FERRY NECK, BLACKWATER N.W.R., SWAN HARBOR, OCTOBER 28-31, 2011.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28. 103 Turkey Vultures on the way down from Philadelphia. Arrive at 3:15 but am only able to bird from 4:30 onwards. 11 Common Loons, 1 Great Blue Heron, 1 Surf Scoter (close in to our shoreline), 11 Ruddy Ducks, an Eastern Phoebe, 2 Bald Eagles, 16 Forster’s Terns, a kingfisher, 2 flickers, a catbird, a Hermit Thrush, 45 Laughing Gulls, and a few dozen sparrows along the driveway: Field, Song, White-throated, and Chipping plus some Slate-colored Juncos.
Also: 4 deer and 4 unID’d ducks. The soy beans have finally turned color. Overcast, 49-47°F., E 5-10 m.p.h. Cold and raw with a higher than normal high tide. I distribute lots of deer corn.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29. Just plain nasty: overcast, rain (lots), E15 becoming 20-25 NW, 43-41°F. During a brief rainless spell I scan to the N and more or less together in the sky are 33 Turkey Vultures, 2 Bald Eagles, a Red-tailed and a Cooper’s hawk. Two Snowy Egrets continue at the head of the cove; it’s getting late for snowies to be here. Seven deer. Already a Gray Squirrel is patronizing the deer corn. About a foot from the window of the St. Michaels library (near the newspaper section) is a Gray Catbird that doesn’t move when I press my nose against the glass.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30.
Here’s a partial list for today from Rigby’s Folly. The Talbot Bird Club spent most of their field trip today here but the list below is what Liz saw or heard plus what she is aware that others saw here, some of these seen before or after the TBC visit. Members of TBC today included Priscilla & Paul Thut, Les Roslund, Vince De Sanctis, Les Coble, and others. I regret missing this but had committed over a year ago to leading a bird walk at Blackwater N.W.R. today (details below).
American black duck 2. canvasback (unsure of no. but it was 4-6; an early date). bald eagle 2 imm. northern flicker 8. eastern phoebe 4. tree swallow 10. house wren 1. golden-crowned kinglet 6. ruby-crowned kinglet 20. hermit thrush 1. brown creeper 1. Carolina chickadee 5. bluebird 6. gray catbird 2. myrtle warbler 30. yellow palm warbler 1. Savannah sparrow 1. field sparrow 1. waxwing 10. slate-colored junco 8. common loon 2. snowy egret 2. mute swan 2. At 7:15 P.M. I heard a young Great horned Owl call, right in the yard! Also: 2 Gray Squirrels, 4 deer.
The bird club finds a total of, I think it is, 48 species. The club has a nice tradition of a member hosting a breakfast after the walk. Part of this is a “contest” to see who can guess the number of species seen, the winner awarded a jar of fancy preserves, or somesuch. As chance would have it Liz won this time. All species must have been seen or heard by at least two observers.
BLACKWATER N.W.R. 7:30 A.M. – 1 P.M. & 3-4 P.M. (birdwalk from 8-12:45) A bird walk with 13 observers: Eileen Ellsworth, Curt Hayes, Bill & Jane Hill, Mea Kaemmerlen, Dan Mellis, Marv Rubin, Mike Salapka, Kathy & Richard Trenner, Bob Weil, and Levin Willey. A few of the birds listed below are seen before or after the official birdwalk. 54 species.
Complete list: common loon 1, double-crested cormorant 45 (incl. a circling kettle of c. 30 high & in the distance). great blue heron 8. Canada goose, I don’t know – shall we say 1,000? mallard 175. American black duck 7. green-winged teal 4. blue-winged teal 1. northern pintail 45. ruddy duck 2. turkey vulture 30. black vulture 2. red-tailed hawk 6. osprey 1. bald eagle 16. northern harrier 3. American kestrel 4 (Egypt Road). Virginia rail 2. pectoral sandpiper 1. greater yellowlegs 3. dunlin 4. ring-billed gull 145. herring gull 2. laughing gull 85. Forster’s tern 50.
mourning dove 4. belted kingfisher 2. pileated woodpecker 2. northern flicker 6. eastern phoebe 4. horned lark 4. tree swallow 2. American crow 7. blue jay 2. Carolina chickadee 4. tufted titmouse 2. brown-headed nuthatch 1. Carolina wren 3. northern mockingbird 3. gray catbird 1. hermit thrush 4. American robin 95. eastern bluebird 9. ruby-crowned kinglet 3. golden-crowned kinglet 2. European starling 300. yellow-rumped warbler 10. red-winged blackbird 475 (several singing). song sparrow 7 (3 of them singing). white-throated sparrow 5. swamp sparrow 2. chipping sparrow 8. slate-colored junco 8.
