Date: 3/5/26 8:40 am From: Harry Armistead <harryarmistead...> Subject: [MDBirding] Ferry Neck, Feb. 26 - March 2, 2026.
RIGBY’S FOLLY (FERRY NECK), FEBRUARY 26 - MARCH 2, 2026. Some song from cardinals, tufted titmice and Carolina wrens. Too wet, soft, and sloppy to be able to drive to Lucy Point across Field 1. But all of the lawn is O.K. for driving.
SIGNS of spring. Big piles of manure on the fields of area farms. The arrival of grackles. Some bird song.
FEBRUARY 26, known to those in the know as Thursday. 47-48, calm, overcast, some very light sprinkles. Arrive 5:30 P.M. Snow and ice are gone. Ponds and ditches are full.
ROUTE 301 300 Canada geese at milepost 113. 7 deer at milepost 104. 70 common grackles, a sign of spring (get out the champagne), near Routes 301 X 481. south of Ruthsburg 200 Canada geese & 80 horned larks (a single flock). Near Routes 309 X 481 1,100 ring-billed gulls (getting plenty of worms, or something), 1 herring gull, 6 tundra swans. At Routes 309 X 404, 400 ring-billed gulls, 400 Canada geese. Somewhere along Route 481 a blackbird flock, c. 1,000, mostly of starlings, grackles, and redwings in that order, 3 kestrels. Mourning doves widespread but in low numbers. No bald eagles.
FEBRUARY 27, FRIDAY. Rob Berg finishes the “floor” of the developing outdoor shower. 31-51, near calm, sunny. Nice one. 8 gray squirrels (5 on the driveway), 1 fox squirrel. Liz sees an impressive red fox. 210 Canada geese in the cove. northern flicker 1, sharp-shinned hawk in the yard. Derek and Anne arrive, 9:28 P.M., along with new pet ‘Tallulah’, a very lively Boston terrier. VERY lively.
Heard only: brown-headed nuthatch. The CRP large work vehicles, after several weeks, are gone. They have done good and big work with our driveway hedgerows, cutting Bradford pears and placing the cuttings in 29 large brush piles, up to 10’ high, in the fields. Low, wide berms are in place, resulting in some substantial “wetlands”, already nearly full, but of remaining ice and snow. A hermit thrush in the yard also. Lots of water in the fields. Lots of red-breasted nuthatches. Rumor has it that nuthatches have necks, but I have seen little evidence of that.
FEBRUARY 28, SATURDAY. Feb. 12 totals shown in parentheses. No flight due to lack of wind. I had wanted to do, putting in a good effort, bird lists both at the peak of the big freeze with snow and ice covering the ground (Feb. 12), and the contrast afterwards with the welcome advent of warmish weather and no snow or ice left over, and bare ground today. Those were done Feb. 12 and 28 respectively, 2 days that also filled in gaps of my book-in-progress, 366+ days, wildlife of greater Chesapeake Bay, 1949-2026, a personal celebration Derek and I both see a (the?) red fox but at different times.
I don’t have any official details on local Maryland weather this winter, but in Philadelphia there is this (I don’t think the MD Eastern Shore situation is any less severe): “… Philadelphia has logged 36 days of snow cover of at least one inch including 23 consecutive days after the Jan. 25 snow-and-ice fest.” (the emphasis is mine). In the ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’, March 5, 2026, p. C1 by Anthony R. Wood, who writes so entertainingly and expertly on weather. This sort of situation can be murder for wrens, bluebirds, and birds of the big, open fields.
MARCH 1, SUNDAY. Just take it easy today. 34-50, fair or clear, NW 15-20. 5 gray squirrels at the feed. 2 pileated woodpeckers calling next to the right-of-way. Inching forward, I drive to within 10 feet of a perched adult male Cooper’s hawk, up about 6 feet, watched at leisure via my 10X, driveway X Field 2. Since I have trouble walking and very poor balance I do almost all of my birding from our car or sitting in a chair somewhere.
A bluebird at the lawn nesting box. At BELLEVUE: 2 buffleheads, 4 ring-billed gulls, and … that’s it. To the East a rising, waxing, gibbous moon in the afternoon.
MARCH 2, MONDAY. calm, 36, overcast. bald eagle 1 heard only. 260 Canada geese in the cove, 80 in Field 7, 55 in Field 4. Leave for PA at 9:50. Sign agreement with MD Dept. Agriculture for CRP, after breakfasting at the Easton Diner. Route 481, nothing.
VERMIN UPDATE. No mice or wasps the last few visits. We put around some little white bags, peppermint mouse repellant, that apparently works to repel mice. Pudgy, black flies, dead, win the vermin sweepstakes. Coming in 2nd are ladybugs, more each time, that are attractively-marked, and harmless, often alive, alive-oh. After that, occasional stink bugs, that don’t stink as far as I have ever noticed, even when I put the squeeze on them.
the GREAT OYSTER HARVEST of 2026. Every winter for the past few years someone takes all of the oysters growing along our shoreline, on the rip rap, the intertidal zone, or its whereabouts, and elsewhere along the cove’s shores. I don’t know if that is legal. Doesn’t bother me much either way.
This is a harvest in cold weather, cold water, involving a LOT of stooping and bending over. Perhaps he sells them to Kool Ice in Cambridge. But the arsters grow back and regenerate every year. Look at these areas and they are spangled bright white where the remaining shell remains fastened to the rocks. Water clarity: nice and clear.
Now if I gathered and ate them I’d feel differently. My father did and he’d eat them frequently, even in months that don’t have the letter R.
Best to all. - Harry Armistead, Bellevue & Philadelphia.
1,120 words, 3.5.26.
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