18 DAYS ON THE LOWER EASTERN SHORE, September 25-October 12, mostly in Virginia (at Kiptopeke), part 2 October 2-7, 2011.
OCTOBER 2, SUNDAY. Another brief watch at SBR, 7-8 A.M., with Ned Brinkley. Far fewer birds this morning, just 18 warbler individuals, but also 7 Bald Eagles, 5 sharpies, 8 kestrels, 2 peregrines, a Sandwich Tern, 2 Ospreys, and a Red-eyed Vireo. 55¢XF., winds NW 20-25.
Otherwise it is back to the platform 10 A.M. ¡V 5 P.M. Someone sees a Snow Goose (Bob Anderson?) and an imm. Little Blue Heron briefly settles in among the small willow woods swatch down by the state park launching area. 30 Bobolinks. 3 Great Blue Herons going over high. Bob Anderson sees a mangy Red Fox. Colder, windier, and cloudier than yesterday, which was also cold. I don my padded, full-body-length jump suit and am more comfortable than on Saturday.
391 raptors, incl. 121 Ospreys, 102 sharpies, 9 Merlins, and 5 peregrines - an example of what a ¡§poor¡¨ day is here at the height of the hawk migration. Bald Eagles and redtails are counted conservatively here and elsewhere (a little too conservatively in my opinion), and always have been, to take into account what may be local birds.
[George¡¦s observations at Rigby¡¦s Folly continue today resulting in 34 species, among them: 5 Bald Eagles, 5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 8 catbirds, 48 Cedar Waxwings, 1 Black-throated Green, 1 Connecticut (he thinks the same one as yesterday) & 8 Magnolia warblers, 4 Indigo Buntings, and 13 Common Yellowthroats. Unlike his Luddite father, he enters his records into eBird.]
OCTOBER 3, MONDAY. Some rain, NW 20, overcast, high 50s. Tiring of the cold, relatively unproductive weather I decide to wend, ramble, and meander, do some legwork for the Christmas Bird Count by checking out roads that run E of Rt. 600, noting their condition, length, and habitats, in some cases talking with landowners. This involves 28 roads and takes from noon until 5:30 P.M. Thus I¡¦m only on the platform from c. 9-11:45. This is a good decision as another ¡§poor¡¨ day results in ¡§only¡¨ 387 raptors, incl. 166 Ospreys, 6 Bald Eagles, 77 sharpies, 24 kestrels, 29 Merlins, and 26 peregrines.
Somewhere in the disaster that is my work area are by now partially redundant notes I made last year on all of these roads plus those W of Arlington Road.
Don¡¦t see much. Find 13 kestrels the entire time. Go from the ESVNWR roads N to Island View Lane a little ways S of Oyster, which has no island view and is very rough and bumpy, but yields a Horned Lark and Savannah Sparrow.
At Ramp Lane there are 9 Snowy Egrets, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 3 kingfishers, 2 adult Bald Eagles, and an eagle nest I¡¦d not noticed before - in the extensive piney woods down towards Wise Point. The other eagle nest is in plain view on Raccoon Island as one looks towards the lighthouse on Smith Island from where the boat launch is. That¡¦s 2 active nests in close proximity.
Beautiful, large Magnolia grandifloras on Bull¡¦s Landing Drive, where Roy Bull in 1965 put Will Russell and me in touch with Lynwood Horner, who would be our excellent boat guide for many, many years. Two adult Bald Eagles over Magotha Road with its fine view of Magothy Bay, where I once had over 1100 Buffleheads in sight simultaneously.
Martins Landing Road: a Great Egret. Dunton Cove Drive: a Gray Squirrel & 1 fawn and there is a trailer-type house here where the owner has several dozen cats that populate his small lawn, a spectacle. Braxton Farm Road: 4 Wood Ducks. Nathan Lane: 8 Palm Warblers. Riverside Farm Lane: 4 Palm Warblers, a Cooper¡¦s Hawk & an Osprey. Poplar Grove Lane: a doe with 2 fawns. Also see single Monarchs at 4 spots, harbingers of the pretty good flight that is soon to be.
OCTOBER 4, TUESDAY. Back on the platform 9:00-6:15. 74 Northern Flickers, which have been notable so far by their paucity, and Blue Jays are almost non-existent. Keith Gingrich sees the Red Fox. A kettle of 66 Broad-winged Hawks. Lots of birds at Calvin¡¦s nets, which are closed early in the day to deal with the buildup, esp. of catbirds. His team bands 330 birds. Hal & Lynn help out at the nets.
