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south Dorchester islands, Blackwater N.W.R. & Ferry Neck, March 22-26, 2012.

From:

Harry Armistead

Reply-To:

Harry Armistead

Date:

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:53:17 +0000

FERRY NECK, BLACKWATER N.W.R., SOUTH DORCHESTER ISLANDS, MARCH 22-26, 2012.  Highlights: 81 white pelicans, c. 5,145 Surf Scoters.
 
MARCH 22, THURSDAY.  c. 2000 Ring-billed Gulls in fields being ploughed just S of the Delaware-MD border, Route 301.  A single Painted Turtle in the low, wet area near the intersection of routes 481 X 309.
 
Arrive at Rigby¡¦s Folly 1:45 P.M., clear, calm, tide rising, 74¢XF.  Drive across the Big Field to Lucy Point, where conditions are excellent for scoping although in the far distance the gannets are barely visible in the haze, perhaps 2+ miles out: Canada Goose 2, Mallard 7, Lesser Scaup 30, SURF SCOTER 5145, Bufflehead 25, Common Goldeneye 2, Red-breasted Merganser 12, Ruddy Duck 85, Common Loon 4, Horned Grebe 6, Northern Gannet 7, and Osprey 7.  
 
The sunny, warm, calm conditions have induced Diamondback Terrapin to bask on the surface.  I count 66 snouts in the cove plus 39 from Lucy Point = a great early season total of 105.  Also seen on the property: 2 deer, 2 Gray Squirrels, 1 Slate-colored Junco, 1 Chipping & 25 White-throated sparrows, an Osprey carrying a fish, 39 Laughing Gulls (hawking insects high above Anderby Hall Road & Deep Neck), and 2 Forster¡¦s Terns.  
 
MARCH 23, FRIDAY.  2 Eastern Cottontails on the driveway at 5:49 A.M.  We used to see them almost daily but now just a few times a year.    
 
BLACKWATER N.W.R., 7:15-8:30 A.M.  81 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, a careful count.  Most are on the S side of Blackwater River, many strung out singles actively hunting.  Best seen from the Observation Site.  I mistakenly reported these earlier as being seen on Thursday.  Also: 12 Hooded & 2 Common mergansers, 6 Ruddy Ducks, 7 Slate-colored Juncos, 295 Northern Shovelers, 8 Cedar Waxwings, and 55 Green-winged Teal.  A Chipping Sparrow flies a few feet from my face, almost perches next to me on the long boat pole tied to the car roof.  Clear, calm, 58¢XF.   
 
GOLDEN HILL.  Retrieve my boat, ¡¥the Mudhen¡¦, from winter storage at Gootee¡¦s Marine.  I purchase new flares and dock lines.  Jenny (Gootee) Whitten is, as usual, most helpful.  I hand up to her my endless armamentarium of gear; she stows it in various places around the boat.  Then it¡¦s 16.8 miles down to the scruffy launch ramp at Crocheron.
 
A 30.9 statute-mile boat trip around the S Dorchester County islands.  I predict few remaining waterfowl (wrong) and few returned breeding herons, Willets, marsh sparrows (right):
 
CROCHERON-BISHOPS HEAD area, 10:30 A.M.: 85 Buffleheads, 9 Horned Grebes, 4 Common Loons, a Clapper Rail, a Bald Eagle, and one Northern Gannet.  My grandfather and namesake, Henry Tucker, M.D., used to hunt at Bishop¡¦s Head lodge, now the Noonan Center of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.  Part of the surrounding marsh is a component of Blackwater refuge.   
 
BLOODSWORTH ISLAND, SE SIDE.  Water temperature 57.8¢XF.  11:30 A.M.  3700 SURF SCOTERS, 245 Buffleheads, 4 American Black Ducks, 2 Great Blue Herons, and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.  Seen from offshore.  It is not wise to land on Bloodsworth, a Naval bombing range from World War II until a few years ago.  Once an admiral wrote me warning that ¡§countless rounds of unexploded ordnance¡¨ are on the island.
 
SPRING ISLAND (a unit of Blackwater refuge).  11:45 A.M. - 12:45 P.M.  The Baccharis and Iva bushes have rebounded well here in the last few years following their pummeling by Hurricane Isobel.  Consequently one hopes Brown Pelicans may nest here again; for several years there were 100 or more pairs.  Gone years ago, a small satellite island off the S end used to host a sizeable colony of Forster¡¦s and Common terns.
 
