact and smaller than a harrier.  Longish, pointed wings.  Underparts appear quite pale gray and unstreaked.  A superb aerialist.  No white on the secondaries so apparently a first summer, sub-adult bird (i.e., in its 2nd calendar year of life).  It does not flap at all until towards the end of our observation, when it finally heads N and out of sight.  Conveniently, the sun is behind us the entire time.   
            I’ve seen them previously in TX, FL, MD (twice before), NJ, AZ, SC, and Kansas.  The NJ one was on an October 18, an odd date, when Bob Lukens, Pete Tyler, and I were in the North Blind at Cape May with Brian Sullivan.  I initially misidentified it in the distance as a harrier but when it got closer Sully hollered: “Mississippi Kite!  Everyone out of the blind!”  That same day we saw a Rough-legged Hawk Sully caught plus a juvie Golden Eagle.  
            A pair of Barn Swallows is building a nest under the dock catwalk, their preferred place.  Various first of year species today, none early, and seeing them this late testifies to my off-and-on presence here: 3 Chimney Swifts, a ♂ Blue Grosbeak, 2 Great Crested Flycatchers, 1 ♂ Orchard Oriole, 2 Least Terns, 4 Purple Martins, 2 Eastern Kingbirds, 1 Gray Catbird, and a Green Heron.
            Also: a Tiger Swallowtail, 10 Diamondback Terrapin, a Question Mark.  A pair of Lesser Scaup out in Irish Creek furnish a new late date for here.  1 ad. Bald Eagle over Holland Point being harassed by a crow.  5 White-throated Sparrows and 7 Gray Squirrels at the deer corn, the squirrels bobbing up and down for corn kernals with the regularity of those grasshopper-like oil wells.  1 imm. Red-tailed Hawk.  A Wild Turkey in Field 4.  A Pileated Woodpecker in Woods 2.  A 2’ Northern Watersnake swims across the breadth of the cove.  Six Canada Geese, 2 adults with their brood of 4 downy goslings, make a grand tour of the neighbors’ yards then swim the length of the cove close to Liz and me, who are sitting on the dock.
            Leaving for the Dorchester May Bird Count I see 2 Red Fox kits running along the driveway in front of me at 9:33 P.M.  Earlier in the day an adult fox is present in the same area.
            Fair, SW 20, 53-72°F.  Windy.
            May 7, Saturday.  I’m off in Dorchester County all day (and night).  Liz sees a Northern Waterthrush at close range, singing, and a Spotted Sandpiper, 2 species I miss in 21.5 hours of intense birding today in Dorchester.  She also sees a Tiger Swallowtail and 6 Gray Squirrels at the deer corn.  Coming home up the driveway at 9:50 P.M. there’s a rather large, fat Virginia Opossum.
            May 8, Sunday.  48 Surf Scoters in view, if distant, along with 7 Common Loons, from Lucy Point.  That’s of interest; however, on May 6, 1990, as many as 190 Surf Scoters were still present, as seen by Chris Witt, George Armistead, and me, and, in recent years some have even lingered into late May.  The Choptank River mouth may very well be the best place in Maryland to see big numbers of this species.  
            Jared Sparks visits and we see a big ♂ Five-lined Skink on the front porch, plus a Woodchuck, seldom seen in recent years.  This one assumes the upright Weltanschauung posture, sitting on its haunches, surveying its domain, with paws held down and flush to its chest, the classic sciurid attitude, and a most welcome sight.  
            At the head of the cove in close association simultaneously are 1 Black & 14 Turkey vultures, 4 Ospreys, and 2 Bald Eagles.  See the 1st Red-spotted Purple of the year.  Seven deer in the Big Field.  Four Bald Eagles seen off to the NE, 2 adults and 2 immatures, each tangling at high altitude with the other member of its age group. 
            Mostly just rest today, in recovery from yesterday’s quasi ordeal.  Fair, W 5 m.p.h., 62-78°F.    
            May 9, Monday.  1 Red-tailed Hawk.  Josh from the C. Albert Matthews company gives our geothermal system a thorough checkup, 3 hours worth.  He has studied engineering at a SUNY college; we are impressed with his thoroughness.  This is the 1st time in 7 years the system has had a thorough checkup, long overdue.  Mostly it’s O.K.  
            We leave at 11 A.M.  On the way back to Philadelphia: 48 Turkey Vultures, a low total.  The water in the little wetland just N of routes 481 X 309 has subsided and is full of shorebirds: 20 Least & 1 Solitary sandpiper, 7 Semipalmated Plovers, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Painted Turtle, 1 Great Blue Heron, and 1 Bald Eagle nearby.  Near Ruthsburg 2 imm. Bald Eagles are feeding on something in a field to the W.  At the pond S. of Hope a Great Egret.
            The Black Locust blossoms during this visit are as luxuriant as I’ve ever seen, and somewhat early. 
            ATTRACTION, May 2011, page 21, “Wildlife profile: Great Crested Flycatchers.”  Usually the articles in this and other freebies such as Tidewater Times that are available in various stores are accurate and worthwhile.  However, this one really misses the mark when it states that “populations of the Great Crested Flycatcher are in decline.”  
            I found c. 32 on the Dorchester May Bird Count on Saturday.  The 2nd Atlas of the breeding birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia, ed. by Walter G. Ellison (Johns Hopkins U. Pr., 2010, 494pp.) states: “Great Crested Flycatcher numbers have been stable on North American BBS routes from 1966-2007.  They have also been stable on Maryland routes since 1966 with a significant increase of 1.1% per year beginning in 1980.  At present there is no indication that the brawny weep of this flycatcher will cease to be a feature of Maryland woodlands into the foreseeable future.” – p. 230, Walter G. Elllison. 
            Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.    		 	   		  

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