A doe seen from the platform. The Monarchs ARE starting to come, 44, the most so far, 7 of them get tagged by Annalisa. A Solitary Sandpiper flies by as do 2 Common Loons. Great Blue Herons go over high in configurations of 1, 1 & 4. Baltimore Oriole, tanager sp, Common Nighthawk, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak seen.
Kyle et al. record 12 warbler and 7 woodpecker species plus 846 raptors, incl. 15 harriers, 240 sharpies, 53 Coops, 214 broadwings, 194 kestrels, 33 Merlins, and 20 peregrines.
OCTOBER 5, WEDNESDAY. A red letter day. I use the clicker and record 812 northbound flickers, that, combined with Ned¡¦s 1386 earlier in the day at SBR totals to >2000 for the Southern Tip, the only good flight of them I see this time. There are also many southbound ones, confusing the issue. I see 547 by 9 A.M. Lots of landbirds incl. Baltimore Oriole, tanagers, sapsuckers, Bobolinks, a pileated, et al.
I reprise my earlier mistnettng life by helping out some at the nets 10:30-1, just hanging out, or, some of the time, extracting 9 Yellow-rumped & a Black-and-white warbler, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Northern Parula, 2 catbirds, and 2 Red-eyed Vireos. Fall arrivals banded incl. both kinglets and White-throated Sparrow. A Marsh Wren is a rare capture here.
Other highlights incl. a kettle of 9 Bald Eagles, 525 raptors (with 24 harriers, 177 broadwings, and 13 ea. of Merlin and peregrine). Several Black-throated Green Warblers are banded, not caught here much because they usually stay up higher in the trees than the nets. Calvin et al. band 411 birds. There¡¦s a spectacular Mourning Cloak right next to the banding station.
Lynn electrifies us with a cell phone call. She and Deb have found a RED-NECKED PHALAROPE at Taylor Pond. While not an extreme rarity it IS the first record for the Southern Tip. Earlier in 2011 several of us helped revise the ESVNWR list which is a Southern Tip list, extending up to include KSP and down to Fisherman Island. This phalarope wasn¡¦t on it.
Some of us go trooping down to see it at 4:35: Joe Beatty, Hal, Ned, Bob Anderson. There it is spinning on the water¡¦s surface with 6 Pied-billed Grebes and a Ruddy Duck. Also in the pond are 21 turtles (Red-belly Cooters and Painted Turtles) and, in the area, at least 20 phoebes (6 together on the white, plastic fencing), 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 2 kingfishers, a Barn & 20 Tree swallows, and a peregrine. THANK YOU, AGAIN, JAMES TAYLOR.
Lynn¡¦s star turn during this visit isn¡¦t over yet. From the E end of the platform she spots a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW that a bunch of us (Hal, Tim Roberts, Kyle, Bob Anderson, Jackie Catino) watch at leisure, 6:10-6:30 P.M., in good sunlight while it feeds on seeds of a Panicum type grass in company with an Indigo Bunting and a White-throated Sparrow, really pigging out. We watch it at c. 50 feet through binoculars and 30X power scopes. Bob Anderson (Captain Video) videos it.
Am on the platform, or nearby, 7:45-6:30. A Great Horned Owl calls next to my sleeping quarters at 8:55 P.M. 80 or so Monarchs pass by the platform.
OCTOBER 6, THURSDAY. ¡K ¡§as we entered the day's tenth hour the previously "semi-rowdy" gang of regulars became downright rowdy, but still fun, perhaps making for a bird or two being missed as everyone on the platform was laughing too hard. It has been requested (and I've been offered money) not to go into further details, but, you want to have fun and see hawks? Come to Kiptopeke!¡¨ ¡V Kyle Wright, part of his commentary on www.hawkcount.org.
How lucky. This is the 3rd 1000+ raptor day this visit. 1070 hawks with 28 harriers, 236 sharpies, 122 Coops, 236 broadwings, 19 redtails (a lot for so early in the season), 7 Bald Eagles, 271 kestrels, 77 Merlins, and 27 peregrines. Am on the platform c. 9-6.
The Phillies lose last night but the Gray Squirrel than ran across home plate in St. Louis steals the show, becomes the subject of several videos and other commentary (to see some of this Google: squirrel St Louis), becomes known as the Rally Squirrel.
School groups come from Kiptopeke Elementary School. On display are a captured Red-tailed Hawk and an adult ¡ñ Cooper¡¦s Hawk. Calvin¡¦s crew nets a Northern Waterthrush impaled with a Porcupine quill, with signs that it had been inflicted by another one. Impossible to extract the quill so it is cut off flush to the bird¡¦s skin.
