LOWER EASTERN SHORE, VIRGINIA & MARYLAND: Kiptopeke, Chincoteague,
Rigby锟斤拷s Folly, Blackwater & Holland Island 锟�C July 24-27, 2011.
ESVNWR: Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge.
JULY 24, SUNDAY. Many锟斤拷s the time I rise at 4:30 or 5 but seldom
at 2:30 A.M. Later is definitely better. A post-breeding American Kestrel at
Eden, MD, S of Salisbury. Clear, hazy, very hot, SW15+ becoming calm, up to
95锟斤拷F. Distant, artillery like, even-spaced thunder far to the N in the late
afternoon, which we initially believe to be some sort of battle re-enactment,
so uniform it is.
Arrive at ESVNWR at 8:45 for the Delmarva Tip butterfly count,
organized by Lynn Davidson, conducted within the same circle as Cape Charles
Christmas Bird Count. Chris & Betsy Foster found a MISSISSIPPI KITE at Ramp
Lane, ESVNWR, June 23. They are on hand today as are Brian Taber, Teta Kain,
and 7 or 8 others. I join Lynn and Hal Wierenga in their car; we butterfly
until 7:15 P.M. finding 28 species:
Black, Eastern Tiger, Spicebush & Palamedes swallowtails, Cabbage
White, Clouded & Orange sulphurs, Gray, Juniper & Red-banded hairstreaks,
Eastern Tailed-Blue, Variegated Fritillary, Pearl Crescent, Question Mark,
Common Buckeye, Red-spotted Purple, Viceroy, Hackberry Emperor, Common
Wood-Nymph, Monarch, Silver-spotted, Swarthy, Dun, Least, Zabulon & Salt Marsh
skippers, Horace锟斤拷s Duskywing, and Sachem. No Red Admirals, ladies, Cloudless
Sulphurs, Murning Cloaks, or Little Wood Satyrs.
Along Pickett锟斤拷s Harbor Road W of Route 13 there is a line of
large American Hackberries. In the windless and oppressive late afternoon,
temperatures to the mid-90s, Hal & Lynn count 122 Hackberry Emperors, most of
them here. We also see 2 Sphinx Moths, so hummingbird like in behavior and
size, one of them attending a blooming Jinsom Weed.
Some of the areas we are in, parts of ESVNWR, are restricted but
Lynn has permission to enter, such as Bull锟斤拷s Drive-ESVNWR - 2 Gull-billed
Terns, 40 White Ibis, 1 American Kestrel, 115 Tree Swallows. Circling high
over Route 13 锟�C 58 Glossy Ibis. Elsewhere during the course of the day: 2
Grasshopper Sparrows, 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, a singing Summer Tanager, 90
Purple Martins, 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 60 Brown Pelicans (Ramp Lane), 6
Spotted Sandpipers, 3 Bald Eagles (one chasing a fish-carrying Osprey), only 1
Northern Bobwhite, 195 Rock Pigeons in one field, 3 migrant Yellow Warblers
(ESVNWR headquarters), 2 Clapper Rails, an Orchard Oriole, and 12 Horned Larks.
Non-avian taxa: Hal finds a huge Honeybee swarm on the trunk of a
Black Cherry at Pickett锟斤拷s Harbor. 3 Eastern Cottontails, 7 deer. A Green
Darner. A Red-bellied Slider and 3 Painted Turtles in the little scummy
woodland pond S of Bull锟斤拷s Drive and W of Route 600. We see Catalpa trees
(sp?) in several places. There锟斤拷s a pretty extensive stretch on the E side of
Route 600 N of ESVNWR with Passionflowers.
JULY 25, MONDAY. ESVNWR, Ramp Lane 锟�C a 锟斤拷 Box Turtle, 7 Least
Sandpipers. Willis Wharf, 10:15: overcast, E5+, 90锟斤拷F., very low tide, 3
Whimbrel, 1 Snowy & 2 Great egrets, 1 Forster锟斤拷s Tern.
