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18 days on the lower Eastern Shore, Sept. 25-Oct. 12, 2011, mostly Virginia (part 1)

From:

Harry Armistead

Reply-To:

Harry Armistead

Date:

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:23:08 +0000

18 DAYS ON THE LOWER EASTERN SHORE, September 25-October 12, mostly in Virginia (at Kiptopeke), part 1, September 25 ¨C October 1, 2011.
 
UN-EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.  Forster¡¯s Terns were almost non-existent in the Virginia locales I visited.  There was no truly BIG flight of Merlins, peregrines, or Ospreys, the highest totals during my sojourn 94, 72, and 166 respectively.  Except for one memorable day flickers were not in big numbers.  Blue Jays ¡­ very few.  Monarchs finally began to come in numbers during the last few days.  Most birds were in low numbers out in the marshes and nearby areas of the barrier islands.  
 
Not a single Red-breasted Nuthatch I was aware of.  Earlier in the season, around Labor Day, Eastern Kingbirds were in low numbers.  No Western Kingbird report.  A lot of this disparaging commentary may be due to weather conditions and not the actual numbers of birds this fall.  Cattle Egrets, formerly present in the hundreds, were almost absent; this IS a true decrease.  A good fall for Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Cape May & Black-throated Green warblers.  I heard no reports of Long-tailed Skippers or Gulf Fritillaries.  Most rain was at night and daytime rain was light.  
 
[Maryland birders, MD observations are found only under September 25 & 26, October 1, 2, 11 & 12.] 
 
GAZETTEER and ABBREVIATIONS.  BCNH - Black-crowned Night Heron.  Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Dorchester County, MD.  Deal Island W.M.A., Somerset County, MD.  Egypt Road, Dorchester County, MD.  Elliott Island Road, Dorchester County, MD.  ESVNWR, Eastern Shore of Virginia N.W.R.  KSP, Kiptopeke State Park, Northampton County, VA, the center for fall birding activity in the Cape Charles area.  Machipongo, Northampton County, VA.  Oyster Landfill, Northampton County, VA, near Kiptopeke.  the platform, the hawkwatch platform at KSP.  Ramp Lane, at the S end of ESVNWR.  Rigby¡¯s Folly, Armistead property, Talbot County, MD.  Sunset Beach Resort, Northampton County, VA, just N of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel toll plaza.  Taylor Pond at KSP, acquired through the generosity of singer James Taylor.  Willis Wharf, Northampton County, VA, E of Exmore, c. 25 mi. N of KSP.
 
DRAMATIS PERSONAE (some others are mentioned elsewhere in these field notes; what follows is not intended to be a complete list).  Bob Ake & Joyce Neff.  Bob Anderson & Thuy Tran.  Liz Armistead.  Dennis Baker.  John Bazuin.  Joe Beatty.  Charlene Brennan.  Larry Brindza.  Ned Brinkley.  Allen Bryan.  Bob & Ruth Cook.  Cameron Cox.  Greg Cridlin.  Fenton Day.  Jeannie DeDominick.  Carl & Carolyn Drasher.  Peter Dutnell.  Jen Elmer.  Steve Emslie.  Elisa Enders.  Nick Flanders.    Geoffrey Giles.  Tom Gwynn.  Bobby & Gerri Howe.  Mike Iwanik.  Robert Klages.  Clyde & Nan LaRue.  Scott LaRue.  Bev Leeuwenburg.  Judy & Bob Lynn.  Colin, Stephanie & little, weeks-old Eliza McAllister.  Grazina & Michael McClure.  Ann McDowell.  Carol & John McGonigle.  Laura McKay.  John Miller.  Mary & Brent Myers.  Paul Nasca & Heidi.  Susan Powell.  The Right Honourable Sir Studly Radclyffe Ramsbottom DSC OBE 7th Earl of Nassawadox & Peggy Sue Ramsbottom.  Bob Reilly.  Sue Rice.  Steve Robley.  Marv Rubin.  Deborah & Kurt Schroeder.  Don Schwab.  Jeff Stockham.  Brian Taber.  John Toner.  Buddy Vaughan.  Don Webster.  David Whitehurst.  Bill Williams.  The GARGOYLES: Lynn Davidson & Hal Wierenga, Deb & Keith Gingrich, Sue Ricciardi, Bob Rineer.
 
