January '07-- A Summary

Photos: Peacock at Tunis Mills, marsh south of Blackwater NWR, Black Rat Snake at Prime Hook NWR, Mallard X Domestic Duck Hybrid at Kent Narrows.

I am real pleased with the way the fundraiser is progressing. After one month I have photographed 51 species (50 birds and one herp) and still have many easy winter birds to get. I have been hitting the coast real hard trying to make sure I do not miss any of the coastal winter birds and have chased a lot of the rarities that have shown up on Delmarva. Chasing rarities has been relatively successful. I have taken photos of the Tropical Kingbird, Marbled Godwits, and the Eurasian Wigeon, but I have missed the Northern Shrike three times, the Red-necked Grebe, and the Little and Black-headed Gulls that have been hanging out in the Bonapartes Gull flock at Indian River Inlet. Early in January the weather was amazing with temperatures in the seventies. I saw or heard four species of frog (Green, Bull Frog, Spring Peeper, Fowler's Toad), two species of snake (Black Rat and Eastern Ribbon), two species of butterfly (Monarch and Clouded Sulpher), and many wild flowers in bloom. Later in the month the temperature got back to normal with the blustery winds, freezing rain, and even a little snow. With the shackles of Maryland loosened, birding Delaware and Virginia has been great fun. I am going to spend February concentrating more on land birds, hitting many of the inland parks on Delmarva instead of the coast. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up the fifty species a month average!

Black Walnut Point 1/28/07

Photo: Black Walnut Point

Sunday was completely different from Saturday. Rain and wind greeted me as I walked out to the car. I only had a few hours to bird because Colleen and I were going to Washington DC to have dinner with friends. With only a little time I decided to head to Black Walnut Point to see if there were any ducks that I could photograph. Black Walnut Point is the southern tip of Tilghman Island which is the western most point of Talbot County, Maryland. On the western side of Tilghman Island is the Chesapeake Bay and to the south is the mouth of the Choptank River. It is a great location to view waterbirds and I was especially hoping to get pictures of Long-tailed Ducks. With the bad weather I was not very optomistic but when I pulled up to the parking lot alongside the bay I was surprised to see many ducks swimming close to the bulkhead. There were Surf Scoters, Buffleheads, Long-tailed Ducks, Lesser Scaup, and Common Goldeneyes in view. I was able to get photos of both a female Bufflehead and a Long-tailed Duck.

Prime Hook NWR and Indian River Inlet 1/27/07

Photos: Red-throated Loon, Sperm Whale (5/05 off Cape Hatteras), South jetty of Indian River Inlet, Cape Henelopen Light.

Saturday morning I met some friends at Primehook NWR and tried to locate the Northern Shrike for the third time. Hans Holbrook, Bill Hubick, Tom Feilds and their girlfriends Sara, Becky, and Geraldine and myself (without Colleen) searched diligently throughout all the meadow habitats on the refuge for the damned shrike and came up empty once again. We did find a nice sparrow flock which held an American Tree Sparrow. The Tree Sparrow perched nicely in a bush and allowed me to take ten or twelve photos in which not one turned out real well. If Am. Tree Sparrows were not so rare on the coastal plain I would not have included the picture in the photo gallery. While I was getting into my car my trusty tan corduroys decided to give out around my posterior. Now normally this wouldn't have been a big deal if it was just the boys but there were three women birding with us. I had a problem. When I got out of my car I announced to everyone that I had ripped the ass out of my pants. Bill started taking pictures right away. Thankfully I had a nice pair of pea green ski pants in the trunk of my car that covered my anterior rip and we got back to birding. We headed to Cape Henelopen and walked around the point where there wasn't much but a few Surf Scoters, Sanderlings, and Cormorants. By now it was lunch time and we had worked up a thirst so we went and had libations and sandwhiches at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehobeth Beach. Indian River Inlet was our last stop. We wanted to hit the inlet at high tide which was around 3pm because earlier in the week a female North Atlantic Right Whale and a her calf had been frequenting the inlet and we were hoping to get pictures. North Atlantic Right Whales are amoung the rarest large whale species on the planet. Estimates put the entire population around 350 animals. So with cameras armed and ready we perched ourselves on the jetty and waited...until sunset without really seeing anything. A Red-throated Loon and a female Boat-tailed Grackle gave us some great photo ops and it was fun hanging out with friends. I posted a photo up above of a Sperm Whale that was seen off of Cape Hatteras back in 2005 on a pelagic trip out of Manteo, North Carolina. We saw many Sperm Whales that day along with Cuvier's Beaked Whales.