CHINCOTEAGUE CAUSEWAY. 11:30 A.M. Low tide, lots of birds. 52
Glossy Ibis, 235 Great & 115 Snowy egrets, 1 Black-crowned Night, 6 Tricolored
& 11 Little Blue herons, 1 Osprey, 4 Greater Yellowlegs, 35 Boat-tailed
Grackles, 8 Short-billed Dowitchers, 13 Brown Pelicans, 20 American
Oystercatchers. There is a big heronry (mostly egrets) far to the N of the
highway as seen from Wire Narrows, and, farther E, huge numbers of Laughing
Gulls breed in the causeway marsh, resulting in numerous roadkills.
CHINCOTEAGUE N.W.R., SNOW GOOSE POOL. Noon 锟�C 1:30 P.M.
Handicapped due to lack of a scope, and time. Walk along the Wildlife Loop,
glorious with 100s of blooming, white Hibiscus, and easily find the
BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK, in Snow Goose Pool where this pool, Black Duck
Marsh, and Swan Cove conjoin, less than 100 feet away, busy swishing its bill
back and forth in the scummy water like an avocet and similar to how adjacent
yellowlegs are feeding. If a Harlequin Duck looks as if it was designed by a
committee, so too does this BBWD with its garish, outr锟斤拷, bright red-pink bill
and feet, black belly, and rufous chest, plus its off-the-wall shape in
general. This one is completely unconcerned with the scores of cyclists on the
drive, just as they are unconcerned with and unaware of this rare duck.
In the same general area as the BBWD: 2 imm. & 2 ad. Least & 4
Forster锟斤拷s terns, 7 Least & a Pectoral sandpiper, 2 Black Skimmers, 2
Semipalmated Plovers, 18 Glossy Ibis, a Great Blue & a Little Blue heron, a
Killdeer, 1 Greater & 2 Lesser yellowlegs, 4 Mallards, a Short-billed
Dowitcher. Nearby are several Spicebush and Black swallowtails and Cabbage
Whites. The swallowtails, most of them, are nectaring on a small patch of
Joe-Pye-weed on the edge of Black Duck Marsh.
Also in the refuge today: 4 Black-necked Stilts (Back Duck Marsh),
a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and, in Swan Cove, 15 Willets and 2 Red-bellied
Sliders. High 80s, hot, E winds 10. There are hundreds, in toto, not
thousands, of shorebirds in the 3 main impoundments, mostly peep and
yellowlegs. In Snow Goose Pool there锟斤拷s only an inch or 2 of water, many dry
areas around the periphery.
RIGBY锟斤拷S FOLLY. Present from 5 P.M. on only. Sometimes short
visits are more productive than a full day. Heavy rain, at last, a deluge,
albeit a short one, c. 4:45-5:15, otherwise overcast becoming party clear, E5,
83-77锟斤拷F. The fields have finally been planted. The rain, predictably, sets
off the Green Tree Frogs. A flock of 6 Great Egrets flies over low, headed due
north. An errant Cedar Waxwing. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 2 Green Herons. 6
Fish Crows. 1 Forster锟斤拷s Tern.
Two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, in pursuit, startle me when they
fly by within inches of my head as I sit of the dock. Best of all, after
I锟斤拷ve been on the dock for an hour, there锟斤拷s an immature Black-crowned Night
Heron resting on the rip rap near the base of the dock, preening, in fine,
fresh plumage. It doesn锟斤拷t seem to notice as I walk by it, only about the
20th record for here. Only see one Firefly. John Weske arrives to overnight.
JULY 26, TUESDAY. Rigby锟斤拷s Folly: the only big Marsh Hibiscus I
know of here now has 11 white blossoms, up from 2 2 weeks ago. The little pink
blossoming Hibiscus at the boat ramp is not in bloom. A doe in Field 2. 45
vultures, both species, perched on plastic white fencing S of Route 16 & Stone
Boundary Road. Egypt Road: an American Kestrel, lots of Blue Grosbeaks. No
time to stop for the Dickcissels; I锟斤拷m running late. Going down Route 336 to
Crocheron there锟斤拷s a Sika Deer and a roadkill Red Fox.
