FERRY NECK & SOUTHERN DORCHESTER COUNTY, January 23-27, 2012, Liz & Harry Armistead: Ron Tillier, R.I.P. HBW volume 16. Thousands of ducks.
RON TILLIER died suddenly this month. Earlier he had been head of the Friends of Blackwater for years and was named volunteer of the year. The Friends were also recently named the best national N.W.R. system friends group. There is an obituary that can be found by Googling: Newcomb Funeral Home 21613. The memorial service was on January 28.
Ron had a special interest in Winston Churchill. I learned this during several stimulating sit down talks we’d had that concerned the future of the Blackwater library, which now houses the collection of Dick Kleen. Only a few weeks ago I’d talked with Ron while he was staffing the Visitor Center. At that time, completely unsolicited and out of the blue (we didn’t know each other that well, really), he offered that he could do a major favor for me later in the year if I wanted it. It wasn’t something I needed then but if it had been it would have made a huge difference. That was a generous kindness.
Years ago he told me he received numerous messages every day about the refuge when he was President of the Friends, and that he answered every one of them. Such is the hold that Blackwater has on some. Only a few persons ever perform the dedicated, skilled, and personable service that Ron did.
January 23, Monday. Philadelphia: Liz heard a Tufted Titmouse singing here on December 31. Bird song authority Donald Kroodsma maintains that birds sometimes began singing THE VERY DAY that the photoperiod starts to expand. 40 Mourning Doves in our Philadelphia yard, a record.
Visibility 100 yards to ¼ mile on the way down and on arrival. Light rain off and on. Consequently only 2 Turkey Vultures, and those seen at Graul’s in St. Michaels. 22 Wild Turkeys S of Rt. 33 and E of St. Michaels, right next to the road, oblivious to traffic.
Arrive at Rigby’s Folly 2:30 P.M. 200 Canada Geese in the Big Field, where the goose pit is. 114 robins and 25 waxwings in the yard. In the cove: 9 Red-breasted Mergansers, 95 Ruddy Ducks, 265 Canvasbacks, 210 Lesser Scaup, and 28 Buffleheads. The composition of the waterfowl aggregation will change dramatically, several times, over the course of this visit.
Discuss farming and driveway mowing matters with John Swaine 4-4:45 P.M. Overcast, light rain, calm or E 5 becoming SE 5, 38°F. steadily rising to 47°F. by 9:45 P.M. Lots of standing water. Very wet and soggy. An Eastern Towhee continues to maintain station along the driveway bordering Field 4.
January 24, Tuesday. Duck day. Lucy Point “sea watch,” 8:45-10:15 A.M. = 750 Ruddy Ducks, 475 Buffleheads, 30 Lesser Scaup, 60 Canvasbacks, 40 Common Goldeneyes, 115 Surf Scoters, 25 Long-tailed Ducks, 6 Red-breasted Mergansers. 47°F. and steady, calm, good scoping conditions, tide falling, overcast but slowly clearing.
A boat, MD 6093 BX, perhaps inadvertently flushes many of the ducks twice, has 3 hunters, who set up 200 yards off of Wooden Point, with 48 floater decoys plus one that has continually whirring wings. Four oyster scrapers in sight, including ‘Runnin’ Deer’ and ‘My Maria.’
In John Swaine’s field, E of Bellevue Road, are 335 Ring-billed Gulls. A Ruby-crowned Kinglets forages at close range only a few feet from the front porch. One imm. Bald Eagle over Holland Point.
A perfect sunset, dead calm, too. Out 2 or 3 miles on the Choptank River mouth, in the stillness, Long-tailed Ducks, the most garrulous of ducks, keep up a constant din, barely audible. Once in a while, when I strain my ears, and cup them, I can hear an individual clearly, giving its marvelous “south south southerly” call, so evocative of the high Arctic.
Also audible are the gentle mews of Canvasbacks most of the way over to Holland Point. Due to variable, high altitude winds the many jet contrails visible to the West - Washington air traffic - are twisted and curvy, like a Jackson Pollock painting. Out in front of us 100 feet or so, a dozen Ruddy Ducks continue diving - hunting – even 15-20 minutes after sunset. I guess they find the worms by tactile methods rather than sight sometimes?
January 25, Wednesday. Time to scratch the Dorchester County itch. 82.8 miles in the county by car.
Egypt Road: Beautiful adult Red-shouldered Hawk on the wire. Guy McCaskie once told me that out west redshoulders do this more than in the East. One American Kestrel.
