88TH DORCHESTER COUNTY MAY BIRD COUNT, May 14, 2011 (in part), & FERRY NECK, May 12-15. + Royal Tern longevity & triumph in Texas.
THURSDAY, MAY 12. An Osprey over I-495, Wilmington, DE. At the routes 481 X 309 area wetland: 20 Least Sandpipers, 10 Semipalmated Plovers, 1 Greater & 1 Lesser yellowlegs, 1 Dunlin, a Killdeer, and a ♂ Mallard.
Ferry Neck/Rigby’s Folly. Arrive in afternoon. Five deer in Field 5, an adult Red Fox with a little kit near the Waterthrush Pond, and a Wild Turkey in Field 2. Returning after dinner from Ben & Frances Weems’ there’s a Raccoon at 8:54 P.M. going from Woods 4 to Woods 3, a Chuck-will’s-widow calling in Woods 3, and another chuck in Woods 2. Back at the house I hear the season’s first Green Treefrogs calling over near Tranquility. Clear, 76°F., calm, 67°F. at 9 P.M. The fields have been herbicided, the lawn cut recently.
FRIDAY, MAY 13. More Red Foxes: an adult with 3 kits in Field 1 and another adult seconds later with a kit in Field 4. Always exciting to see them but I wish they’d leave the bunnies alone and they couldn’t have helped the quail situation. A Wild Turkey in Field 2. High tide, c. 1.5 feet above normal, at 12:33 P.M., so high the Barn Swallows are unable to access their nest under the dock catwalk. From Lucy Point there’s 3 Common Loons and, rather close in, a pair of Black Scoters. 3 deer are out on Holland Point. An Eastern Cottontail is on the trail in back of the garage. A 3-foot Black Rat Snake is basking by the boxwood. A Green Heron flushes from the Varmint Pool. A Muskrat seen from the dock. A neighbor lets me know the Osprey nest on one of his boats has 3 eggs. 2 Gray Squirrels.
SATURDAY, MAY 14. Am in Dorchester County all day (see below).
SUNDAY, MAY 15. A 4.5-foor Black Rat Snake festoons the lawn rocking chair, basking in the rays that come through the clouds. Make yourself right at home, big fella … I just live here, but, then, so do you. On the driveway is the first Common Whitetail (dragonfly) I’ve seen this year. Close down the house and head back to Philadelphia by 10:30 A.M.
Just E of Carroll’s Market on the S side of Route 33 is a large roadkill doe attended by 2 Black Vultures.
At the small wetland area near routes 481 X 309 are 8 Least Sandpipers, 5 Semipalmated Plovers, a ♂ Mallard, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and 14 Painted Turtles. A Bald Eagle flies over Route 301 at milepost 111.
Near Ruthsburg 2 ♂ Indigo Buntings are doing battle right on the pavement in the middle of Route 481. I’ve no time to avoid this and straddle them. Looking in the rear view mirror I’m astonished to see both fly off unharmed.
SATURDAY, MAY 14. 88th Dorchester County May Bird Count (in part). What follows is only the result of my efforts (the 88th time was not the charm); these combined with totals from 8 (eight!!) other parties will be posted soon.
ABBREVIATIONS: BNWR, Blackwater refuge. EI, Elliott Island Road. HI, Hooper’s Island. HLW, Hal Wierenga. LMD, Lynn Davidson. SH, Swan Harbor.
EFFORT. Midnight – 9:45 P.M. (21.75 hours). 163 miles by car (5 of these on roads covered by 1”-6” of salty tidal water), 1 on foot. 8 hours by car, 13.75 on foot. LMD & HLW join me at EI 8:30-9:45 P.M.
SPECIES: 124.
common loon 2. pied-billed grebe 3. American white pelican 1 (Sewards). brown pelican 4 EI. double-crested cormorant 90. least bittern 3 (EI). great blue heron 35. great egret 65. snowy egret 28. little blue heron 2 imm. (“calico” herons; very likely the same 2 seen at BNWR in recent days). tricolored heron 3 (EI). green heron 2.
black vulture 11. turkey vulture 75. Canada goose 80 incl. broods of 3, 3 & 5 downy young at Shorter’s Marsh. wood duck 11. gadwall 2 a pair at BNWR Pool 3a. American black duck 22. mallard 85. green-winged teal BNWR Pool 3a. red-breasted merganser 1ø SH. ruddy duck 1 BNWR Pool 5a.