Non-avian taxa: 2 Fox & 1 Gray squirrel. Butterflies: 4 Monarchs & 2 Buckeyes. No turtles.
SWAN HARBOR ROAD: A disappointing hawk watch 1:30-2:30 P.M, D.S.T. clear, NW 15 m.p.h., 49°F., cool, breezy, no clouds. Direction of flight: to the N. Raptors high & hard to find. 12 Bald Eagles, 28 Turkey & 3 Black vultures, 2 Cooper’s, 6 Sharp-shinned, 7 Red-tailed & 3 Red-shouldered hawks and 1 Northern Harrier for a total of 62 raptors. As has been the case for the past few years the eagles steal the show; there are almost always 3 or 4 in sight at any time, most, perhaps all, presumed to be resident birds, not migrants. As I am leaving, at 2:30 P.M., a Great Horned Owl calls in spite of the bright sunlight.
FOX SQUIRREL. Dead on the road, Route 335 X the driveway at house address 3506 in Golden Hill just N of the school, 2:50 P.M. A recent fatality. I bag it. At Blackwater N.W.R. Visitor Center Wolf Hehn takes it immediately to be refrigerated. Such corpses are apparently of some use for DNA determination or for other purposes.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31. Fair, 41°F., SE 15m.p.h. Beautiful morning but not many birds. Best are 2 Ring-necked Ducks in rapid flight to the S, only the 4th record. Also: 2 Bald Eagles, a Common Loon uttering the tremolo call, 35 Surf Scoters, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker mewing, 25 Cedar Waxwings (the looks of a considerable flight of them developing but we cannot stay to see if it materializes), and Gray Squirrel – 4 of the little things.
From the sounds of it the inane sea duck season is on with shotgun reports several miles off coming from the Choptank River mouth, what amounts to target practice vs. these interesting ducks, that come all the way from sub-Arctic areas only to be slaughtered and left in the water to rot. I’m not at all against hunting, just hunting such as this.
163 Turkey Vultures on the way home.
NUTRIA ON PAGE 1. “Washington Post”, Sat., Oct. 29, 2011, pp. A1 & A10, “In Md., swamp rats’ days are numbered: final assault launched vs. destructive rodents,” by Darryl Fears. Presents a good summary of the effort to exterminate non-native Nutria from the Eastern Shore. The person who leads this effort, Steve Kendrot, and his wife, Nina Fascione, have been out banding Brown Pelican chicks with us several times. Nina now heads Bat Conservation International. I haven’t seen or heard Nutria (they sound like cattle lowing, like a Long-eared Owl, too) in Dorchester County for years. In Venezuela The Church has decreed that Nutria satisfy the stricture for seafood consumption on Fridays. They ARE aquatic.
CONNIVANCE. I recently received a request from someone to help lead a field trip, asking me to reply “at my earliest connivance.” I did.
SQUIRREL AWARENESS WEEK (or was it appreciation week?). October 3-11. I was unaware of this but have appreciated squirrels, rather profoundly, for a third of a century or more, and also, obviously, been aware of them, too. The rest of you have had to pay the price. With squirrels 2 words are key; one is FUR, the other is POO, as in Winnie the Pooh or squirreleepoo. Thus a squirrel that is for real is a TRUE POO, one that isn’t is a SHAM POO.
Some squirrel favorite given names: ChristoFUR, JenniFUR, FURnando. When a squirrel needs to see a specialist he needs a reFURral. He stays warm if he has a FURnace, comfortable if he has FURniture.
A squirrel’s weather prediction is a FURcast; there will be FURcipitation with some snow FURries, the relative POOmidity will be high, the FURometric pressure low, the tempFURature in the low FURties, at times near FUReezing, and it will be oFURcast. You get the picture.
It was gratifying to see the S. Louis Cardinals adopt the “Rally Squirrel” that ran across home plate during one of the playoff games with the Phillies, have rally towels produced with a squirrel on them, and to see folks in the stands with various “stuffed” squirrels, squirrels on their hats, and so on. The Rally Squirrel had a BUSCHY tail. Google: squirrel st. louis - you’ll get all sorts of collateral nonsense.
Squirrels will eat seeds, mushrooms, corn, et. al., but their preFURred food: nuts, acorns, and other mast. You may have read the classic squirrels’ adventure story “Two years before the mast.” But they’re put off by Mastodons. If a squirrel doesn’t believe something he POO POOs it. All of this applies to female squirrels, too, but I didn’t want to designate squirrels as “it”, or, even worse, “s/he.”
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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