Ducks and Vultures 1/21/07

Above Photos: Kent Narrows, Tunis Mills, Female Redhead
While running around today I was able to score three more photos. Colleen and I drove to the Cambridge waterfront early this morning with the hopes of photographing the Redhead that hangs out in the Canvasback flock. We were very fortunate that the drake Redhead was close to the street and was easily photographed. I also got shots of the female Redhead. After checking out a few more spots in Cambridge we went to Tunis Mills and let Stitch (Colleens dog) run on some wooded property owned by friends. A small flock of Black Vultures were eating on a dead raccoon next to the path and I was able to get a good shot of one of the birds. After a great brunch we decided to go and see Pan's Labyrinth in Annapolis. On the way we stopped at Kent Narrows and took photos of a Surf Scoter that was fairly close to the parking lot at the Jetty Restaurant. Then the snow started. Hopefuly we will get three feet!

A Windy Day On The Coast 1/20/07

Above Photos: Bonaparte's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Ring-billed Gull.
The weather channel said the wind was blowing 25 to 35 mph when I crawled out of bed this morning. With low expectations I headed for the coast with the hopes of photographing the Eurasian Wigeon that has been hanging out in one of the ponds at Eagles Nest Golf Course in West Ocean City. Because of the frigid winds that were blowing there were not any golfers so I was allowed to walk out on the course and get as close as possible to the wigeon flock. Unfortunately my sneaking up on duck flock skills are real rusty. As soon as the ducks saw me they swam to the other side of the pond which resulted in the far photo of the Eurasian Wigeon in the photo gallery. Although the duck was distant the photo still shows the diagnostic marks of the rust colored head and the cream patch on top of the head. Eurasian Wigeons are annual visitors to the Delmarva Peninsula but they are still considered quite rare and this bird is the only one that has stuck around this year. They are usually found in flocks with American Wigeons. At the large Ocean Pines pond there had assembled a massive gull flock which held an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Like Eurasian Wigeons, Lesser Black-backed Gulls are from the Old World and until recently were considered real good finds. But in the recent years Lesser Black-backed Gulls have become regular up and down the east coast. Any large congregation of gulls will usually yield at lest one Lesser. I hit Indian River Inlet on the changing tide and Gannets were working the mouth of the inlet along with a large flock of Bonaparte's Gulls. I couldn't find any Little or Black-headed Gulls in the Bonie flock. Out at the end of the north jetty I got photos of Sanderlings working the edges of the rocks with Ruddy Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers. At Rehobeth's Silver Lake I was surprised to find a female Shoveler amoung all the Black Duck/Mallard hybrids. It was a good day to be out. The wind was howling and made my eyes tear up every time I lifted my camera or binoculars but the air was clear and the sun was bright and the birds were almost cooperative.