osprey 65. bald eagle 50 (I noticed on May 7 that the big nest W of the S end of Savanna Lake had fallen out of a Loblolly Pine there). northern harrier 2. red-tailed hawk 3. wild turkey 3 (♀s in 3 widely-separated places). northern bobwhite 2. clapper rail 1 EI. king rail 2. Virginia rail 28. sora 1 EI. common moorhen 8 EI. American coot 1 BNWR Pool 3c.
semipalmated plover 18. killdeer 12. American oystercatcher 2 SH. black-necked stilt 5 EI. greater yellowlegs 4. lesser yellowlegs 25. willet 14. spotted sandpiper 1. ruddy turnstone 4 SH. sanderling 10 SH. semipalmated sandpiper 12. least sandpiper 110. dunlin 155. short-billed dowitcher 7 (2 BNWR Pool 3a; 5 EI).
laughing gull 550. ring-billed gull 20. herring gull 70. great black-backed gull 4 SH. Caspian tern 2 SH. royal tern 10 SH. common tern 3 SH. Forster’s tern 65. least tern 2 BNWR.
rock pigeon 1 BNWR. mourning dove 30. yellow-billed cuckoo 3. barn owl 1 Bestpitch. eastern screech-owl 2. chuck-will’s-widow 6. chimney swift 11. red-headed woodpecker 3 BNWR. red-bellied woodpecker 8. downy woodpecker 2. hairy woodpecker 1 EI. northern flicker 3. pileated woodpecker 2.
eastern wood-pewee 5. Acadian flycatcher 2 (1 BNWR, 1 Old Field Road). great crested flycatcher 53 (use the clicker to count these). eastern kingbird 8. white-eyed vireo 8. red-eyed vireo 9. blue jay 10. American crow 30. fish crow 8. horned lark 3. purple martin 60. tree swallow 55. barn swallow 155. Carolina chickadee 4. tufted titmouse 13. brown-headed nuthatch 3. Carolina wren 15. house wren 15. marsh wren 30. eastern bluebird 24. American robin 80. gray catbird 6. northern mockingbird 15. brown thrasher 3.
European starling 65. yellow warbler 1. yellow-rumped wabler 1. pine warbler 24. prothonotary warbler 1. worm-eating warbler 1. ovenbird 10. common yellowthroat 95. yellow-breasted chat 4. summer tanager 7. scarlet tanager 1.
eastern towhee 6. chipping sparrow 40. field sparrow 2. grasshopper sparrow 1. saltmarsh sparrow 5 EI. seaside sparrow 115 (extremely vocal at dusk). song sparrow 1 EI. swamp sparrow 5 EI singing. northern cardinal 30. blue grosbeak 20. indigo bunting 55.
red-winged blackbird 425. eastern meadowlark 8 (a good count by recent standards, most at BNWR). common grackle 300. boat-tailed grackle 8 EI all ♂. brown-headed cowbird 55. orchard oriole 50. house finch 2 BNWR. American goldfinch 10. house sparrow 20.
NIGHT LIST: 18 species, only marginally better than on May 7.
TIDE. About the highest I’ve ever seen. At 2:45 A.M. I give the S end of EI a pass, tired of driving through tidal water and with the tide still rising. At BNWR in mid-morning the tidal water is all the way up into the forest on the S side of Wildlife Drive. A mile stretch of Shorter’s Wharf under water with scores of carp, up to 2’ long, in front of the car; once, although my TrailBlazer has pretty high clearance, a small school panicked and I was splashed in the face as I sat in the driver’s seat.
Also ON this road 2 Mallards, 4 American Black Ducks, 4 Willets, 6 Least Sandpipers, and a Semipalmated Plover. Tide at HI in mid-afternoon still high but going down. In the late afternoon the tide is, finally, going down fast at EI, a torrent rushing out into Fishing Bay, and the marsh birds respond with vigor, flying around, singing, a Virginia Rail right out in the open, unconcerned with my presence at close range. The high water prevented us from having a decent shot for Black Rail both in the early morning hours as well as after sunset.
NON-AVIAN TAXA:
MAMMALS: Sika Deer, my best ever for these: total of 133: 117 Griffith Neck Rd., 16 EI, 1 (roadkill) Hip Roof Rd., 5 Shorter’s Wharf Rd. (1 a roadkill), 4 Bestpitch Ferry Rd. White-tailed Deer: 8 Griffith Neck Rd., 1 Bestpitch Ferry Rd., 2 in central BNWR. HLW, LMD & I hear a Red Fox calling at EI c. 9:30 P.M. 2 Muskrats on lower Shorter’s Wharf (Maple Dam Rd.) Road.