SEPTEMBER 25, SUNDAY.  Drive down to Rigby¡¯s Folly from Philadelphia.  See daughter, Anne, and her fianc¨¦, Derek Ayres, there briefly before they head N.  Quite a bit of debris in the waters, presumably from Hurricanes Irene and Lee.  A nice cluster of Goldenrod is full of bees plus a Buckeye, a Monarch, a Pearl Crescent, and a Yellow Garden Spider.  A Fowler¡¯s Toad on the front porch.  Two Diamondback Terrapin in the cove.
 
A few birds:  Best of all, a ¡â Peregrine Falcon.  2 adult Bald Eagles in a tree at Edwards Point.  2 Ospreys.  1 hummingbird.  11 Fish Crows.  A ¡â American Kestrel.  A screech-owl calls, unsolicited.  A Snowy & a Great egret, which leave the cove at 6:35 P.M. for points W, probably Poplar Island.  One Sharp-shinned Hawk.  One Forster¡¯s Tern.  Overcast, calm ¨C NW5 ¨C calm, 76-74¡ãF., tide high but falling.
 
SEPTEMBER 26, MONDAY.  Leave Rigby¡¯s Folly by 10:15 A.M.  Three Bald Eagles, a Red-shouldered Hawk, a Snowy Egret, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, a Gray Squirrel, and 3 Monarchs.  Then off to the swamps.
 
Egypt Road.  8 Horned Larks (often hard to find this time of year because the vegetation clutters the fields they haunt), 8 Chipping Sparrows, 6 kestrels on the wires, 45 Tree Swallows, 2 bluebirds, a Red-tailed hawk, and a Black Ratsnake.
 
Blackwater N.W.R. around noon.  29 Painted Turtles, one each of Fox & Gray squirrels, 1 very mangy Red Fox, 1 Snapping Turtle, 19 Bald Eagles, the American White Pelican (still hanging out c. 0.5 mi. W of the Observation Site), 42 Forster¡¯s Terns, 16 cormorants, a kingfisher, 7 Caspian Terns, a harrier, a d.o.r. Raccoon, and 2 Black Vultures.  Butterflies: 1 Common Wood Nymph, 2 Monarchs, 6 Buckeyes, and 4 unID¡¯d sulphurs.  Some hibiscus still blooming.  No shorebirds.
 
Maple Dam Road.  12 Chipping Sparrows and, strangely, NO kestrels. 
 
Route 50, Dorchester County, an adult Red-tailed Hawk on the wire with its back to traffic and the sun, wings spread, sunning.
 
Salisbury.  An ad. Bald Eagle over town.
 
Deal Island W.M.A., 2:30-4:30.  Earlier today I pass a trailer on Route 50 towing a helicopter.  Hours later here it is at the end of Dumpster Road spraying Rodeo on Phragmites.  I¡¯ve never stood under a landing helicopter before.  This one lands right on top of a truck to take on 70 gals. of Rodeo at a time.  Don Webster of MD DNR is overseeing this; it is good to catch up with things with him.  Don has seen Yellow Rails several times in MD.  His reports need to get into the archival record.  He knows his waterbirds well.  All water levels are high.
 
73 Great & 7 not-so-great egrets, 3 black ducks, a Tricolored Heron, 29 Savannah Sparrows, 2 Palm Warblers, 1 ¡á harrier, 3 Bald Eagles, 7 cormorants, 3 Pied-billed Grebes (outside of the impoundment and just S of Riley Roberts Road in a natural saltmarsh pond), 1 ¡á Boat-tailed Grackle, 33 Turkey & 2 Black vultures, a phoebe, 7 Western Sandpipers, 30 Forster¡¯s Terns, 3 Green Herons, and a Greater Yellowlegs, plus a Snapping Turtle, a Monarch, and 5 Buckeyes.  
 
There¡¯s a U. of MD Eastern Shore cross country team running along Riley Roberts Road.  They are standoffish and self-absorbed, my waves not returned.   
 
