Exploring Maryland’s Western Shore

We just spent a beautiful weekend exploring Maryland’s western shore. This region includes the counties that are on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. This trip our second time staying in Calvert County. The first time was in 2019 when we explored Flag Ponds Nature Park, Calvert Cliffs State Park, and Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. We returned to two of these locations, however this time it was Birder Boy’s (BB) first trip to the area.

Birding wasn’t our only goal on this trip. BB loves vehicles and he’s been into military vehicles recently. If you’re an aviation fan I highly recommend the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, which was a really cool place to check out. As a birder I like how many of the planes are named after raptors such as the harrier, osprey, and hawkeye. We even saw a Broad-winged Hawk in the flight line area.

After the museum we took a quick hike at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. Highlights include Yellow-throated Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Northern Parulas, Pine Warblers, and a Louisiana Waterthrush. We also heard many treefrogs and saw Black and Tiger Swallowtails.

Battle Creek Cypress Swamp (Image by Michelle Horowitz)

The next day we spent the morning at Flag Ponds Nature Park searching for fossils. Dave only found one small shark tooth, but BB had a blast digging at the beach. There was a lot of wildlife around: many calling tree frogs, tiger and zebra swallowtails, Ospreys, Yellow-throated Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Swamp Sparrow, a male Belted Kingfisher, and more. Two of the most exciting finds of the day were a calling Prairie Warbler and two Killdeer. The Killdeer were calling ‘kill-deee, kill-deee’ and flying around the beach. Many times I see these cute conspicuous plovers in parking lots and other suburban/urban areas, so it’s fun to see them in a more natural habitat. They can be distinguished from other plovers by their double chest bands and red eyes.

Flag Pond Nature Park (Image by Michelle Horowitz)

Killdeer (Image by Michelle Horowitz)

There were also many Atlantic Lion’s Mane Jellyfish floating in the water. The size of this species depends on its geographically location. The lion’s mane jellyfish in the warm waters of the southeastern United States usually only grow up to 5-6 inches. However, individuals in the frigid Antarctic and Arctic waters can be up to 7 feet long which makes them the largest jellyfish species in the genus Scyphozoa. While not poisonous, these jellyfish have a moderately painful sting, so you should exercise caution if you around them.

Atlantic Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (Image by BirdNation)

In the afternoon on the second day we visited the Calvert Marine Museum. While birding was not our primary purpose we did see some species such as Purple Martins, Fish Crows, Common Grackles, and Mallards around Black Creek. We also watched this large Snapping Turtle swim under the dock.

It’s always a pleasure to visit Maryland. If you’re looking for a new location to explore I highly recommend Calvert County.

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References

• Aquarium of the Pacific. (n.d.). Lion’s Mane Jelly. Aquarium of the Pacific. https://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/lions_mane_jelly

2017: A Year In Review

There’s something about the end of a calendar year that puts people in a reflective mood. Many people like to think back on the past year and establish goals for the future year.

2017 was a wonderful birding year for Dave and I. We went birding in 5 states, saw some cool rarities, and spent tons of time enjoying nature. So since it’s New Year’s Eve, I wanted to share my favorite birds and birding moments of 2017.

January: A Rare Experience

My mom, sister, and I observed a American White Pelican at the Jersey Shore on January 6th, a rarity at that time of year!

American White Pelican (Image by BirdNation)

February: Great Backyard Bird Count

We had our most successful Great Backyard Bird Count so far, by observing 45 different species and over 5,000 individual birds in 4 days!

Male Northern Shoveler (Image by David Horowitz)

March: Goodbye Winter

Our first Barnegat Light trip of 2017 included our first time seeing Red-breasted Mergansers at the lighthouse, our first ever Ipswich Savannah Sparrows, and a lone Black Skimmer!

Red-breasted Merganser (Image by David Horowitz)

April: A Strawbridge Surprise

A surprise Pied-billed Grebe at Strawbridge Lake!

Pied-billed Grebe (Image by BirdNation)

May: 

May was filled with tons of great birding moments! Some favorites included: our first Prairie Warbler and hearing a Barred Owl, going on vacation in Maryland and Delaware, and seeing our first Great Horned Owlet.

Prairie Warbler (Image by David Horowitz)

June:

In June we got to reconnected with one of our favorite local celebrities, American Oystercatcher T2 of Barnegat Light, who had a family in tow. We also saw our first Northern Bobwhite and a Least Tern nest!

Northern Bobwhite (Image by David Horowitz)

July

Three words: Double Day Trip!

Spotted Sandpiper (Image by David Horowitz)

August

Surprise Rhode Island vacation!

Sail Boats at Dusk (Image by BirdNation)

September

Wood Stork for our birthdays and our first American Birding Expo!

Wood Stork (Image by David Horowitz)

October: Call of the Grackle

Our first Boat-tailed Grackles on our 9 year anniversary!

Boat-tailed Grackle on sign (Image by BirdNation)

November: Island Beach State Park

Our first Northern Gannets and the return of winter visitors at Island Beach State Park! Also our first Short-eared Owl at Palmyra.

