Date: 7/7/25 12:08 pm From: Harry Armistead <harryarmistead...> Subject: [MDBirding] Ferry Neck, July 1-5, 2025.
JULY 1-5, 2025, FERRY NECK.
JULY 1, 2025 TUESDAY. arrive just before the rains begin. Several fireflies, not seen previously this summer. Finally some blooms on the main rose of Sharon bush.
JULY 2, WEDNESDAY. Rains began with thunder and lightning yesterday evening, totaling 2.25” before halting at noon today. In our main bathroom on the 2d floor a Horace’s duskywing (butterfly) in the wee small hours (12.42 and 1:36 A.M. but not at 3:58 A.M.), blackish, in stark contrast to the cream-colored wall.
“it’s dark and it’s rainy. and the moon gives no light. my pony can’t hardy travel, Lord, this dark road tonight.” from an old Texas folksong. could describe last night, minus the pony.
previous years a black rat snake, Cope’s gray tree frog, and chimney swift have been found in this bathroom, testament to how porous our house is, although seemingly it is sealed tight against the outside world. The duskywing is a welcome change from the wasps, flies, and stinkbugs we are used to seeing inside here.
forgot to write much in notes the last few days, may have mixed it up some.
JULY 3, THURSDAY. bald eagle 1, killdeer 1, Cope’s gray tree frog 3, bluet 1 (in the past sometimes 100+ of these damsel flies in a day), a 2.5’ northern watersnake, 4 deer (does) in the Big Field, a baby Fowler’s toad the size of a large pea. A finely-marked skink, at least 12” long, on the front porch, nice female.
clear, sunny in the afternoon, 74-83, not much wind. In spite of the 2+ inch rain, not that much in the ditches or vernal pools. disappointing. late in the day many hundreds of folks at Bellevue waiting to see the Oxford fireworks. Come dusk a huge turnout of fireflies. “All the twinkling starry host” (‘Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature’) refers to the night sky but could just as well describe this evening’s firefly show.
JULY 4, FRIDAY. Sunny, low humidity, light NW wind, 70-84, dead calm at sunset. As fine an early summer day as one could hope for. 1 tiger swallowtail (overdue), 3 red-spotted purples, a silver-spotted skipper.
The sort of day when: “If you live, a time will come.
I said if you live, your time will come.
When the sun will shine
And the crops will grow
and you won’t think you’ll gonna have trouble no more,
and if … you live … a time will come.”
-Mose Allison.
The words “time will come” sung with a desultory, dismissive tone.
At Lucy Pt. an ad. red-headed woodpecker. At Bellevue a gray squirrel. The first tiger swallowtail in a while.
Out front are perhaps 100 segments of bark from the sycamore I brought from Philadelphia (Benezet Street) and planted, perhaps in the 1980s, it’s now I’d say 50 feet high. The shedded bark fragments, many of them 3” by 12” or more. I used to climb this tree in March, get up 40 feet or more, above the level of the house, before any trees had leafed out. It provided a splendid view of the surrounding environs. Good photographic opportunities. Andrew Wyeth liked to portray sycamores.
“I shall return to seek this secret place/that wears the ageless shawl of Queen Anne’s lace.” from the poem ‘Rigby’s Folly’ by Lysbeth Boyd Borie.
The daylight period is getting shorter, especially in the morning.
Twice this visit a killdeer goes over, a couple of hundred feet up, in full cry, heading east above the dock, as if to show that, even after what seems to be a failed breeding season, it still has the energy and spirit to carry on. I find that very affecting. Go go, Bird. You go!
JULY 5, SATURDAY. sunny, 78 degrees F., calm. Leave 10:37 A.M. A red fox as we are going out the driveway.
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Bellevue and Philadelphia.
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