FEMALE ANNOUNCER: This program is made by MPT to enrich the diverse communities throughout our state and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Coming up... Rescuing raptors... An icy ride along... MIKE SIMONSEN: You can feel the vibration on the boat right now.

NARRATOR: And... life on a Bay Island.

Next.

Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

(intro music) ♪ ♪ (bird calls) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: A tiny bundle of downy grey peeks from the undergrowth, vulnerable and alone... But help is on the way.

CATHARINE REEVES: We are in Germantown near Gunners Lake and I think down this path we may find a baby owl.

NARRATOR: Called in by an area resident after it fell from its nest.

CATHARINE: Hi, is this where the baby owl is?

WALKER: Yessss!

CATHARINE: Oh, good!

Oh, you poor thing.

It's alright...aww.

NARRATOR: Catharine Reeves rescues raptors like this baby Barred owl... CATHARINE: In we go.

NARRATOR: ...as a volunteer... at this nondescript grey house in Montgomery County: Owl Moon Raptor Center.

CATHARINE: Hello... SUZANNE SHOEMAKER: I don't feel any fractures anywhere, so he's in pretty good shape to go back to the nest.

NARRATOR: Master Wildlife Rehabilitator Suzanne Shoemaker founded the center in 2002.

SUZANNE: My original intention was to keep it kind of small, so that I could keep it manageable, but there was a need I found out, out there, so the more need there was, the more I felt compelled to continue to grow because I feel like it was, it was for the birds.

And I've always been kind of for the birds.

SUZANNE: It's okay, it's okay.

We answer the phone pretty much every time we get a call.

Hi, this is Suzanne.

Hello.

(phone rings) Hello, this is Suzanne.

(phone rings) VOLUNTEER: Do you happen to see the nest or know where the nest is?

NARRATOR: Last year, more than 700 birds passed through Suzanne's care... From fallen young, to vehicle and window strikes, to poisonings.

No matter the injury, they can be a handful.

SUZANNE: We have to get them all contained, these guys, because their, their wings are spring loaded, and they'll pop right out, if you let go of them, (laughs) NARRATOR: Osprey Fagan came in recently with a wounded wing.

SUZANNE: I don't know, if you can see it from here but it's really bruised.

It's a puncture wound, could be from a talon from another osprey.

NARRATOR: Having assessed her patient, Suzanne gets to work on treatment, but Fagan's future isn't yet secure.

SUZANNE: We haven't taken x-rays on this one yet.

If this joint is badly affected by a fracture in there, then when it heals it's going to freeze up the joint somewhat and reduce the range of motion in the wing, and then they might have problems succeeding in the wild, if they don't fly well enough to catch their food.

NARRATOR: Out in the rehab mews, she checks on birds who have made it through initial treatment to stage two: physical therapy.

SUZANNE: He's not flying very well...we're hoping that he can recover more strength and more ability in that wing, but it's not looking good, to tell you the truth.

SUZANNE: This one is another one that's kind of a not-sure case, this is an osprey.

SUZANNE: Well, that was actually encouraging.

That was very encouraging.

She hasn't even tried to fly until today, so... NARRATOR: Flight ability is one of the main metrics used to judge whether birds, like this Broad-winged hawk... CATHARINE REEVES: This is just to cool him off.

NARRATOR: ...an accidental poisoning victim - are release-ready.

NARRATOR: Today... CATHARINE: That's good!

NARRATOR: ...a strong start, but not quite a green light.

CATHARINE: We think the bird may need more conditioning before it's released because of its reluctance to fly.

(hawk calls) NARRATOR: In Baltimore County, 14-year-old apprentice falconer Amber Weinstein is also preparing for a day of flight... AMBER WEINSTEIN: This is Emmy, she's a female Harris's hawk and we are going to take her out hunting today.

(hawk calls) NARRATOR: Along with another Harris's hawk, Rip, flown by Amber's dad, Master Falconer Jordan Weinstein.