HOLLAND ISLAND, SOUTH SEGMENT, 9 A.M. 锟�C 1:15 P.M. Fair, NE-NW
10, 80s. Complete bird list: 4 oystercatchers, 2 Peregrine Falcons, 1
yellowthroat, 1锟斤拷 Gadwall, 1 black duck, 3 Seaside & 2 Song sparrows, 2
Semipalmated Sandpipers, 3 unID锟斤拷d peep, 16 Barn Swallows, 3 Fish Crows, 1
Royal Tern, 2 Red-winged Blackbirds, 6 Boat-tailed Grackles, 4 BCNH, 1 YCNH & 7
Tricolored herons, 2 Glossy Ibis, 3 Ospreys, 2 Marsh Wrens plus gulls, egrets,
cormorants, pelicans. 1 Diamondback Terrapin, 1 Monarch, 1 Question Mark.
There锟斤拷s 26 of us to band 238 pelicans, many with Paul Kaczak and
his Explorers/Venture youth group. I ride out on John Weske锟斤拷s newly-acquired
boat, a used Nautico with a 70-horse Evinrude, in company with Colin
McAllister, Carol McCollough, Tiffany Cox, and Sandy Hirtle. The west colony
has apparently been victimized by frequent above normal high tides this year.
Whereas on May 29 Jared Sparks and I found 103 pelican, 21 Herring Gull, and 18
Double-crested Cormorant active nests, today we only band 38 pelicans, find no
cormorant nests, and 3 gull nests. The Herring Gull nests: 2 with 2 eggs, 1
with 3 eggs. These eggs tie the latest date listed in the 1996 锟斤拷Yellow
book.锟斤拷
Of the 38 pelican chicks banded 32 have blood drawn by Dr. Erica A.
Miller, of Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, Inc. (www.tristatebird.org), to be
tested for West Nile Virus. From Dr. Miller I learn that, as with gannets, the
nostrils of Brown Pelicans are vestigial, do not penetrate all the way through
to inside of the bill, perhaps an adaptation to their plunge-diving feeding
strategy, whereas with American White Pelicans, which feed by dipping their
bills in the water as they swim, the nostrils do go through all the way.
We have better luck in the woods. Most of the 200 pelican chicks
we band are in nests in the interior of the woods hammock on the north end.
Strange to find many of the nests right on the forest floor or just above it.
Perhaps 40 or more nests have either eggs and/or young too small to band. Now
in its second season of occupancy by nesting cormorants and pelicans, the woods
here has become open. Aside from the trees there isn锟斤拷t much vegetation, the
grasses and weeds succumbing to the potent excreta of the cormorants.
Consequently I fear for the future life of the old trees, too.
Most of them are mature American Hackberries with Black Cherries,
Persimmons, Black Locusts, and Eastern Redcedars as lesser components with some
Poison Ivy and Chokeberry. Surrounding the hammock is a dense growth of
Baccharis halimifolia, where there are many more pelican nests, these being
much harder to gain access to.
There is one great hackberry as well as a Swamp Cottonwood, neither
of them especially tall, but both take three embraces of my extended arms to
encompass. These trees survived the great hurricanes of the 1930s and, more
recently, Hurricane Isabel, whose waters were even higher, by more than a foot,
but will not perhaps survive the cormorants, and will definitely not survive
the erosion which has been taking place for many decades.
锟斤拷The woods of Arkady are dead,/And over is their antique joy;/Of
late the world on longing fed;/Grey Truth is now her painted toy;锟斤拷 锟�C
William Butler Yeats.
In the interior of the hammock are brick remains of several houses
and a few gravestones, perhaps where part of the main street was, a century or
so ago, when several 100 souls lived here, and where there was a school and a
church. Tom Horton, in An island out of time: a memoir of Smith Island in the
Chesapeake (W. W. Norton, 1996), refers to these Chesapeake Bay hammocks,
drawing an analogy to the Sacred Groves of antiquity. For me they represent a
poignant lost world. There are not that many hammocks on the lower Bay
islands.
锟斤拷I sing of the Bay/My song is of the islands/Ere they wash away.
锟斤拷
锟斤拷Holland锟斤拷s old graveyard/Waits while we wait for the
waves/While wrens and rails call.
锟斤拷The Long-billed Marsh Wren锟斤拷s/Name was longer than the
bird./Now he锟斤拷s just 锟斤拷Marsh Wren.锟斤拷
锟斤拷Too prosaic for/The nomenclature committee/He rattles just the
same.