Blackwater N.W.R. 12:15-1:15 P.M. only. Clear, high 40s, NW5, tidal water low, impoundments continue high. The 7 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS continue, one of them the flightless individual. Only 80 Tundra Swans. 1♂ Northern Shoveler. 4 Northern Pintails. 360 Common Mergansers. 8 Bald Eagles. 2 Northern Harriers. Thousands of Canada Geese. 1 kestrel. 2 FORSTER’S TERNS. 4 bluebirds. At the Visitor Center I learn than the eagle cam Bald Eagle pair had their 1st egg on the really early date of Jan. 15, the 2nd egg on Jan. 18! 270 Ring-billed Gulls in the field next to refuge HQ.
Along Wildlife Drive I stop, get out of the car, slam the door. As I get ready to drive off a couple of minutes later I see there’s an immature Red-tailed Hawk perched at eye level only 20 feet away. Feel as if I could touch it with a broom, or catch it. I get back in the car, slam the door, start the engine, drive off, and it just stays there. Make yourself right at home, big fella. Also see here: 3 Painted Turtles, 1 Red-bellied Cooter, but no mammals.
Transquaking River at Bestpitch: a Pied-billed Grebe.
Elliott Island Road, 1:55-4 P.M. Mostly overcast, high 40s, NW 5:
Elliott Island Road – Savanna Lake (note the lack of an h; said to be 1 of only 2 natural lakes in Maryland): Canada Goose 530, Tundra Swan 9, Gadwall 79, American Wigeon 18, American Black Duck 4, Mallard 4, Northern Shoveler 1♂, Green-winged Teal 3. Often there are Common Mergansers, in small numbers here, but I miss them today. Belted Kingfisher 1.
Back in the old days, when there was more baiting, that may actually have helped individuals of some species get through the winter, Savanna Lake was a Gadwall stronghold with these counts as detailed in Stewart & Robbins, p. 75: 670 on March 3, 1955; 700 on both February 25, 1950 & February 22, 1954.
And now the jackpot: Elliott Island Road-Fishing Bay as estimated from coordinates J-12, Map 38, ADC Dorchester County atlas. The most ducks I’ve ever seen here: Canvasback 375, Lesser Scaup 3400, Ruddy Duck 8700 (all of them cute). I start by “counting” the ruddies by tens but after getting to 4000 (that is, counting to 400) give up and count by hundreds. But the entire time I am here there is a steady stream of ruddies leaving Fishing Bay and, as I would see a little later, disappearing way out onto Chesapeake Bay, so my estimate may be low if the flight out had started before my arrival.
Also along Elliott Island Road: Gadwall 4, American Black Duck 10, Mallard 1♂, Hooded Merganser 2, Great Blue Heron 7, Bald Eagle 7, Northern Harrier 5, Dunlin 65 (at McCready’s Creek, where there is a new, high rock jetty on the S side, replacing most of the rotten wooden pilings and planks). Belted Kingfisher 1.
Chicamacomico River pond, N side of Route 50: a pair of Wood Ducks. There’s a Beaver lodge in the pond. Dick Kleen used to call this “Ringneck Lake.”
Cambridge. 4 Double-crested Cormorants. Never used to see them here in winter.
Easton Bypass: a group of 17 deer S of the road to Oxford.
Rigby’s Folly. Frog Hollow: An adult Bald Eagle, but I have yet to see one on the nest here this year. Field 4: 4 deer (does). 2 Gray Squirrels in the yard at day’s end. Liz has seen a Hermit Thrush in the yard today.
January 26, Thursday. Overcast, but the predicted rain never materializes, low 40s to mid 50s, SW 10. John Swaine mows some of the areas on either side of the driveway in front of the house out to the curve, dressing things up a little for the wedding and allowing more sun for the daffodils. Après mowing the sparrows enjoy the opened up areas that make foraging for seeds easier.
14 Tundra Swans in the cove feeding on Ruppia maritima, only 3 of them immatures. Sharp-shinned Hawk 1. goldfinch 1. A lazy day but late in the afternoon I clear, with a rake, 120 feet of ditch of leaves and other debris, this E of Waterthrush Pond, which the ditch drains into, ever so slowly, but now a bit faster. Bald Eagle, 1 adult. Black Vulture 2. Irish Creek, thronging with ducks the previous few days, has none now.
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE LITTLE RUDDY DUCKS. Fuss incarnate is a band of Ruddy Ducks in whirring flight, weaving from side to side, right to left, left to right, wings ablurr, better crafted than anything by the best Disney artists, a mascot for the ages, left at the altar, unless there is something such as the Reading Ruddy Ducks or some other minor league team I’m unaware of. They broke the mold when they made these little dudes, buzz bombs of the first order.
