Sun., Nov. 16, 2003. Southern Dorchester County, MD. Members of the
Baltimore County Bird Club asked me to join them. There were 20 of us
including Gail Frantz, Cathy Carroll, Denise Bayuszik, Elliot & Nancy
Kirschbaum, Elise Kreiss, Scott Crabtree et al. Also, visitors from New
Mexico: Tom & Carlyn Jervis. I haven't been able to access MDOSPREY for a
while so if Kevin Graff has reported on this already, my apologies. He was
keeping tabs of exact numbers; I wasn't. 82 species. Overcast, winds
south 0-10 or so, 39-58 degrees F.
Egypt Rd. Good for field birds even with all the ploughing and disking:
45 American Pipits, 10 Horned Larks, some meadowlarks and Killdeer, and
Savannah Sparrows.
Blackwater N.W.R. Little time here since many of the group had been here
yesterday on Sat., Nov. 15. HUDSONIAN GODWIT, 1, seen flying south (on its
way to Argentina). 3 Pied-billed Grebes (curiously scarce in this county;
usually I don't see any). 750 Blue and 25 Snow Geese. 1 female Bufflehead
(unusual to see one in Pool 1). A few Brown-headed Nuthatches, but not
well seen. A pleasant surprise to run into Dr. Mitchell Byrd here.
Hooper's Island. Visited Swan Harbor Rd., an excellent hawk watch site,
but not with today's weather. I plan to try here again next Sat. & Sun.
afternoon. 4 Virginia Rails including one seen fleetingly several times by
perhaps one third of us. Brown-headed Nuthatches heard calling.
Golden Hill. With 4-way blinkers flashing our 7-car motorcade passed, with
due solemnity, the site where Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were found breeding
in the late 1950s. 400 Fish Crows.
Transquaking River. A somewhat late Osprey at the bridge at Bestpitch. 1
Wild Turkey east of here.
Elliott Island Rd. The marshes were bleak. 1 Great Horned Owl (well seen
in daylight). 15 Common Loons in Fishing Bay. No Rough-legged Hawks or
Short-eared Owls today in spite of several hours of searching. No
butterflies or squirrels today. 2 Nutria heard. After dusk driving north
on the road I saw 3 bats, 4 White-tailed Deer, various moths flying around,
and a few frogs on the road.
Other day totals: 16 Bald Eagles, 22 Great & 3 Snowy Egrets, 28
Double-crested Cormorants, 12 harriers including 3 "Gray Ghosts", and 115
Dunlin. Drove to Kiptopeke, VA, that night and stayed in the yurt at
Kiptopeke State Park.
Mon., Nov. 17. Kiptopeke, VA, area. Bob Ake and I went to Eastern Shore
of Virginia N.W.R. to look for the Harris's Sparrows found there on Nov. 8
along the Butterfly Trail (between the bunker and the Visitor Center).
Hundreds of sparrows fed on the mowed trail. After 2.5 hours we had a
brief but good look at the ad. Harris's Sparrow, saw 8 other sparrow
species (plus junco and towhee) and 1 Orange-crowned Warbler. Purple
Finches are very common in this area and we saw scores of them each day
wherever we went, more than I have seen for many years (combined). Earlier
this morning Bill Williams found a White-winged Dove here which some others
also got to see. We didn't. Bill said Barry Truitt recently saw a
Long-billed Curlew in the seaside marshes of the upper Eastern Shore of
Virginia.
Spent most of the rest of the day at the hawkwatch at Kiptopeke State Park
with Bill, Bob, Bob Anderson and Thuy Tran, and hawk counter Jennifer
Ottinger. Today's hawks: 80 red-tails, 14 Cooper's, 9 sharpies, 5
red-shoulders, 2 kestrels, 1 peregrine, 5 Ospreys, 4 Bald Eagles, 18
harriers, and 33 Turkey Vultures for a total of 171 (20,617 so far this
season as of this date). Other birds: a pileated, 3 Red-breasted
Mergansers and little groups of gannets past the concrete ships. Zach
Smith banded 17 hawks in the Bean Field Blind, including 13 red-tails.
Bob Anderson and I returned to ESVNWR late in the day to search the
sparrows again and found both the juvenile and adult Harris's Sparrows
(America's biggest sparrow). Bob got within 25 feet of the adult and made
some videos of it. Both birds seem to frequent the west side of the trail
where the little grove of young Black Locusts is.
