FERRY NECK, ELLIOTT ISLAND ROAD & BLACKWATER N.W.R., APRIL 9-11, 2012.  Black-necked Stilts. 
  
APRIL 9, MONDAY. 
  
Rigby’s Folly.  My mother always referred to “our” cove as Poplar Cove.  This name does not appear on any recent maps I’ve seen.  In talking with neighbor, David Brandon, he has seen older maps that do indeed have this name.   
  
Arrive in the late afternoon.  Mostly overcast, 65-60°F., winds WNW 15-20.  High tide.  Drive out to Lucy Point and a quick scan reveals … nothing … except one Common Loon and a few Ospreys, but, it IS choppy.  24 White-throated and 1 Savannah sparrow. 
  
Our new Osprey nesting platform is not being patronized.  It may need to extend another ½ foot or so on each side.  Or perhaps the local pairs are the same as last year and don’t want a new location. 
  
APRIL 10, TUESDAY.  Clear becoming partly overcast at day’s end, winds W 15-30-15, temps 54-65°F.  Drive 76 birding miles today in Dorchester County.  NOT SEEN TODAY: American White Pelican, Seaside Sparrow, Marsh Wren.  No frogs the entire visit.  It IS dry. 
  
Rigby’s Folly.  1 Painted Turtle in the vernal pool in Woods 4.  Out at Lucy Point, although choppy, careful scoping 7:45 A.M. reveals 4 Common & 1 Red-throated loon, 4 Double-crested Cormorants, 2 Wood Ducks, 6 Northern Gannets, 75 Surf Scoters, 40 Buffleheads, 7 Lesser Scaup, 3 Bonaparte’s Gulls, and 7 Forster’s Terns.  Also seen on the place today: a Greater Yellowlegs, a Savannah & 25 White-throated sparrows, an Eastern Towhee, and 3 Orange Sulphurs.   
  
Kennedy Lawn Service cuts the lawn, trails, and driveway early this morning.  They do good work.         
  
Egypt Road.  A Sika Deer in the middle of a big wheat field - strange to see at 12:45 P.M.  The Bald Eagle nest in the big pine grove on the E side has an adult attending to 2 fuzzy young eaglets. 
  
Blackwater N.W.R.  Impoundment waters still mostly high, tidal waters low.  12:45-3:45 P.M.  Still some good waterfowl numbers: 213 Green-winged & 8 Blue-winged Teal, 142 Northern Shovelers, a ø Bufflehead (looking very out-of-place in Pool 1), only 6 Canada Geese (3 pairs), a dozen Mallards, and a single American Black Duck.  Highlights also include shorebirds: 3 Black-necked Stilts (in Pool 3A), 220 Least Sandpipers, a Wilson’s Snipe, 16 Lesser & 7 Greater yellowlegs, and a Killdeer.   
  
Other Blackwater sightings: 4 Great Egrets, 14 Bald Eagles, 9 Ospreys, 1 Northern Rough-winged Swallow, 13 American Coots, 33 Forster’s Terns,  and a Turkey Vulture feasting on a roadkill Black Rat Snake on Key Wallace Drive.  Yummy.    
  
Non-avian taxa: 7 Redbelly Cooters, 9 Painted Turtles, 2 Tiger Swallowtails, and an Orange Sulphur.   
  
Eight or so Purple Martins are in residence at the Visitor Center nesting box.  Back from a Brazil winter.   
  
Caveat Birder: The Observation Site (spur) will be closed very soon so that the heavy equipment can finish constructing the boardwalk and observation platform at the end. 
  
Bestpitch-Transquaking River.  8 flying Bald Eagles in sight, c. 175 Green-winged Teal in the open (and very low, mostly mud) pond on the S side of the road, 10 Greater & 32 Lesser yellowlegs. 
  
Elliott Island Road.  4:30-7:15 P.M.  Tide high and rising.  Numerous sections of the road have recently been widened slightly and resurfaced, plus dirt has been added to some of the low shoulder areas.  However, this is the kind of dirt that one’s tires can sink into, I’d wager, if it is wet.  I can remember when the entire road was one lane with pullouts only every ½  mile or so (or less).  Shades of Friar Tuck and Little John.  The road is still a mite hairy to drive.  
  
3 Black-necked Stilts, 80 Green-winged & 6 Blue-winged teal, 6 Northern Harriers, 10 Bald Eagles, 6 Mallards, 12 American Black Ducks, 11 Ospreys (good total for here), 12 Greater & 30 Lesser yellowlegs, 3 Willets, 2 Wilson’s Snipe, 6 Canada Geese (paired off), 7 Boat-tailed Grackles (1♀ & 6♂; I know, I know, I know, if they’re plural it’s supposed to be ♂♂, but if only one ♂ is used the message is still clear, n’est-ce pas?). 
  
Seven Great & 31 not-so-great (i.e. Snowy) egrets, 39 Dunlin, 12 Short-billed Dowitchers, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Royal & 14 Forster’s terns, 2 Gadwalls, 8 Least Sandpipers, 345 Ruddy Ducks, 4 Northern Gannets (seen from McCready’s Creek “marina”), 10 Laughing, 4 Herring & 3 Ring-billed gulls, 1 Wood Duck, 1 Common Loon, a Northern Flicker, and one each of Savannah & Song sparrows.    
  
Also in the hustings: a Wild Turkey hen seen at Cokeland both when I arrive and when I leave.  The green and white Cokeland sign has been gone for years.  2 White-tailed Deer then 3 more farther up the road, a Sika Deer consorting with them.  I’ve never seen a Sika running with regular deer before.  They take off together across a field at Henry’s Crossroads. 
  
Rigby’s Folly: a medium-sized Raccoon in Woods 5 at 8:41 P.M. 
  
APRIL 11, WEDNESDAY.  Mostly overcast, NW 15, 46°F., cold, windy.  Basically I just pack up and leave by 9 A.M. 
  
The early spring continues with Lilacs blooming, lots of Tent Caterpillars “nests” in the Black Cherries.  When this happens the Yellow-billed Cuckoos sometimes return early; but how do they know there are early and abundant caterpillars here when the take off from, say, Honduras?  
  
Pray for rain.  It is REALLY getting dry. 
  
Best to all. – Harry Armistead, Philadelphia. 		 	   		   
 
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