Memorial Day Weekend 5/27/07

Variable Dancer female -- Idylewilde WMA. Orange Bluet -- Marshy Hope River, Caroline County. Stream Cruiser -- Marshy Hope River, Caroline County.


Bill Hubick, Tom Feild, Matt Tillet, Steve Collins, and myself spent the day birding the mid-shore of Maryland. We started the day at Terrapin Park on Kent Island. Terrapin is a great spot for migrants but unfortunately there wasn't much activity until Steve spotted a recently fledged grey phase Screech Owl sitting eye level on a fallen tree along the trail. Getting a Screech Owl photo this easy was a major relief. Hours of spot lighting at night was saved by Steve's good eyes. From Terrapin we headed to Wye Island WMA in Queen Anne County, Maryland. There is a large impoundment covered in cattails with a few mudflats that we were hoping would be holding shorebirds. As soon as we climed up the impoundment we heard the kekking of a King Rail. I was lucky enough to catch a brief glimpse of the bird but couldn't get my camera up in time. King Rails are becoming increasingly rare on Delmarva due to lose of habitat. While waiting for the King Rail to show himself again we saw a Dun Skipper feeding on the dike along with a female Hobomok Skipper. Then a Least Bittern started calling. The bittern and the rail both refused to show so we headed to Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary outside of Easton, Maryland. We walked the dikes between the impoundments and observed two American Coots, Common Moorhen, Pied-billed Grebes, and Blue-winged Teal. I saw my first Swarthy Skipper of the year feeding in the grasses along the dike. After Pickering Creek we headed towards Caroline County. Our first stop was along Laurel Grove Road. This area was where I observed the first Eastern Shore record of Arrowhead Spiketail last year. We were interested to see if we could refind the spiketail. The spiketail was a no show but amazingly Steve netted Maryland's third ever Furtive Forktail. We were all speechless. Entomogists have been searching for decades on Delmarva for this damselfly and my friends and myself had seen the bug in three different locations in two weeks! After the excitement of the Furtive Forktail we headed towards the Marshy Hope River north of Federalsburg. Walking into the swamp along the river we found Sparkling Jewelwings, Orange Bluets, Cyrano Darner, Stream Cruiser, and Common Baskettails. The Little Philadelphia section of Idylewilde WMA was right around the corner so we took a long walk amoungst the ponds and swamp. Steve spotted Lilypad Forktails resting on lilypads at one pond and an Attenuated Bluet, both life odes for me. Also seen were Sphagnum Sprites, Variable and Blue-tipped Dancers and Turquoise Bluets. It was an incredible day for dragonflies and damselflies.

Memorial Day Weekend 5/26/07

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend Colleen and I drove to the Delaware Bay shore to try to photograph Red Knots and other shorebirds along Port Mahon Road. We arrived around 2pm and were fortunate that the tide was high pushing most of the birds close to the road. Semipalmated Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones were the most numerous shorebirds. Red Knots, Sanderlings, and Willets were also present. Shorebird migration along Port Mahon Road is an awesome spectacle. There were thousands of birds present and they were not a hundred yards away on a mudflat, they were within twenty feet of the car! Shorebirds congregate along the Delaware Bay during Spring migration to feed on horseshoe crab eggs. It is a massive staging area where the birds gorge on the eggs to prepare themselves for their next push north. This staging ground is one of the best places to observe Red Knots. Red Knots migrate up from Argentina in the Spring and breed in the far north. Unforunately the Red Knot population has plummeted and they have become very threatened. One of the main reasons for their population crash is the over harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs. Thanks to enviromental groups like The American Bird Conservancy both Delaware and New Jersey have passed moratoriums on the harvesting of the crabs. Hopefully the Red Knot population will increase. After Port Mahon we traveled up to Bombay Hook and I ticked Black-bellied Plover off my photo needed list. Bad lighting and extensive mudflats made photography difficult so we headed back home making one more stop along the Tuckahoe River in Talbot County, Maryland where I added Eastern Forktail.