Bufflehead 210, Long-tailed Duck 1 (the only one all day), Red-breasted Merganser 2, American Oystercatcher 4 (engaging in numerous courtship flights, emitting their piercing whistles), American Black Duck 3, Great Blue Heron 2, Herring 2 and Great Black-backed 2 gulls, Common Loon 2, Horned Grebe 8, Seaside Sparrow 3 (one of them skylarking), Osprey 1, Northern Gannet 2, Little Blue Heron 1 adult, and Dunlin 1.  
 
There¡¦s pair of Peregrine Falcons present; I am circumspect enough so that I do not cause them to flush.  On the shore are the remains of a recently-predated Northern Flicker, a ¡ñ, its head but nothing else intact, no doubt a victim of the peregrines (I suspect the ¡ñ falcon).  
 
I see one Fiddler Crab, find a nearly intact Angelwing. There¡¦s a lot of Loblolly Pine pollen, miles from the nearest pine grove, on the W shore.  Two small, light brown moths.  The E shore has some dense clusters of live Mussels towards the top of the sod banks, no doubt a delight to the oystercatchers.  Water temperature varies from 58.7 ¡V 60.2¢XF.  Thirty-one Diamondback Terrapin, most hauled out on the sod banks.   
 
HOLLAND ISLAND S SEGMENT, the largest, with some considerable saltmarsh and two hammocks, consisting mostly of American Hackberries, including the largest one I¡¦ve ever seen, that has a headstone next to it: ¡§Annie E., wife of John Wilson.  1861-1883¡¨.  Nearby, in this remote place, invisible unless one enters the N hammock, some soul has recently placed a U. S. flag next to another headstone.  
 
This hammock has become very open, perhaps due to the abundant cormorant and pelican excreta of the past 2 summers.  Formerly it was choked with Poison Ivy and a dense growth of Baccharis and Iva bushes.  A large brick foundation is all that remains of the strand along the main street.  The last house succumbed to the waves in the fall of 2010.  In the late 1800s 360 people lived on Holland Island.  There were 70 houses, stores, a church, school, and community hall as well as fleets of fine, old, wooden work boats.  This lost world is evocatively described and illustrated in The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake by William B. Cronin (Johns Hopkins U. Pr., 2005, 182 pages, cf. pp. 95-101).  All of that is gone, forever.   
 
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Fiddler Crabs. pockmark the saltmarsh with their burrows.  Hard not to tread on them.  1-3 P.M.  Clear, calm, up to 80¢XF.  Water temperature 58.1 - 60.9¢XF.  The eagles aren¡¦t nesting here, although the remains of their nest of the past few years persist in the isolated Loblolly Pine, which is now dead, on the S end.  Instead a pair of Great Horned Owls is in the N hammock.  What they feed on out here, who knows?  I guess I could have found their nest but I didn¡¦t try.
 
Song Sparrow 4 (1 singing), Carolina Wren 1 (singing), American Black Duck 4, Bufflehead 40, Surf Scoter 830, Boat-tailed Grackle 12, Brown Pelican 1, American Oystercatcher 12 (the most I¡¦ve seen here), Canada Goose 2, Tricolored Heron 1, Red-winged Blackbird 8, Bald Eagle 2, Herring 2 & Great Black-backed 2 gulls, Common Goldeneye 4, Double-crested Cormorant 14 (a flock of adults), Northern Gannet 1, Cedar Waxwing 1, Green-winged Teal 16, Great Egret 1, Fish Crow 2, and Osprey 0 (!).  
 
One of the Fish Crows tangles with a Great Horned Owl.  Also here: Diamondback Terrapin 13, more of those small, light-brown moths, and slicks of pine pollen.  Someone has written in the sand ¡§Happy St. Patrick¡¦s Day,¡¨ that I may be the only one to see.
 
HOLLAND ISLAND, MIDDLE SEGMENT.  Mostly open sand and clay.  Brown Pelican 4, American Oystercatcher 1, Double-crested Cormorant 2, Herring Gull 325, and Great Black-backed Gull 20.  Obviously the gull colony is still going strong, is open for business.
 
HOLLAND ISLAND, N SEGMENT.  A tiny remnant.  Canada Goose 2, Great Black-backed Gull 2.
 
