Posted for H T Armistead
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:32 PM
Subject: Eastern Shore, December 19-21, 2009.
EASTERN SHORE, VIRGINIA & MARYLAND, December 18-21, 2009. A 4-day
road trip with Jared Sparks. The Wachapreague and Nassawadox notes below are
just for the party areas Jared and I covered on those counts.
GETTING THERE, Friday, December 18. The trip down is always good
with the promise of good sightings at prime places. 1000s of blackbirds leave
their roosts at dawn near Churchman’s Marsh, 1000s of Snow Goose fan out to the
fields to forage in southern Delaware.
Ocean City, MD, area. The inlet. High tide and rising, NE 10 or
less, 32, sunny but becoming hazy, overcast, and ominous. Great views of 8
Common Eiders, incl. an adult male, plus 4 Harlequin Ducks. Also: 3
Long-tailed Ducks, 1 Bonaparte’s Gull, 7 Surf, 1 Black & 225 unID’d scoters, 7
gannets, 14 Purple Sandpipers, 12 Red-throated & 1 Common loon, 2
Double-crested Cormorants, 10 Forster’s Terns, 20 Brant, 7 turnstones, 12
Sanderlings, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, and, on the sand, 185 Rock Pigeons.
10:15-11:15 A.M.
Skimmer Island. Nothing, except 25 Buffleheads.
West Ocean City pond: full of water and waterfowl. 131 Tundra
Swans, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 14 Gadwalls, 60 Canvasbacks, 25 Lesser Scaup, 2
male Redheads, 45 pintails, 4 shovelers, 3 Buffleheads, 30 coots, 6 Great Blue
Herons, 7 Hooded Mergansers, 1 Snow and 0 (!) Canada geese, 85 Mallards, 55
Ring-necked & 4 American Black Ducks, and 30 Green-winged Teal. 11:45 A.M.
-12:15 P.M. 39 degrees F.
Eagle’s Nest Campground. 20 Gadwalls, 85 American Wigeon, 1 Ruddy
& 70 American Black Ducks (the latter on the west side of Assateague Island),
10 Mallards, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 5 shovelers, 710 Dunlin, 175 Buffleheads, 3
Common Loons, 10 Willets, 6 oystercatchers, 390 Brant, 55 Black-bellied
Plovers, and 10 Mallards. Lovely winding road on the way in to the edge of
Sinepuxent Bay and the lady at the campground office is very friendly. They do
ask that you stop in the office to let them know what you’re doing.
Chincoteague N.W.R. 3 P.M. until dark (5 P.M.). Raw, cold,
overcast, 37. Almost calm but NE 10 some of the time. Good conditions. Great
Egret 81, 17 WHITE IBIS (all immatures), 9 Little Blue Herons (just 1 of them
an adult), 6 Marbled Godwits, 63 Willets, 20 Forster’s Terns, 2 Common
Goldeneyes. Very low tide. The godwits and Willets are foraging in Tom’s Cove
by the outlet of Swan Cove pool. Run into Jennifer Elmer.
Locustville. Overnight in George and Barbara Reiger’s charming
guesthouse. Paul and Sharon Plishka come to visit. Paul sings with the
Metropolitan Opera and gives me a videodisc of a performance of Falstaff in
which he sang the lead role. They express interest in the Cape Charles count
and I invite them to ride with me. Snow Geese are clamoring outside in the
dark in the Rattrap/Finney creeks estuary.
WACHAPREAGUE Christmas Bird Count, Saturday, December 19. I’ve
seen better. Overcast and rain, mostly steady and heavy, all day. Winds 30-40
m.p.h., gusting higher. 38-42 degrees. Tide 3 feet or more above normal. The
docks and most of the street along the harbor are submerged. There is no sign
of saltmarsh. It is completely submerged. The street fills up with dense
windrows of Spartina alterniflora stalks. People are trailering their boats
from the docks, esp. the VIMS boats. We cover the SW sector of the count, the
area around Wachapreague. Needless to say our boat trip to Cedar Island with
Ruth Boettcher is weathered out. 65 miles by car, which we seldom left, < 1
mile on foot. In spite of this the day’s birds are memorable. Ditches are
overflowing. Some roads have stretches of up to 400 feet under rain water
runoff. Part of Seaside Road is submerged by tidal water. I get stuck in deep
water in a ditch for 15 minutes.
7 Common Loons, 3000 Snow & 30 Blue, 1 adult ROSS’s, and 1 hybrid
Ross’s X Snow goose, 155 Brant, 23 Hooded Mergansers, 4 Bald Eagles, 1 Merlin
(carrying a small bird), 2 Clapper Rails (in the harbor channel trying to swim
but being swept rapidly to the south), 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 67 Killdeer, 65
Greater & 1 Lesser yellowlegs, 37 Marbled Godwits, 9 Short-billed Dowitchers,
15 Willets, 3 Forster’s Terns, 73 American Crows, 38 bluebirds, 12 waxwings, a
Palm Warbler, and 49 meadowlarks. 59 species, 3 of them poached (but not in
the culinary sense).