Birding Dorchester County 1/14/07

On Sunday my girlfriend Colleen and my friend Karl Piltz and I spent most of the day birding Dorchester County. Karl just purchased a new Nikon D100 and he wanted to photograph some of the scenery at my grandfather's abandoned boatyard on LeCompt Creek west of Cambridge. While Karl and Colleen wandered around taking pictures of old wooden boats I went looking for some of the local birds. Eastern Towhees, Whitethroats, and a Carolina Wren were all ticked. While a flock of Chickadees and Brown-headed Nuthatches caused me much consternation and eluded my camera. After Karl had gotten his fill of old boats we headed to Blackwater NWR to try to get shots of the White Pelicans that have been hanging out all winter. Unfortunately when we got to the pelican site the lighting was horrible so we decided to come back later on in the day. The Eurasian Collared-Doves on Hooper's Island were our next target. I was also hoping to take photos of the Sanderling flock that has been present all winter on the causeway between the upper and lower islands. Neither the Doves or the Sanderling flock were seen. It was starting to get a depressing. I had missed almost all my target species for the weekend. We spent almost an hour on the island and by the time we left I had gotten zero photos. We stopped back at Blackwater NWR and got shots of the pelicans. Unfortunately the White Pelican flock congregates on flats that are quite a distance from the road so my photos are not that great but they are identifiable so I'm going with them. On the Cambridge waterfront resides a Canvasback flock which was our next stop. Great shots of Canvasbacks, Mallards, American Wigeon, and a Greater Scaup were all taken. We were almost out to Rt. 50 when Bill Hubick called and said that Harry Armistead might have had a female Barrow's Goldeneye on Hooper's Island. Arggghh!!! It had been a long day and the thought of driving all the back to Hooper's Island was not appealing. But I have a grebe to save from extinction so I dropped Karl off at the bar, told him we would pick him up on the way back through, and Colleen and I headed back down county. When we arrived at the spot where Harry had the goldeneye there was nothing out in the bay but an Oldsquaw and a few Bufflehead (all to far out to photograph) so we drove to where the doves were being seen by everybody but us. They still did not want to be seen. I think they can smell my car as soon as I get on the island. It was a long day and even though I missed some targets I still managed some good photos and the Bears won.

Hitting The Delaware And Maryland Coasts 1/13/06

On Saturday I awoke early and headed to Dover, Delaware in hopes of photographing a Red-necked Grebe that was being seen regulary throughout the previous week. Red-necked Grebes are annual on the Delmarva Peninsula but only in very small numbers so I needed to chase this bird. Chasing rarities can be a very frustrating endevour. A lot of the time you come up empty having spent a lot of money and time only to have the day end up in frustration. It is a problem that birder's deal with on a regular basis. And I have had to deal with it on all my chases in Delaware so far this year. I have missed the Northern Shrike at Prime Hook NWR and now the Red-necked Grebe at Dover. But that's alright, it was a good day anyway. I went to many places that I had not been to in many years. Ted Harvey WMA, where I had seen the Whiskered Tern back in the early ninties. Little Creek, which held a White-winged Black Tern at the same time as the Whiskered Tern. Bombay Hook, where I had gotten so many life birds like Ruff, Cinnamon Teal, and Northern Lapwing. Port Mahon, with it's legendary shore bird flocks that amazes everytime I have gone during migration. Even though I did not see anything of note on the Delaware coast it was great to go back to some of these places that I have ignored in the past few years. I stopped by Silver Lake in Rehobeth Beach on my way south and photographed a willing Double-crested Cormorant and the Bonaparte Gull flock at Indian River Inlet was accommodating as well. At Ocean City Inlet the Common Eider flock was briefly seen but they were on the south side of the jetty and were to far away to get any photos. In the parking lot at the inlet I took photos of Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls. On the flats along side Hoopers Restaurant on the bayside an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was seen but I didn't like the photos so I'll have to wait on this species. It was getting late on the ride back to Oxford but I couldn't resist the urge to stop at the Salisbury landfill and maybe get an Iceland or Glaucaus Gull pic. Many Gulls were present but no rarities were seen. It is always nice to end the day with the heavy aromas of a city dump wafting around inside the car.