After yesterday¡¦s flicker bonanza I count just 5 today. A Common Loon goes over. The Clay-colored Sparrow is relocated again and seen by Lynn, Ned, possibly others. The best day for Chimney Swifts: 45. Two Porpoises are seen off in the distance beyond the concrete ships. Lynn finds an early Ring-necked Duck, a ¡ñ, on Taylor Pond. Best of all is a kettle of c. 220 Broad-winged Hawks right overhead. Liz arrives from Philadelphia. 72 Monarchs are counted. A few other folks see the mythical green flash at sunset from the platform.
OCTOBER 7, FRIDAY. Let the Eastern Shore Birding and Wildlife Festival begin. For my part I lead 3 boat trips out of Oyster with Captain Buddy Vaughn, who in addition to being great company, knows all of the tidal guts, marshy tumps, sandbars, and islands as no one else I¡¦ve ever boated with.
The 1st trip, 9-12:30, is with Cheryl Jacobson, Jan Lockwood, Harriet Fraser, and Janice & Fred Reinhardt. The low tide is a disadvantage and I don¡¦t suppose we cover more than about 20 miles through the marshes and tidal guts E and a little S of Oyster.
But that¡¦s enough to see, among other biota, 3 Tricolored Herons, a Clapper Rail, 45 oystercatchers, 225 Black-bellied Plovers, 45 Western & a Least sandpiper, 30 Short-billed Dowitchers, 55 Dunlin, 90 Willets, 26 Marbled Godwits, 4 Spotted Sandpipers, 35 Caspian and a late Gull-billed tern, 525 Tree Swallows, 55 Fish Crows, 2 harriers, and a Cooper¡¦s Hawk plus 6 Monarchs, 4 Buckeyes, and 19 Diamondback Terrapin.
The 2nd trip is more spectacular, 1:30-5:30, covering perhaps 35 miles, the rising, and then risen, tide concentrating the shorebirds, heading out to the productive S end of Wreck I., past The Nature Conservancy¡¦s watch house, Ship Shoal Inlet, Ship Shoal I., Myrtle I., then ALL the way down to the great Thoms Creek flats, and back close along the west side of Mockhorn Island, and including such obscure entities as Red Drum Drain and Rat Creek (with the Rat House seen in the glimmering distance). Buddy¡¦s boat reaches speeds of 30 knots in between areas of interest, comfortable on a sunny day with light winds. On board are Sandy & Pat Norris, Ernie & Val Sears, and Liz Armistead.
We see ¡V a partial list ¡V 1610 Black-bellied Plovers (S end of Wreck I.), 225 oystercatchers (several banded but unable to read their numbers), 20 Snowy & 18 Great egrets, 9 Tricolored, 2 Little Blue (adults) and 2 imm. BCNHs, 2 Gull-billed Terns, 2 White Ibis, 3 peregrines, a Piping Plover (S end of Wreck I.), 3 pintails, 3 Green-winged Teal, 95 Sanderlings, a Pied-billed Grebe, 350 cormorants (several S bound skein formations at great distance), 5 Ospreys, 25 Western & 3 Least sandpipers, 250 Short-billed Dowitchers, 45 Dunlin, 1 Marbled Godwit, 30 Royal, 45 Caspian & a mere 5 Forster¡¦s terns, 2 kingfishers, 4 harriers, 20 Boat-tailed Grackles, and 19 Brown Pelicans (close range, most of them flying towards and then right by us) plus 5 Monarchs and 6 Buckeyes.
This is the way it must feel when one wins the lottery ¡K the rush and the high continuing well after disembarking from these boat trips. Complete lists of all the birds seen on them are available on request (whereas most birds are listed herein, all birds would be listed therein). I was trying to figure out, much later, my apparently flawed transcription of a phone number ¡V 610 425 575 ¡V but realize, with some effort at recall, that those are the estimates for the 3 groups of Black-bellied Plovers seen today.
Elsewhere today: 2 Wood Ducks at KSP before the boat trips. A lovely adult ¡ñ Merlin (blue jack) perched in back of the platform, well-seen through the scopes. A d.o.r. Gray Squirrel on the way to Oyster. The hawk counters today counted 715, with 20 harriers, 70 Ospreys, 220 broadwings, 57 Coops, 10 Bald Eagles, 129 kestrels, 48 Merlins, and 27 peregrines. I was only present 0.5 hours but at least got to see the Blue Jack. 933 Monarchs today, the best during this sojourn. 14 White Ibis are seen from the platform. Most always they are seen only on the seaside E of Routes 13 or 600.
Best to all. ¡V Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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