Once, the birds are geared up with trackers and bells... JORDAN WEINSTEIN: You are ready to go.

NARRATOR: ...the father/daughter duo makes their way to a patch of woods near Finksburg.

(hawk calls) JORDAN: Falconry is an ancient sport that dates back roughly 7000 years.

A day of falconry around here in Maryland typically looks like hunting rabbits and squirrels with hawks in the woods.

JORDAN: Ha!

NARRATOR: Harris's hawks hunt in packs: the wolves of the sky.

But it can be a waiting game.

Jordan and Amber expedite the process using sticks to flush potential prey.

JORDAN: We are out here looking for rabbits and squirrels, and we are trying to be rabbit dogs really, so the better dogs we are at flushing for the birds, the better the birds learn that we are their partners, that we're a team.

NARRATOR: Before long, they've spotted something.

AMBER: Ho, ho, ho, ho!

Bunny!

JORDAN: So, both of these girls that are on the ground here just chased this rabbit.

One missed it.

Luckily, Emmy came up and hit it and then the second one came in to back it up.

And that is a proper falconry rabbit kill.

JORDAN: Cheers.

AMBER: I like working with them, probably the biggest reason is the bond that you have to make.

A lot of people look up in the sky and you see these hawks flying around and they're just predators, and they're free, and they're just a wild animal, and it's crazy to think that what we see in the sky can be sitting on our gloves.

AMBER: Good girl Emmy!

NARRATOR: Both Emmy and Rip were trapped as juveniles.

JORDAN: Somewhere between 75 and 90 percent of all first year birds of prey die their first winter.

Which means that there's somewhere between a 70 and 90 percent chance that we are saving that bird.

NARRATOR: But it's not a permanent partnership.

JORDAN: When we decide that, you know, it's maybe time for that bird to move on to the wild and be part of the breeding population, we build their weight up, make sure that they're up to date with their West Nile shots, and we set them back to be part of the breeding stock.

So, it's kind of our way of nurturing a loan from nature and returning it stronger than we, than we borrowed it.

NARRATOR: Back at Owl Moon, not every bird makes it, but those that don't often serve as donors for raptors in need - like this Barred owl.

SUZANNE: We keep a selection of feathers and we try to match everything up, so we use the wing of a Barred owl that matches the wing of the barred owl we're trying to repair.

So, in a sense they get to fly again.

NARRATOR: On the wings of one of Suzanne's many success stories.

VOLUNTEER: There she goes!

NARRATOR: As for that baby Barred owl... ♪ ♪ VOLUNTEER: He's adorable Jay!

NARRATOR: It's time to get back to mom and dad, and a brand new nest box.

SUZANNE: We have tree climbers that help us with that and they're really psyched about it and they donate their time and love doing it.

VOLUNTEER: Okay, I'm getting the bird in first.

SUZANNE: There's a lot of camaraderie here.

We do feel like a community.

Everybody's in it for the birds.

♪ ♪ RALPH: We have to be a little bit careful because it's icy.

NARRATOR: As dawn's first light glances off the frozen waters of Piney Narrows Yacht Haven on Kent Island, father/daughter sailing duo Ralph and Naomie from Switzerland dream of distant sun-soaked shores... NAOMIE: Caribbean.

Someplace warmer.

He's the initial sailor and we did a trip when I was a kid, we went for a year in the Bahamas and since then I love sailing, and so now, I'm doing my own trip.

RALPH: We bought a boat, beginning of the year at the Cedar Point Marina, so it's not far from here.

Trying to get down and get out of here.

NARRATOR: But a sudden January cold snap thwarted their plans.

RALPH: We've been stuck for a week.

NARRATOR: Today, they're finally getting under way, with a little help from a much larger vessel.

- My name is Mike Simonsen.

I serve the Department of Natural Resources as the principal captain aboard the motor vessel, AV Sandusky.

We came in on Thursday there our winter location, right in Kent Narrows.