Exploring The Coast of Virginia's Eastern Shore 1/7/06

After spending the past five years birding exclusively in Maryland, I am real excited that I am going to get to spend time exploring Delaware and Virginia, searching for new places to bird and going places where I have never been. After reading that Harry Armistead had had a massive flock of Marbled Godwits at Willis Warf, Virginia, my girlfriend Colleen and I decided to drive down to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and see if we could relocate Harry's birds. Other than birding Chincoteague and Kiptopeke State Park I have never really explored Virginia's Eastern Shore and I was really excited about all the cool habitat that we saw. We drove straight to Willis Warf which is a small waterfront comunity that sits right against the beautiful coastal marsh. When we arrived around 11:00am the tide was quite high and other than a few Bufflehead there were no birds in sight. Colleen and I then explored the back roads on the coastal side of the peninsula until we arrived in Oyster. Oyster is another small community built on the marshes. Red-throated Loons and Brant were eating in the small marshy cuts while gulls picked at discarded seafood byproducts that had been thrown out by local picking houses. At Kiptopeke State Park, which is situated on the bay side there were Brown Pelicans and Horned Grebes working the waters near the docks and jetties. On our way back north we decided to stop and have lunch at Stingrays (a great little diner just north of Kiptopeke on Rt 13) and try Willis Warf one more time. When we arrived the tide was low exposing large mud flats that were chocked full of shorebirds. As I jumped out of the car a Peregrine Falcon swooped down and dive bombed the large flock of Western Willets and Marbled Godwits causing all the birds to get up. It was a beautiful sight seeing the buffy underwings of the Godwits flying with the black and white wings of the Willets. I took a thousand photos (none of which I was very pleased with) as the birds flew out over the flats. Marbled Godwits are a rare bird in Maryland and to see so many in one flock was an incredible sight. After the Godwit/Willet spectacle we zoomed up to Chincoteague and tooks some photos of Greater Yellowlegs working an oyster pile but it was starting to get dark and it had been a long day so we drove for home.

Prime Hook NWR and the Delaware Shore 1/6/07

I headed out Saturday morning to try to photograph the Northern Shrike that has been frequenting Prime Hook NWR. The unseasonably warm weather caused a few surprises. Two species of snakes were observed. A pair of Black Rat Snakes that were so bedraggled and ugly that I'm only going to post their photos if I do not end up with any other Black Rat Snake pics for the rest of the year. A beautiful small Eastern Ribbon Snake was extremely photogenic as it soaked up rays on one of the refuge trails. Spring Peepers were singing in the flooded woodlands while Green Frogs jumped from the banks of the dike trail. A fat Fowler's Toad was seen sitting on a small dirt patch out in one of the refuges meadows. I saw two Clouded Sulphers flying in the same meadow. Unfortunately the Eastern Ribbon Snake yielded the only usuable non-avian photo for the day. White-crowned Sparrows, a bird that can be a nuisance to find in Maryland's Eastern Shore counties, seemed to be quite prevalent at Prime Hook and one healthy looking male posed for some great pics. The Northern Shrike was not as accommodating. I walked around the meadows where the Shrike had been seen earlier in the morning but I never found the bird. The marshes surrounding the road to Broadkill Beach at the southern end of the refuge held a massive Snow Goose flock and here is where I got my Pintail photo. I searched the Snow Goose flock for a Ross' Goose but came up empty. I then made my way to Indian River Inlet where I was successful in photographing both Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones at the end of the north jetty. An obliging Common Loon swam close to the jetty and allowed me to take nice photos. Bonapartes Gulls were working the changing tides inside the inlet but I was never able to get the flock into good light. When I was stashing my gear in my car getting ready to leave the inlet I was lucky enough to look up and see a Peregrine Falcon land on the top of one of the power line poles near the parking lot. The falcon was really too far away for a great picture but in the photo the bird is definently identifiable. I waited in the parking lot for close to half an hour waiting for the falcon to fly off that pole thinking that I could get a flight shot but the bird never moved so I headed home.