Pocomoke City, the river of the same name mentioned in a Chuck Berry song.  A Bald Eagle soaring over this town.
 
Willis Wharf, VA, 6 P.M.  129 Willets, 2 Great Egrets, 1 Green Heron, 20 robins (the only ones seen today), 415 starlings.
 
COASTAL VIRGINIA WILDLIFE OBSERVATORY STAFF:  Calvin Brennan, songbird bander.  Jackie Cantina, raptor trapping intern.  Bob Chapman, raptor trapper.  Annalisa Diaz, Monarch butterfly tagger.  Tim Roberts, songbird banding intern.  Kyle Wright, hawkcounter.
 
K.S.P. raptor totals below are those of official hawkcounter Kyle Wright, except for 2 days when Kyle was out-of-state for a wedding.  See www.hawkcount.org for grand totals and complete hour-by-hour details as well as Kyle¡¯s excellent commentary.  Other stuff in my report is almost all my own totals.
 
SEPTEMBER 27, TUESDAY.  A good start with 870 raptors including 455 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 230 kestrels, 40 Merlins, and 24 peregrines.  I¡¯m on the platform 7-7:45 and 10:15-5.  One Red-headed Woodpecker, 32 Bobolinks.  Best of all a Golden Eagle passes by to the E quite low and quite close at 11:11 A.M.  An early Golden but Bob Anderson, myself, and others once saw one on a September 3rd.  Bob Chapman captures an imm. ¡á Peregrine Falcon that is shown to those on the platform.  From my bed in the park I hear a screech-owl at 9:15 P.M.   
 
Red-cockaded Woodpecker habitat down near Wakefield, VA, gets a big boost with the acquisition of 4,400 acres directly adjacent to 3,200 acres owned by The Nature Conservancy.  Nice to read this over scrapple and eggs at Sting-Ray¡¯s: Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 27, Tue., p. 3, Hampton Roads section, with photograph and map.  
 
SEPTEMBER 28, WEDNESDAY.  May turn out to be the best raptor count of the fall, an early and odd date for such: 1459 incl. 110 Ospreys, 809 sharpies, 95 Cooper¡¯s Hawks, 247 kestrels, 69 Merlins, and 72 peregrines.  The hawk trappers catch 74 hawks, an excellent total.  I¡¯m on the platform 945:-5.  Outside of Sting-Ray¡¯s a flock of 215 cowbirds forages in earnest through the grass.
 
SEPTEMBER 29, THURSDAY.  3:25 A.M., brilliant starlight with Orion showing beautifully, incl. the stars on his dagger.  A respectable raptor flight with 921, incl. 473 sharpies, 41 Coops, 238 kestrels, 84 Merlins, and 44 peregrines.  Hundreds of Green Darners in flight in front of the platform these first days, Merlin and kestrel food on the wing.  A crop duster is in action, perhaps the reason a Great Horned Owl flushes, headed S across the gap in front of the raptor trapping station.  Am on the platform 9:30-1:30 & 2:30-6.  
 
SEPTEMBER 30, FRIDAY.  1333 raptors with 107 Ospreys, 592 sharpies, 91 Coops, 79 Broad-winged Hawks, 285 kestrels, 94 Merlins, and 62 peregrines.  Kyle points out a Philadelphia Vireo in a Black Cherry near the platform at 8:19 A.M., W side.  An imm. ¡á Merlin and a Cooper¡¯s Hawk, captures, are displayed to the platform crowd.  Also seen are a Common Nighthawk, Pileated and Hairy woodpeckers, flybys -Northern Parula & Black-and-white Warbler, 2 ¡á Cape May Warblers (in the same tree cluster as the Philly Vireo), and a peregrine flyover at 5:35 P.M. marked with picric acid on its breast feathers, a sure sign it was captured recently on Assateague Island.  16 Snowy Egrets at the Ramp Lane pond at 2:45.  Am on the platform 9:30-2:15 & 3:15-6.    
 
OCTOBER 1, SATURDAY.  The ¡°BEST¡± day of my sojourn by most any standard.  Go AWOL from the platform to catch the morning flight, 6:45-8, at SBR with Ned Brinkley, Allen Bryan, and Deborah & Kurt Schroeder et al.  Not a great flight but I click 143 flyover warblers, incl. Palm, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Black-and-white, Cape May, Nashville, Magnolia, and redstart (most of these ID¡¯d by Ned).  
 