When we came in they came to talk to us and wanted to know when we were departing, and they asked if they could tail us.

And that's what's going on right now.

NARRATOR: Departing Kent Narrows, the two-ship convoy enters Eastern Bay.

Shallow and protected, it's quicker to freeze than the open Chesapeake.

Today, the Sandusky carves a passage through this glacial expanse...doing its duty as one of the state's resident "icebreakers."

MIKE: And you can see that this has been undisturbed.

It's a massive sheet of ice.

It's going for miles.

You can feel the vibration on the boat right now.

NARRATOR: At 80 feet and about 120 tons, the Sandusky's sheer size and steel reinforced hull enable it to crack through ice up to eight inches thick.

It also has a different engine cooling system than most vessels, to prevent ice or slush from clogging up the works.

MIKE: You can see the bigger pieces now of ice, so you know, this is all of two inches.

That's, that's a good indicator to me of why he wanted to follow us out.

Right?

So, smart move.

MIKE: Bear with me, this is our sailboat friends.

How you doing?

How was it coming in there and tailing us?

RALPH: It's very nerve-wracking because you have these big sheets and these big plates of ice, you hit one and it shakes the whole boat, so what we did, we just stayed always right in your track in order to avoid touching the sides.

Probably, I got a couple more grey hairs going through there but that's alright.

MIKE: Okay...well...very good, nice talking with you and calm seas to you both.

MIKE: As we're coming around here we're rounding off into the open Bay.

NARRATOR: Ice coverage on the Chesapeake Bay varies dramatically from year to year.

In a typical winter about 10 percent of the bay freezes, but in heavy ice years, that figure can skyrocket.

In 1977, during what's now called the Great Freeze, ice covered 85 percent of the Bay.

In 2025, coverage reached nearly 50 percent according to the U.S.

National Ice Center.

MIKE: The last time we had this type of ice concentration, it was in 2018 and some periods of 2019.

NARRATOR: A warming climate is expected to reduce ice in the years ahead, but for now the record shows more variation than decline.

MIKE: We're going to be continuing on down into the Choptank River system.

One request today is to help a classic wood motor yacht get out into open water.

NARRATOR: Floridian Chris Staker is the captain of Lake Trail.

CHRIS: This boat is a 1967 Huckins Linwood, 56 feet.

We were in the transition of trying to get some of the mechanical stuff caught up on the boat and take care here at Campbell's Boatyard, then we got a little bit of ice and we figured it'd melt, and then we just got more ice.

Hopefully, the Sandusky is going to get us rolling here in a few minutes.

MIKE: We're going around this shoal and coming right in here to the entrance into Bachelor Point.

Oh, yeah.

You can feel that having to use more RPM here.

It's frozen quite solid.

Some of this ice can actually move and like barge away from you.

And you got to make sure that it won't penetrate the hull of another boat.

That's why I'm sort of cutting it like a loaf of bread right now, taking in slivers.

NARRATOR: But even with the marina cleared and a channel cut, the journey out into open waters is a treacherous one for a wooden boat... CHRIS: I mean, you got sheet ice that'll cut right through the hull sides, if get anywhere behind him just off a little bit, and the boat were to slide over it could cut right through the hull side.

MIKE (radio): I'm gonna pick up my speed here a little bit, but just stay behind me.

CHRIS: Roger that.

It's so thick that, man, I can't imagine not having this boat.

You guys are really fortunate to have this here.

That ice back there was about four inches thick you think?

MIKE (radio): Two inch to four inches, pretty accurate.

CHRIS: Roger that, thank you again.

MIKE: My pleasure, glad to be of service.

NARRATOR: Service, to Maryland's waterway users, is at the heart of the Sandusky's legacy.

MIKE: AV Sandusky was Alexander Vincent Sandusky, who played for the Baltimore Colts.

When he retired from the NFL he came to work for the Department of Natural Resources.