Tiger Salamander Chase Vol 1 1/5/06

So the word is that on the first warm rainy night of January there is a spectacle that takes place in a certain delmarva bay up in Kent County, Maryland. Imagine 50-100 six to eight inch Tiger Salamanders all waking up in their underground burrows saying to themselves, "Hey, it's raining outside and its warm. I want to get it on!" So they climb up to the outside world and instinctively know to start heading to that pond where they got it on the year before. No one gets lost. They all get there safely. Meet their mates. And for one warm rainy night this certain delmarva bay turns into an orgiastic Tiger Salamander utopia. At least that's what I was thinking as I was driving up to Millington WMA in Kent County that rainy warm foggy night.
A few weeks earlier I had gone to Millington WMA to scope out at which pond the Tiger Salamanders might mate. I found a couple delmarva bays that I thought might be the right ones and decided to head back that first rainy night in January. I have no problem admitting that I freaked myself out. It was foggy, yet there was a slight breeze that made the tree branches rustle. It was dark and my Wal-Mart head lamp just didn't seem to light up enough of an area to make me comfortable. I knew there was some deranged redneck cannibal freak waiting behind the next tree for a mid-thirties amatuer naturalist/photographer who happens to be out trying to take pictures of copulating salamanders. I walked around two of the delmarva bays I had staked out a few weeks earlier. I found no salamanders. I got wet. I heard Spring Peepers. I fell into the delmarva bay. I got real wet. There were no deranged redneck cannibl freaks. There were still no salamanders. I'm not sure if I had the right delmarva bay or it still might have been too early in the year. I'll just have to go back up to Millington the next warm rainy night in January.

House Sparrow Photos 1/4/07

My main goal today was to get photos of the House Sparrow flock that hangs out down the road from the boatyard. House Sparrows are one of our most common birds but they are not native to North America. In 1851 twenty House Sparrows were released in New York City. Within a few decades the diminutive House Sparrow had spread across most of the country. In the mid 1800's it was common practice for municipalities to import certain bird species from Europe. In E.A. Zimmerman's "History of the European House Sparrow" he relates the House Sparrows introduction to Cincinnati,
"Between 1872-1874, the Cincinnati Acclimatization Society released 4.000 European songbirds of at least 18 different species, including House Sparrows and Starlings, in order to 'aid people against the encroachment of insects' and to ensure that the 'ennobling influence of the song of birds will be felt by the inhabitants.' Only the Starling and House Sparrow took hold."

Lunchtime in Oxford 1/3/07

Once again I went out at lunchtime to try to get a few more photos. Along Bachelor Point Harbor Road there is a long hedge row that separates houses from the road. There is a large flock of House finches that congregate in the hedge and I was able to get a decent shot of a female. The males were not as cooporative. A male Cardinal, a species that I have always had a hard time photographing, gave me a couple seconds on a bare limb and I was able to get of a couple shots. Yellow-rumped Warblers are usually very common around Oxford but this winter there just does not seem to be the large numbers hanging around. After looking for a few days I finally ran into a flock of Yellow-rumpeds along the road into the Oxford Cemetary and I really like the shot of the lone male looking down at me.

A Little Lunch Time Photography 1/2/07

During my lunch break today I went out and got a few photos of one of the many Mockingbirds that hang around the boatyard where I work in Oxford. Unfortunately the wind was still blowing strong so the birds were not as cooporative as I had hoped. After work, right before the sun went down, I managed to get a shot of one of the Song Sparrows that live along the ditches at the boatyard. Two more easy ones down.

A Rainy First Day 1/1/07

I was awakened this morning at 7:00am by the sound of horizontal rain hitting the bedroom window. It was then I knew this was going to be a tough day to start the Big Year. My plan for the day had been to hit all the bird rarities that were still hanging around Delmarva. There is a Northern Shrike at Prime Hook, Eurasian Wigeon in West Ocean City, and Tropical Kingbird in Somerset County, but with the bad weather this plan had to be scrapped. The rain slackened around 11:00am so my girlfriend and I hit the road. We decided to go straight after the Tropical Kingbird. By 12:15pm we had arrived at the Kingbird spot and the rain had stopped but the bird was nowhere to be seen. After only a few minutes we heard the bird call and soon spotted it hawking for insects amoung the trees. We hoped the bird would come closer to the road allowing for better photos but we soon got tired of waiting and with the approaching weather we decided to head for Ocean City. By the time we got to the Ocean City inlet the wind was blowing extremely hard and the rain was coming down in sheets. The only acceptable photo I took was of a Rock Pigeon hanging out in the inlet parking lot. The rest of the afternoon was a compete washout. There were birds around but it was raining too hard for photography. It was not the opening day that I had hoped for but I did get photos of one of the three rarities. To see the photos taken today click on the Delmarva Photo Big Year link to the right.