January 27, Friday. Overcast, very damp, 57°F. (very warm overnight, too), wind SW 20 m.p.h. 560 Canada Geese in view from the dock out on Irish Creek plus 19 distant and high flying flocks in sight simultaneously, that I do not bother counting. 4 Gray Squirrels. Leave by 9:15 A.M.
In the pond W of Route 481 and N of Route 404 are c. 105 Tundra Swans. A couple of miles N of there are 110 more swans in a field. S of Ruthsburg is a field with hundreds of both swans and Snow Geese with only 10 or so Blue Geese, with 2 ad. and an imm. Bald Eagle, ominously, present. W of Route 301 at mile 102.6 is a group of 26 Wild Turkeys foraging in a field with an ad. Bald Eagle nearby.
HANDBOOK OF THE BIRDS OF THE WORLD, volume 16. What a joy to have just received this to review for an American Library Association reviewing journal. Encyclopedic doesn’t really describe this monumental set adequately. I prefer “multivolume magisterial compendium.” Volume 16 is 893 pages, with c. 7000 references, 81 color plates, 499 color photographs, costs 212Ł (c. $300 US; weighs 9.6 pounds), and has 766 distribution maps. Volume 16 deals with tanagers, our American sparrows, blackbirds, buntings, and some grosbeaks. Considering the massive wealth of information and illustration, this book is not overpriced, may even be considered a bargain by some.
At the beginning is an essay “Climate change and birds,” pp. 13-39 by Anders Pope Møller. “Further to climate warming, additional effects of climate change include an increased frequency of droughts, hurricanes and altered seasons. These changes are attributed by the majority of scientists to the effects of man-made changes to the atmosphere due to greenhouse gases (Hurrell & Trenberth, 2010*) with more than 98% of scientists with the largest scientific impact agreeing on this assessment (Anderegg et al., 2010**). Thus, the so-called climate skeptics constitute a tiny minority of scientists with little or no standing in the scientific community at large.” (p. 13).
“There is no time for complacency, because there is a sizeable community of climate change skeptics who only wait for errors to be made.” (p. 39)
* Hurrell, J. W. & Trenberth, K. E., Climate change, pp. 9-20, in Moller, A. P., Fiedler W. & Berthold P., Effects of climate change on birds, Oxford U. Pr., 2010.
** Anderegg, W. R. L. et al., 2010, Expert credibility in climate change, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 107, pp. 12107-12109.
Of course one bugaboo as far as some of the deniers are concerned is that over the eons
there has always been dramatic climate change. But what we’re seeing now is apparently happening much more rapidly than was ever known to be the case in the past.
The HBW has received universal acclaim by ornithologists. However, I have several petty bones to pick. I would have preferred the range maps to have at least some major political boundaries indicated; they do have major river systems, which is good. The color plates might be improved if the names of the birds appeared next to the birds; instead there’s a number, one must go to the text, find the sequential number, then the name. Birds with very small ranges have those indicated on maps that show a too-large area as context.
The photographs alone have marvelous, lengthy text captions, and indicate place and photographer, but would have been marginally improved if the date was added. In the list of references for our coastal plain Song Sparrow J. Bond (James Bond) is cited (p. 824) instead of G. M. Bond as the author, but the correct citation (p. 549) IS in the text. Paul Sykes’ exhaustive studies of Painted Bunting distribution, published in North American Birds, are not cited in that species’ account.
The introductory essay on tanagers, pp. 46-155, by Steven Hilty is a monograph in and of itself. Such detail elsewhere and everywhere: listed with citations are the 16 races of Dark-eyed Junco, 25 of Song Sparrow, 25 of Rufous-collared Sparrow. So are the 41 subspecies of Banaquit accompanied by several 1000 words of text, a color plate with 12 figures, and 55 references, all in 2 pages.
In contrast to the detail are overarching essays, analysis, and referenced generalizations. I noticed one photograph by Maryland’s George Jett. About half of the HBW volumes are in the Blackwater N.W.R. library, gifts of Dick Kleen.
301 PLAZA, Middleton, Delaware, is halfway home for us, one of those restaurants that, as with some gas stations, functions in many ways like an informal club. Waitresses sometimes sit with the patrons they know well. And those waitresses sound off, they don’t hold back. Good morale. You can hear everything they say. They’re friendly and there’s a lot of laughter, many of them cutting loose with a cackle that sounds like certain calls of the Common Moorhen. It’s worth a visit just to see the clientele, the family of man writ large. The 301 plaza is also a good place to see Fish crows, starlings, House Sparrows, an occasional Bald Eagle, and less frequently, flocks of geese in the fields across the way. Good pancakes. Good beef in the “no guilt burger.”
MOST PROVOCATIVE BUMPER STICKER THIS TIME: Save the oysters, screw a waterman.
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
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