He was so instrumental on helping Marylanders with access to enjoy the Chesapeake Bay, in 1989, when we chose to build this vessel, they named it after him.

NARRATOR: When there's no ice to break, the Sandusky provides countless other services: buoy maintenance, post storm debris clearing and more.

But for today just one final stop.

MIKE: We're headed up Broad Creek up into Grace Creek to go to PT Hambleton Fish wholesaler.

I would call this a hub for our professional watermen that are fishing right now, the oyster season.

(oyster dump) MIKE: We have up to 15 to 20 Chesapeake deadrise commercial fishing boats standing by to get out on the water.

Now, with these warmer temperatures, I'm going in there to break it up, to help it dissipate a little quicker and let them get back on with their livelihoods because today would be a beautiful day to be out oystering.

They're just stuck.

The lane that I create here, as long as we keep on a slow warming trend, it'll stay open for 'em to be able to navigate in and out of here and get out to the oyster bars that they're working.

NARRATOR: As the sun settles into the horizon, the Sandusky heads towards Cambridge, her port for the night.

MIKE: It certainly is a rewarding position.

What makes it that is all of the things of what this vessel accomplishes for waterway users here in Maryland.

You know, a waterway user is anybody from sitting on an innertube to somebody in a fancy motor yacht or our Chesapeake deadrise boats out earning a living.

Kayakers, canoers, paddlers, rowers, we're there just to protect our waterways, so that everybody else can enjoy our waterways.

You know, you can't really sum it up other than knowing it was another good day aboard the AV Sandusky.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: A flash of orange in a patch of wildflowers... Tough to spot from a moving vehicle, but Biologist Peter McGowan with the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service has a well-trained eye... and decades of experience scanning this very habitat - an island in the Chesapeake Bay.

PETER McGOWAN: Right now, we are driving around Poplar Island trying to find some monarchs, so we can start our tagging program this Fall... We can be out here one day, get 3 or 4, come back out the next day and we can collect 50 to 100.

NARRATOR: So far, it's proving to be a light day - perhaps too early for these long distance migrants, who drop by each fall for the buffet.

PETER: We have a lot of nectar producing plants on the island to fuel up before their migration southbound to Mexico.

NARRATOR: Now, in mid-September, many of their favorites aren't quite in bloom, but delicate pink sprays of native smartweed offer an early appetizer... and a chance for Pete's team to finally deploy their nets.

PETER: How are you guys doing?

Catch any?

CREW MEMBER: I think we're up to 11.

PETE: to 11?

CREW MEMBER: it's the smartweed up here they like... NARRATOR: Thirty years ago, that number would likely have been zero... PETER: When I first came out in 1994, there was probably around five acres of small remnant islands that were left out here in Poplar harbor.

NARRATOR: The dwindling traces of historic Poplar, one of many Bay islands disappearing thanks to sinking land, rising seas and erosion.

But in 1998, work began to reverse that trajectory - to rebuild Poplar Island... It was a project born first out of commerce needs - an outline of stone containment dikes constructed to hold the sediment dredged each year from Bay shipping channels to keep them passable.

But it was also an opportunity - to create key habitat.

PETER: It's been great to see the changes each year.

Each day, actually.

Watching the new plant species that come in and the wildlife species that are associated with those changes.

NARRATOR: Like, these butterflies... each one tagged as part of an initiative called Monarch Watch.

PETER: It's a program that's looking to track where the butterflies are migrating to, what their migratory path is and to see what percentage returns to Mexico to their overwintering sites.

NARRATOR: But they're far from the only species to flock to this emergent habitat... PETER: I'm going to say 240 species of birds, seven species of mammals, and probably 6 or 7 reptile species, amphibian species out here.

NARRATOR: And keeping all of that wildlife in balance... on an island that continues to change and grow over time... can sometimes get complicated.

PETE: It's tough playing Mother Nature.

(angry terns) JEFFERY SULLIVAN: These are the parents that are flying overhead, making a ruckus.