锟斤拷Rattles in the reeds/In the urgency of June./Progenitor he.锟斤拷
锟斤拷 锟�C from 锟斤拷Chesapeake haiku.锟斤拷
I have known persons, or their descendants, from other lost
worlds, such as pre-revolutionary Russia and Cuba. Holland Island is a lost
world, too, obviously not with the gravitas of these other places, but a
significant lost world nevertheless. Smith Island is becoming a lost world,
too, down to 200 inhabitants from the 600 or 700 when I first visited Smith in
the 1970s.
I find one old bottle, one of those mainly rectangular, narrow
(1.25 inches) ones, (7.25 inches long, 2.375 inches wide): 锟斤拷Honey Lugo,锟斤拷
for a cough remedy manufactured in Baltimore. Colin finds an O.K. Davis baking
soda bottle. Touchstones to this lost world.
On a Blackwater refuge bird walk I led, years ago, there was a man
who had been born in Holland Island锟斤拷s last standing house. This house,
surrounded by water on several sides, that lapped right onto the house
foundations at high tide, was finally done in by a storm in October 2010. Its
demise, with photographs, was then chronicled in the Washington post, on page
one.
Robbins S of the Shorter锟斤拷s Marsh segment of Blackwater N.W.R.: a
Red-headed Woodpecker.
BLACKWATER N.W.R. 3:45 P.M., clear, NW 5-10, 90+锟斤拷F. I happen in
to the Visitor Center in time to take a phone query from Kathy & Bob Geisler,
who have just seen a 锟斤拷 Ruddy Duck N of here at Woolford.
On the refuge: 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 22 Least & 2 Semipalmated
sandpipers (these 3 spp. on the mud at the end of the 锟斤拷Observation Site锟斤拷
spur), 2 Least & 25 Forster锟斤拷s terns, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, the American White
Pelican (0.5 mi. W of the Observation Site spur in the marsh, it锟斤拷s apparent
new station), 8 Double-crested Cormorants, an Eastern Kingbird bringing smoke
on an Osprey. Bizarre to see no eagles or egrets.
Non-avian taxa: 1 Monarch, 7 Red-bellied Sliders, 6 Painted
Turtles..
The REFUGE CLOSURE of Wildlife Drive along Pool 5 continues. Where
the exit to Key Wallace Drive goes off from there, at 4:11 P.M., there is a Fox
Squirrel where all the Sweet Gums are. It approaches the car for several
minutes, perhaps curious about the very Fox Squirrel-like 锟斤拷stuffed animal锟斤拷
on my dashboard, that, after I had bought it, I found out was made with 锟斤拷real
rabbit fur.锟斤拷
East Appleby Avenue in Cambridge: a Monarch.
Rigby锟斤拷s Folly: a fawn in Field 4.
JULY 27, WEDNESDAY. There锟斤拷s a well-grown young Red Fox in front
of the house on the driveway, stalking, catching, and eating some of the many
hundreds of grasshoppers there. High up in the Rose of Sharon bush at the E
end of the house, maybe 20 feet up, is a 3锟斤拷 Black Ratsnake shed. A Bald
Eagle at Frog Hollow near its nest. NW 10, clear, 80锟斤拷F. Kennedy Lawn
Service arrives at 7 A.M. Leave Rigby锟斤拷s Folly by 8:45 A.M.
Near where Rt. 481 ends at Rt. 301 a big irrigation rig is jetting
water over the road. I锟斤拷ve often felt that my TrailBlazer is a sentient
being, faithful these 239,538 miles, and like to give it some relief by driving
through puddles. An oncoming car is parked so that when the irrigation rig
throws water on the road the car is right under it. In the car a young woman
sits, smiling to herself. Perhaps her car is sentient, too.
Route 301, milepost 118, a flock of 9 unID锟斤拷d peep headed south
low over the corn fields; no muddy areas with inverts they want to eat are
within miles of here. Drop in to Sassafras to visit Serge & Paul Duckett, who
I know from my Thomas Jefferson University years. They锟斤拷ve been in residence
recently but I miss them. Serge lives in Paris, teaches at the Sorbonne, and
is M.D., Ph.D. & D.Sc, an authority on the aging brain, and, a character.
Maybe next time they锟斤拷ll be there.
Best to all. 锟�C Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