Sanderling (Image by BirdNation)

December: A Snowy Christmas Eve

Our first ever Snowy Owl at Holgate!

Snowy Owl (Image by David Horowitz)

We had a fantastic 2017! I’m looking forward to more amazing birding adventures in 2018. Happy New Year!

 

 

New Adventures

We took advantage of our 3 day weekend by going on 3 birding adventures. One of our trips was to Palmyra Cove Nature Park, but the other days we explored 2 new places: Taylor Wildlife Preserve and Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve.

On Saturday night we wanted to go to Amico Island. Every time we go there, we pass a place called Taylor Farm & Wildlife Preserve. People go to Taylor Farm to pick their own fruits and vegetables, but part of the property was turned into a wildlife preserve with a few hiking trails. We’ve been curious about Taylor’s for awhile, so we decided to check it out. We never made it to Amico that night, but had a great time exploring Taylor Wildlife Preserve instead.

Taylor’s Wildlife Preserve is right on the Delaware River and Dredge Harbor. It’s a wooded habitat that features stretches of wetlands. We arrived to the sounds of Gray Catbirds and Red-winged Blackbirds. As we walked towards the foot trails we spotted some Northern Cardinals, Eastern Phoebes, and Baltimore Orioles. Yellow Warblers and Warbling Vireos sang from high in the trees while we explored the winding trails. We found the wetlands area not long after entering the trails. There was a beaver lodge, Eastern Kingbirds, swallows, Common Yellowthroats, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

Taylor Wildlife Preserve (Image by BirdNation)

“Breep! Breep!” A raucous call came from high in the tree over our heads. It was a Great Crested Flycatcher! These large flycatchers have lemon-colored bellies and long tails, although the crest mentioned in their names are not very prominent. For being about 7 inches in length, the Great Crested Flycatcher has a pretty ear-piercing call. These flycatchers are agile fliers, and we watch it for a bit before it disappeared into the treetops. We also ran into a muskrat on the trail. He didn’t notice us right away, and was pretty surprised when he realized he was being watched. It was a fun moment.

Another highlight of our Taylor trip was finding Wright Cove, where there is a platform with an Osprey nest. At the end of April, Dave and I bought a spotting scope and tested it out at the local yacht club where some Osprey nest nearby. We found a second tower with nesting Osprey that night, and wondered if there was a way to see them better from land. It turns out the Wright Cove in Taylor Preserve is exactly where we want to be to see these Osprey really well. We will definitely go back to observe them, as well as explore more the preserve.

We woke up early Sunday morning to spend some time at Palmyra Cove. It was a quiet morning so we were able to see 42 species. Some highlights included Cedar Waxwings eating berries, a Green Heron flying through the woods, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at the honeysuckles, and an Orchard Oriole pair chasing each other around. We ended up seeing some more Great Crested Flycatchers on this trip too. Ever have the experience where once you learn something is around, you start seeing it everywhere? Well it seems like we’ve been missing Great Crested Flycatchers for awhile, because now that we know them, we’ve been seeing them all weekend! Amazing how learning about a species can open up a brand new world you never knew was there before.

Today we went to Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve in Woodland Township for the first time. The preserve is 1,227 acres of pitch pine/scrub oak woodlands. An interesting feature of the preserve is a spung. A spung is a hydrologically isolated wetland that relies entirely on rainfall/snowfall to maintain its water level and is habitat to rare plants/amphibians.

Our hike started off with some of the usual suspects: Eastern Wood-pewees, Eastern Phoebes, Cedar Waxwings, Eastern Towhees Gray Catbirds, Common Yellowthroats and woodpeckers. But we kept hearing an ascending buzzy sound. It turned out this was the sound of the park’s namesake: the Prairie Warbler. Despite its name, these warblers don’t live on prairies, they prefer scrubby pine forests. This makes Huber Preserve the perfect breeding habitat. We were able to see and hear these beautiful yellow and black warblers throughout the entire walk.

Prairie Warbler (Image by David Horowitz)

At one point on the blue trail Dave heard a low bellowing call. We froze and listened. “Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo-HOO!” I couldn’t believe it. I could recognize that voice anywhere; it was a Barred Owl! It was in the distance, but we heard it call a few times. I’m so excited that we added our 2nd owl to our lifelist :-).

There are actually 2 spungs at the preserve: one on the green trail and the other on the red trail. I really wanted to go to the red trail spung (which was mentioned on their website), but we would have had to walk at least 3 miles (one way that is). You can bike at the preserve, so we will probably go back and bike to that spung. We did try to find the green trail spung, but its seems like it dried up. So no spungs for us today :-(. We did however see a Pine Warbler, more Great Crested Flycatchers, Ovenbirds, an American Redstart juvenile male, Black-and-White Warblers, and the Prairie Warblers/Barred Owl listed above, so it was a great day despite there being no spung. It was a fun weekend of adventures, and overall May was a great birding month for us.

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