ADAM  ISLAND.  3:15 P.M.  No Landing made.  Sanderling 12, Dunlin 2, American Oystercatcher 4, Eastern Phoebe 1, Fish Crow 2. Boat-tailed Grackle 8, Canada Goose 2, Gadwall 6, American Black Duck 6, Northern Pintail 2, Green-winged Teal 12, Herring 110, Laughing 2 & Great Black-backed 2 gulls, Great Blue Heron c. 14 nests, Bald Eagle a pair and their occupied nest right in the middle of the GBH colony, Osprey 1, and Double-crested Cormorant 4.  Water temperature 62.5¢XF.  14 is the most GBH nests I¡¦ve seen here.  Now in several segments, in the 1970s Adam I. was an island c. 1 mile long without any breaks.
 
PONE ISLAND (essentially SW Bloodsworth I.) AND ITS ADJACENT SAND BARS.  3:30 P.M.  Red-breasted Merganser 30, Gadwall 6, American Black Duck 10, Bald Eagle 1 imm., Northern Harrier 1, Bufflehead 35, Brown Pelican 3, Surf Scoter 1¡ñ, American Oystercatcher 2, Fish Crow 1, Horned Grebe 5, Herring 395 & Great Black-backed 10 gulls, and a Diamondback Terrapin.  Water temperature 64.4¢XF.   
 
BLOODSWORTH ISLAND W SIDE.  3:45 P.M.  Quite shallow.  Several times I¡¦ve hit submerged metal objects, once a Sherman Tank, and no doubt much unexploded whatever remains in this area.  Nice beaches with vast saltmarsh behind them but now as a policy I always go well offshore to avoid the hazards.  American Oystercatcher 2, Surf Scoter 50, Horned Grebe 8, Bufflehead 12, Osprey zero.  Numerous long windrows of pine pollen.
 
BLOODSWORTH ISLAND, N SIDE.  4-4:10 P.M.  Much more hospitable with deep water right up to the sod banks, although Okahanikan Cove is so shallow I avoid it.  Bald Eagle 1 imm., American Oystercatcher 2, Bufflehead 20, Canada Goose 2, Surf Scoter 20, Gadwall 2, American Black Duck 4, Herring Gull 4, Horned Grebe 4, Osprey zero, and 4 Diamondback Terrapin. 
 
BLOODSWORTH ISLAND, FIN CREEK and the open shoreline nearby.  Fin Creek penetrates the island 1.25 miles, is deep enough even at low tide.  4:15-5 P.M.  Clear, winds SW5, 75¢XF, water 63¢XF.    
 
Black-crowned Night Heron 24, Glossy Ibis 3, Hooded Merganser 7 (way up the creek), Green-winged Teal 12, Northern Gannet 1, Northern Flicker 1, American Black Duck 2, Northern Harrier 4, Boat-tailed Grackle 26, Bald Eagle 2 (a pair of them on their nest right in the middle of the GBH colony), Osprey (3 active nests), Red-winged Blackbird 1, Great Egret 1, Great Blue Heron c. 45 nests, Double-crested Cormorant 80 (on the pound net stakes slightly to the S), and Herring Gull 4 plus 15 Diamondback Terrapin.
 
Today is perfect for boating.  Clear, calm, warm, and the boat just tuned up by Gootees.  Tides ideal, low at 9 A.M., high at 3 P.M., so waters are rising most of the day and after 3 P.M. are still high.  On the water 10:30 A.M. ¡V 6 P.M.  Clearly most of the colonial waterbirds (except gulls) are not back in force: cormorants, pelicans, heron types (except GBH & BCNH), nor are many Ospreys, and I see no Willets, few Seaside Sparrows.  Oystercatchers are in the best numbers ever, although marginally so.  Some of the Gadwalls and harriers are probably migrants.  No terns all day.
 
GOLDEN HILL: 2 roadkills attract 2 Turley Vultures each, and - for comic relief - in between them a Wild Turkey goes rocketing off in front of my speeding car.  
 
GUM SWAMP.  ¡§Big ole snapper turkle just a shamblin¡¦ and a ramblin¡¦ down the road.  Best you ease off into the swamp and mud, elseways some good old boy may smack you in his F one fifty, or you end up as snapper stew.¡¨  Health foods such as cheese steaks and scrapple are Philadelphia specialties.  So is snapper soup; if you add a touch of sherry ¡K that is a good prelude to a great meal.
 