Also today: several dragonflies and a few Monarchs, Buckeyes, and Orange
Sulphurs.
Unusual plant "behavior". Due to Hurricane Isabel, the warm weather, or
the abundant rain, I don't know which, but several plants made unusual
appearances. Some Black Locusts and Black Cherries have blossoms. The
American Hackberries have fresh, bright and light green foliage and look as
they do normally in mid-May. Mustard is rank in some fields and road
shoulders, blossoming away as if it were late April. The Abelia
grandiflora, barren after Isabel's blasts, has regenerated leaves and new
blossoms. Queen Anne's lace is still blooming in some spots.
Tue., Nov. 18. Kiptopeke State Park. Not much of a hawk flight (I don't
have the totals) but a juvenile Golden Eagle went right over us, low, only
a 100 feet or so overhead. Bob Anderson got good video of it. After I
turned in for the day in the yurt I could hear a flight of Black-crowned
Night Herons calling as the passed south along the bluff.
Lots of activity around the concrete ships including Bonaparte's Gulls,
gannets, 50 or so Brown Pelicans, Red-throated and Common loons, Royal and
Forster's terns. The same dragonfly and butterfly situation as yesterday.
Jethro Runco banded a Blue-headed Vireo and a few Fox Sparrows. A pretty
good trapping day for Zach, mostly red-tails again.
Late in the afternoon Thuy Tran spotted a hummingbird at the feeder. We
watched it at ranges as close as 30 feet or so (through 32X Leica scope)
from c. 3 to 4:30 P.M. It bears many of the earmarks of a Black-chinned
Hummingbird (in fact ALL the characters mentioned in the Sibley guide, esp.
wing shape, the long, slightly-curved bill, practically no tail projection
beyond the wings when at rest, and dark grayish - not green - on the
crown), except, it did NOT pump its tail much at all. My guess is this
bird is an immature female Black-chinned or Ruby-throated. Bob Anderson
got good videos of it today but on Nov. 19 got excellent, extensive digital
videos at ranges of 18-27 feet. An expert such as the Sargents or Mary
Gustafson should be able to identify this bird, I'd guess. We just didn't
have the knowledge and experience to. Its back is quite, bright green. It
seems to frequent the feeder every 20+ minutes or so. A siskin or 2 each
day at the adjacent seed feeders.
Wed., Nov. 19. Jen asked me to do the hawk count today, glad to be able to
have a respite and rest her bloodshot eyes. Strong SE wind with the
promise of a major rain storm late in the day. Bob Anderson, Thuy Tran and
I were able to see only 7 hawks from 7 A.M. - 1 P.M.: 4 sharpies, 1 coop,
1 harrier, and 1 kestrel. I did see an Eurasian Collared-Dove fly-by,
possibly a new bird for the state park list, although 1-3 have been seen
about 1 mile east of here for several years. Also saw a Clay-colored
Sparrow among the big flocks of chippies here. 6 Tundra Swans flying
northeast. 55 Black-bellied Plovers in the Bean Field.
The Kiptopeke saw-whet owl banders are not enjoying a great flight year for
these little dudes, from what I have heard, but have had a night or 2 when
they banded more than 10, I think. The seawatch crew, which observes from
the top of the Smith Island lighthouse, has reported some Razorbills and
Dovekies earlier in the month.
Kiptopeke totals as of Nov. 17 include 11 Golden Eagles (3 on Nov. 2),
1,476 Merlins, 6,011 sharpies, 1,601 Cooper's, 487 peregrines, 187 Bald
Eagles, 702 harriers, and 1,461 Ospreys (low). Not a great flight year.
Good article about the 6 Kiptopeke station founders in the November 2003
issue of "Virginia Wildlife", pp. 8-11, by Brian Taber with color
photographs of Fred Scott, Walter & Doris Smith, Mike & Dorothy Mitchell
and Charlie Hacker. They started it all in 1963.
Unrelatedly, I was pleased to see a late Woodchuck at the Melrose Country
Club just NW of Philadelphia on Nov. 13.
Even farther afield, an e-mail from Pat Moore, who lives on Hatteras
Island, said that yesterday's storm washed over the road between Frisco and
Hatteras village, which had JUST been reopened on Tuesday to great fanfare,
including an article on page 1 of Wednesday's "Virginian Pilot." Isabel
had created an inlet over 20 feet deep there and well over 1,000 feet wide
that the engineers had filled in and then repaved the road.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com
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