Beach Report 11/16/25

A cool, blue sky day with no wind to speak of. This is confirmation that the Buffies are back.

Speaking of which, on the way bay, I was going over one of the groins along the way, and there, just below me, was a Buffie, sitting on the shore. 

I've never seen one come ashore before, so I tried to sneak up and grab him and check to see if it was injured.

But he got back into the water as I approached, and then flew off a short way. If he was hurt, he wasn't too hurt to fly. 

Not a great day for shark's teeth, only 5, but I did find a couple of interesting bones. One is clearly a small vertebra, probably a dolphin of some sort. I'm not even willing to guess what the other is, it's pretty worn, but it's long, and has one end with a termination. 

A little further along I found this Whistle-pig, aka Groundhog wandering around. 

It was clearly aware of me, but walked past anyway, even though it could have ducked into the brush.

I have no idea what this means regarding the length of winter. 
 

Beach Report 2/16/21

The male Old Squaw was fishing in the harbor again today when Skye and I walked past. When I first spotted him he had a fish in his beak, but he either swallowed or dropped it by the time I got the camera out and ready. 

Today the temperature was a balmy 44 under cloudy skies, with a west wind that barely reached us on the beach.

Look by the foot.

Georgia found this very nice White Shark tooth well up on the beach. 1 11/16ths inches, and in razor sharp condition.

There ain't no justice. I find 30 teeth, and Georgia finds 3, including the big one. 

Beach Report 2/15/21

When Skye and I walked through the harbor on our way down to the beach, this male Long-tailed Duck was hanging out in the back of the harbor, which is a bit unusual since they seem to prefer to stay further offshore. Old-timers may know them better by the name of Old Squaw.

We found this escapee from yesterdays celebration washed up on the beach. I punctured it, deflated it, put it in my pocket and deposited it in the trash cans at the parking lot. 

It was warmer than yesterday, 39 F or so, with a moderate N wind. The ice from the ice storm from 2 nights ago is gone, and all but the largest piles of snow from snow plowing is gone too.

The best of 17 teeth, a medium sized, but very sharp Snaggletooth. Sorry about the focus. 

Chesapeake Waterfowl Doing OK

Midwinter waterfowl survey shows rise in bird count

In early January, aerial survey teams of pilots and biologists from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources made visual estimates of the ducks, geese and swans along most of the state’s Chesapeake Bay, Potomac River and Atlantic coast shorelines, according to a DNR press release.

This year, the teams counted about 627,000 waterfowl, which was higher than the 566,300 birds observed during 2019, but lower than the five-year average of 738,440 birds.

“The abundance and distribution of wintering waterfowl is influenced not only by the annual changes in population size, but also the weather conditions during migration and throughout the winter,” Wildlife and Heritage Director Paul Peditto said in a press release. “Moderate winter weather up and down the east coast has allowed most waterfowl species to remain spread out across Maryland and our surrounding states.”

It certainly seems to me that there aren't as many waterfowl off the shore this year as there have been in many past years, but I have enough experience to know that when we have a relatively mild winter, as this one has been so far, many of the birds stay farther north.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Emma Watson and FMJRA 2.0: I Live In Siberia, Through No Fault of My Own out on time and under budget.

Daffy to Get a Break on the Bay

Hunting season, bag limits for migratory Canada geese, mallards to be reduced next year - unexplained drop in populations spurs regulators to act

Concerned by a sharp drop seen last year in the Atlantic population of Canada geese, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ordered a shortening of the 2019–2020 hunting season for the migratory birds and a cutback in the number that hunters may take daily.

Federal wildlife regulators also have tightened next season’s limits on hunting for mallards, one of the most abundant ducks in the world, as they seek the cause of a long-term decline in their numbers across eastern North America.

That’s unhappy news for waterfowl hunters in the Bay watershed, who have already seen a falloff in this migratory goose season, which ends Saturday in Maryland and ended Jan. 27 in Virginia. Mild weather through the fall and most of this winter brought fewer Canadas to the region from north of the U.S. border. There have also been few if any juvenile birds— which are less wary of hunters’ decoys than their elders — in the visiting gaggles.

The hunting season for migratory Canada geese, which for several years has run 50 days in two stretches from November through January, is slated to be reduced next season to 30 days. For hunters in Pennsylvania and New York, the daily “bag limit” will drop from three to two. But around the Chesapeake Bay — in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia — the limit will go from two to just one a day.
Duck hunters will see their daily quota of mallards reduced from four to two all along the Atlantic Flyway, which stretches from Canada to Florida.

I haven't seen a lot of sea ducks locally either. I wonder what's going on?