EGYPT ROAD:  3 Wild Turkeys.  
 
Arrive back at Rigby¡¦s Folly in the dark, been on the go from 5 A.M. until 8:30 P.M.  There¡¦s diffuse lightning far off to the S, closer thunder and lightning during the course of the night.     
 
MARCH 24, SATURDAY.  Overcast with rain off and on, 60-53-59¢XF., E 5-10 m.p.h.  A good day for chores.  Always some.  As Lord Robert, Earl of Grantham, said: ¡§Downton Abbey is my 3rd parent, my 4th child.¡¨  Somewhat analogous is Rigby¡¦s Folly, though we gave up our butler and servants during World War II, about the time my parents switched from dogs to cats.  
 
In the sizeable vernal pool in Woods 4 I retrieve a perfectly serviceable minnow trap with a cord attached to an anchor, a 14.8 lb. power saw (10¡¨ Delta Power Miter Saw, minus the blade).  It¡¦d take a big Raccoon to drag this rig away.  Makes me wonder what else happens around here that I am never aware of. 
 
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1, Wild Turkey (a pair in Field 4), White-throated Sparrow 35 along the driveway, deer (2 in Woods 5).  A hapless, plodding ¡ð Box Turtle, that I pick up and place off of the road near the A-frame house.  Above the garage 6 Turkey and a Black vulture roost during the rain.  Ten Wild Turkeys at the usual spot S of Rt. 33 and E of St. Michaels. 
 
MARCH 25, SUNDAY.  Blackwater N.W.R., 7:15 ¡V 3 (birdwalk 8-1, with Karen Caruso, Linda Dreeben, Art Lerner, Megan Milliken, Dotty Mumford & Leo Wigant.  Overcast, no rain, NE10, 53-57¢XF., raw, cool.  Tidal water low, impoundments average.  63 species.  Some of these - a partial list - seen before or after the official birdwalk: 
 
6 Blue-winged & 142 Green-winged teal, 172 shovelers, 1 ¡ð pintail, 2 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Hooded Mergansers, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 43 white pelicans, 12 Ospreys, 16 Bald Eagles, 4 harriers, 2 Virginia Rails, 31 coots, 7 Greater & 20 Lesser yellowlegs, 6 snipe, a Dunlin, 1 screech-owl, 2 meadowlarks, 1 Forster¡¦s Tern, a pair of Purple Martins, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, 200 Tree Swallows, 7 Brown-headed Nuthatches, 275 Laughing Gulls, a Hermit Thrush, 22 waxwings, 1 Palm Warbler and 6 juncos.
 
Also: a Fox Squirrel, a Woodchuck, a Redbelly Cooter, and 3 deer.  A Bald Eagle snatches a big fish from the surface of Pool 5.
 
Egypt Road: An adult Bald Eagle laboring in flight, carrying a Red Fox, perhaps a roadkill. 
 
Rigby¡¦s Folly, 4 P.M.  2 plunge-diving Northern Gannets.
 
MARCH 26, MONDAY.  Cool, 56¢XF., winds NW 20, clear.  Four Painted Turtles in the Woods 4 vernal pool.  Leave by 10:35 A.M.  Route 301: mile 103.5 a roadkill Virginia Opossum, mile 103.7 a roadkill Wild Turkey, mile 104.2 an adult ¡ñ Northern Harrier flying off to the E.  Most pretentious vehicle: Delaware Asset Recovery (a tow truck).  Route 495 around Wilmington, DE: an imm. Bald Eagle flying W and away from the Delaware River.  
 
The woodlands have the aspect of, I¡¦d say, the 3rd week of April.  Early as this spring is, the only species I see these 5 days NOT on my Christmas count/winter checklist form are: Osprey, white pelican, Glossy Ibis, and Purple Martin.  It is surprising not to see more Common Loons and Horned Grebes.  Canada Geese are now almost non-existent.  There are no swans.  Ospreys still building in, especially out on the Bay.
 
A GOLDEN EAGLE WAS CAPTURED at Long Fields on the Blackwater refuge by Craig Koppie, banded and fitted with satellite transmitter on March 22.  It was lured in by a dead Sika Deer.  Thanks to refuge Ranger Tom Miller for this information.  At least 7 wintered in the area (fide Greg Inskip).   
 Best to all. ¡V Harry Armistead, Philadelphia. 		 	   		  

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