A Red Fox kit on Bestpitch Ferry Road. A Virginia Opossum at Griffith Neck Rd. In the central BNWR area: 2 Fox & 1 Gray Squirrel, 3 Eastern Cottontails, and a large Woodchuck (the latter on the Wildlife Drive dike at Pool 5b), and, thus, a 3 squirrel day. A 3rd Fox Squirrel on Old Field Road near the turnoff to Kentuck Swamp North.
TURTLES: A poor day with a Common Snapping Turtle on the Wildlife Drive exit to Key Wallace Drive and 3 Painted Turtles and 1 Redbelly Cooter elsewhere in the central refuge.
BATRACHIANS: Cricket Frogs calling at 2 spots, 1 in the central refuge, the other at Tubman Trail. Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs – I seldom hear them – calling at 6 or 7 spots incl. EI, Griffith Neck Rd., Old Field Road, by the entrance to BNWR Kuehnle Tract, and a 4 other spots. A few Southern Leopard Frogs in the central refuge area. Several very good choruses at EI, with close Fowler’s Toads, Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs, and Green Tree Frogs calling loudly close to the road just W of Savanna Lake plus some Bull, Green, and Southern Leopard frogs nearby, all soon after midnight.
Then at 2:45 A.M. in the same area Bull, Southern Leopard, and Green Tree Frogs kicking up a continuous ruckus while a couple of Virginia Rails call continuously. In some areas throngs of frogs are on the roads in the evening after the rains, necessitating a slalom course style of driving.
BUTTERFLIES: A poor day for these with only 1 Pearlcrescent plus an unID’d anglewing.
TERN COLONY: First noticed on May 7, there is apparently a thriving tern colony just E of Barren Island on 1 of the 2 segments of Opossum Island, visible from a distance from N of Upper Hooper’s Island. I suspect it’s mostly Forster’s but there may also be Common terns. Here’s hoping it survives the extreme high tides of the past few days.
WEATHER: Quite a bit of light – luminous – through the clouds before the half + waxing moon sets c. 3:15 A.M. Overcast all day except for 2 periods when the sun threatens to break through in the late afternoon. Temperature varies between 61 and 72°F., is 61 at midnight, 63 at 5 A.M., 62 at 7 A.M., 72 from 1-5 P.M., dropping from 70 to 62 from 7 to 9:45 P.M. A few harmless sprinkles c. 3 A.M. and in the early morning daylight. Winds SE all day 10-20 m.p.h. Visibility good. After the count, in the Talbot County segment of my return trip, there’s a good thunder and lightning storm with strong rains – enough to wash off the salt residue from c. 5 mi. of DRIVING through tidal waters today.
MISSED SPECIES: Black-crowned Night Heron (the can’t miss locality at EI failed for only the 2nd time in at least 25 years). Blue-winged Teal. No falcons. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Savannah Sparrow.
ROYAL TERN: a near longevity record. Thanks to John Weske for sharing this interesting record. On May 12 Ruth Boettcher of the VA DGIF found a dead Royal Tern on Clump Island, Accomack County, VA (very near Crisfield, MD, but in the Virginia part of Chesapeake Bay in the Fox Islands archipelago). It had been banded as a pre-fledged youngster by the legendary John H. Buckalew on June 3, 1984, on the coast of the Virginia Eastern Shore at Metompkin Island (sometimes spelled Metomkin).
TEXAS TRIUMPH. The Fund-raising letter from Cornell Lab of Ornithology is sketchy but Maryland’s own Marshall Iliff (with Brian Sullivan, Jessie Barry, Chris Wood, Andrew Farnsworth & Tim Lenz) found 264 species in Texas on April 22, a new North American big day record, incl. 18 waterfowl, 14 heron types, 18 raptors, 31 shorebirds, 8 terns, 6 doves, 3 hummingbirds, 13 flycatchers, 8 wrens, 3 thrashers, 19 warblers, 17 sparrows (not counting towhee & Lark Bunting), and 6 orioles. The waterfowl and warbler totals are not THAT great compared to some other parts of the country, but the other totals certainly reflect how great Texas is.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia, PA.
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