Most of the shorebirds are in the extremely flooded fields incl.
the Willets, godwits, and dowitchers (numbers above for these 3 shorebird
species are approximate, we didn’t record them since they are in George’s
area). The 2 Ross’s-complex geese, the godwits, Willets, and all but 1 of the
dowitchers are poached in George’s area in a field just north of the
Locustville town area. George sees all of these, too. I have never seen
Marbled Godwits actively feeding in field before; they are probing vigorously.
The compilation in the Island House Restaurant, which closed early today, is
cancelled. This 1st weekend of the count period has extreme weather more often
than not.
NASSAWADOX Christmas Bird Count, Sunday, December 20. Overcast
early but becoming fair c. 9:45 A.M., then rapidly clearing and mostly clear
the rest of the day. 30-35 degrees F. but seems much colder. NW 20-25.
Today’s boat trip, to Hog Island, is cancelled, too, for the 3rd straight year.
Tide 1-2 feet above normal in the morning but with a, mercifully, near normal
low tide late in the afternoon. Little ice.
Jared and I cover Bell Neck (part of the Willis Wharf party area)
in the morning, then Hare Valley west of Route 13 (SW of Exmore) in the
afternoon. 66 miles by car, 2 on foot. 62 species.
A pretty but very windy day. The light covering of last night’s
snow mostly melts during the course of today. The road in to TNC’s beautiful
Brownsville house is covered with Spartina wrack. I leave my territory in
mid-day to drive over it, mash it down some, then use a Swiss Army knife saw
(small but effective) to cut the ends off a blowover Red Cedar that mostly
blocks the road. As yesterday, another rough one for landbirds. All of the
shorebirds are seen in the heavily (and I do mean heavily) flooded fields.
13 Tundra Swans, 20 Hooded Mergansers, 11 Black Vultures, 7 Bald
Eagles, 12 Black-bellied and 17 Semipalmated plovers, 258 Killdeer (Jared & I
both independently count some of them in one field and come up with matching
totals of 195; a whopping 412 are seen on the count), 12 Greater Yellowlegs, 24
Dunlin, 2 Pileated Woodpeckers, 2 Eastern Phoebes, 8 Brown-headed Nuthatches
(Bell Neck), 23 bluebirds, a Hermit Thrush, 50 American Pipits, 1 Pine & 8 Palm
warblers (both forms), 2 Fox Sparrows, 73 Meadowlarks, 195 cowbirds, and 35
House Finches.
HEADING HOME, Monday, December 21.
Willis Wharf, VA, 7:45-8:30 A.M., clear, NW 15, 30 degrees F. The
tide is rising but low with many shorebirds on the flats right in front of the
post office: 105 Marbled Godwits, 50 Willets, 25 Short-billed Dowitchers, 205
Dunlin, 45 Ruddy Turnstones (foraging on the pile of fresh clam shells next to
the seafood place), and a Greater Yellowlegs. Also: 950 Snow and 15 Blue geese
headed south, a Pied-billed Grebe, 25 Hooded Mergansers, and a female Common
Goldeneye, a species missed on the Christmas count here yesterday. Jared and I
buy some fresh shellfish, then take off.
We head home right after Willis Wharf, concerned about the 15-23
inches of snow that fell in Philadelphia after we left. A Great Egret sitting
out of the wind and in the sun near Temperanceville. See Bald Eagles while
driving north on Route 13 at Onley, VA, (1), in MD just north of the MD/VA line
(4), Pocomoke City (2), and just south of Princess Anne (1).
LIFE IN THE CITY. Labor-intensive chickadees – Carolina Chickadee
makes off with a sunflower kernel, places it between its feet, and raps it 36
times, each rap consisting of 3 or so rapid pecks, Dec. 11. Coming back after
retrieving a big sycamore branch to saw up for firewood there’s a dead Gray
Squirrel in the back alley with wounds on its neck. Then I spot a Red-tailed
Hawk perched high in a tree 200 feet away. After finishing sawing the limb I
check back and the hawk and squirrel are gone, Dec. 12. A flock of 85 Canada
Geese goes over, high, real ones, on their way south, Dec. 12. On Dec. 14,
while removing leaves from the back steps that lead down to the cellar I
discover a torpid Redback Salamander holed up there.
OYSTERS: “While pearls from the American Oyster are uncommon,
lackluster, and of little worth, the nacre or iridescent inner shell is
beautiful – typically ivory and purple – like a winter sunset- and has
traditional value. Native Americans once used pieces of oyster and clam
shells, called wampum, for trading and currency.” – Skipjacks, by Christopher
White (St. Martin’s Press, 2009, p. 216-217).
Addendum: On Dec. 6 at Blackwater N.W.R. we find one of this year’s
Orchard Oriole nests just across the ditch of Pool 1 as you go along Wildlife
Drive. That’s the way it is every year. After the leaves fall some secrets
are revealed.
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- Wendell Berry
This is reminiscent of Walt Whitman, who wrote: “I think I could turn
and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained … a mouse is
miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.”
Best to all. – Harry Armistead.
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