The crescent moon is setting over a Bay that is gray, blustery, and a seething mass of whitecaps, winds NW at 20+ m.p.h.  Also at SBR: 10 Bald Eagles, 25 Ospreys, 3 Cooper¡¯s, 1 Red-tailed & 12 Sharp-shinned hawks, 2 Merlins, 3 kestrels, and a peregrine plus 40 catbirds, 3 thrashers, 3 phoebes, and a pewee.  Not bad for an hour and a quarter, many of the non-warbler landbirds tallied by Allen.
 
I¡¯m sitting on the throne of the musty KSP restroom, indisposed and w/o a shred of dignity or self-respect, when the cell phone rings and Bob Anderson says there¡¯s a FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER Lynn Davidson has spotted, and seen very well (repeat VERY WELL), at the entrance to the park.  I get up there in time to see a flycatcher with one HELL-of-a long tail fly off over the pines.  
 
Others who see it, the 2nd record for the Southern Tip, are Bob, Allen Bryan, Kyle Wright, Hal Wierenga, Ned Brinkley, and Thuy Tran.  It is seen briefly at other local locales by some of these folks.  The 1st record was October 26, 1999.  A redstart and 12 catbirds also enliven the scene of the original sighting.  
 
In 1958 Dick Kleen and I and 4 ladies from Talbot County, MD, disembarked from a small freighter on the coast of Venezuela and saw 100s of FTFLs.  Haven¡¯t seen one since, until today.  Ones that reach North America are apparently not these but those from farther S in South America that leapfrog over the resident Venezuela ones.
 
Across from the much-maligned Kiptopeake Inn is an earthy field where we¡¯ve been hearing about the presence of fancy shorebirds.  Thuy, Bob, and I check it out and have very good views of 2 golden plovers, 2 lovely Buff-breasted Sandpipers, 30 Semipalmated Plovers (but no totipalmate ones), 7 Horned Larks, 12 Killdeer, 3 ea. of Western & Least sandpipers, and 175 starlings, most of these nos., except for the 1st 2 species, probably lower than what is actually there.  
 
At the platform 914 raptors are counted, with 94 Ospreys, 11 Bald Eagles, 36 harriers, 308 sharpies, 85 Coops, 268 kestrels, 52 Merlins, and 17 peregrines.  We see a hummingbird harass a Sharp-shinned Hawk.  I¡¯m on the platform 9:15-1:15 then again from 4-6.  Calvin bands a Hooded Warbler and an Eastern Kingbird comes in, both species somewhat, but not especially, late. 
 
From 2 until c. 5 P.M. I instruct - I guess that¡¯s the right term - a class of 11 Master Naturalists, mostly at Ramp Lane, on bird ID, including Wes & Susan Brown, Sharon & Frank Renshaw, George Budd, Cary Gibson, Curtis, Lynn & Tom Badger, and Fred & Janice Reinhardt.  I give them a 4,300+ word handout (available on request).  Nice group.  
 
While I am nattering on about Clapper Rails, some of which call on the other side of the Federal Cut, Curtis Badger unobtrusively walks over to a boat at the landing and, to our astonishment, brings over one that has just been shot by hunters.  I am glad he is aware of what¡¯s going on around us even if I am, to some extent, not.  Afterwards we adjourn to the KSP platform.  
 
[George Armistead is at Rigby¡¯s Folly this weekend and in spite of hosting several non-birders sees 42 species today, including 2 Peregrine Falcons, 7 Bald Eagles, a Caspian Tern, 3 Great Horned Owls (2 adults and a young bird), a Traill¡¯s Flycatcher, 18 flickers, a hummingbird, 14 catbirds, a Connecticut, a Mourning, 2 Cape May, a Black-throated Green & 4 Magnolia warblers, 12 yellowthroats, 2 Blue Grosbeaks, 6 Northern Parulas, a White-throated Sparrow, and 6 Indigo Buntings.]
 
Best to all. ¨C Harry Armistead, Philadelphia. 		 	   		  

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