They'd like us to leave their child alone.

NARRATOR: In July, biologist Jeffery Sullivan and his team from the US Geological Survey work quickly and efficiently to weigh and band tern chicks, and mark new nests.

JEFFERY: Remote island habitat is so important for terns because it provides an escape from mammalian predators, foxes, raccoons, etcetera, that can really devastate a colony.

So, here's a really nice 3 egg clutch.

And when the Bay had lots of those small islands, you could have populations breeding in smaller colonies all up and down the Bay.

But as erosion has removed most of our islands throughout the Bay, these sorts of available habitats have become much more restricted.

NARRATOR: Leading to steep declines in tern populations.

Today, three tern species nest here on Poplar - making it an ideal living laboratory to study these birds, and how best to help them succeed.

But it's a job with risks, says tern expert Catherine Neal.

CATHERINE NEAL: Common terns are one of the more aggressive species when they're nesting.

You will get dive bombed and they, they can draw blood.

They're very protective of their nesting area.

NARRATOR: With good reason - as the island and the colony grow, so too does the threat of egg-pillaging avian predators.

JEFFERY: We have fish crows, sometimes we have owls or gulls.

NARRATOR: But the most frequent culprit, caught on Poplar's game cameras, the Black-crowned night heron.

JEFFERY: Which are also a species of state concern.

So, it's great to see an increasing population of Black-crowned night herons, but it does have negative impacts on the success of the terns.

So, this is a test plot designed to try to exclude Black-crowned night herons... NARRATOR: Installed by U.S.

Fish and Wildlife.

Overhead lines keep larger birds from landing in the nesting area, and an electrified rim provides a small shock to perching predators - without impact to the terns themselves.

JEFFERY: They can never hit both wires.

We've got the game camera in the plot where we're seeing that it's been able to keep out the black crowns.

We're still experiencing some egg loss to some smaller avian predators like Red-winged black birds so it's always an adaptive process as we work through this and figure out what we can do in future seasons.

NARRATOR: Poplar's habitat is divided up into 40- to 50-acre wetland cells, in various stages of completion.

WILLEM: We almost see an incremental increase in the turtle population with each wetland that comes online.

NARRATOR: On a June morning, Ohio State Biologist Willem Roosenberg and his students are paying an eagerly anticipated visit to cell 1C... JEFFERY: Bag full of turtles.

NARRATOR: ...to trap terrapins.

WILLEM ROOSENBERG: We've been wanting to trap in this cell, the main reason being is we've been seeing a lot of turtle heads suggesting there's a number of turtles here.

NARRATOR: Until recently, it was off limits - to avoid disturbing the island's first nesting pair of Bald eagles.

It's a good example of what Willem calls an "ecosystem approach" - where each species is factored into the bigger conservation equation.

WILLEM: We all work independently but we also work as a group, trying to understand how this ecosystem is changing over time.

Last week the Bald eagles fledged and so now we're allowed to trap in this cell.

We caught close to 45 turtles today.

STUDENT: Width is 80.

NARRATOR: Every terrapin trapped is measured... STUDENT: And mass... NARRATOR: Weighed, and tagged...allowing the team to track individuals through future recaptures.

WILLEM: Got a marked hatchling?

STUDENT: Got a marked hatchling 2R9R.

WILLEM: 2018 Fall.

NARRATOR: Notches on this turtle's shell tell Willem it was picked up by his team from a nest right here on Poplar - when it looked more like this.

WILLEM: I first came to Poplar Island in 2002.

In the earlier years, it was really exciting because we didn't have some of the predators that have become established now and we saw the population explode as a consequence.

Now that the island has been established as more natural habitat, we've seen some of the natural predators start colonizing the island as well.

NARRATOR: Along with other newcomers - like these mud turtles.

WILLEM: This is only the second nest for this species that we've found on Poplar island.

They're just the coolest.

NARRATOR: As with the terns, Willem and his team work to protect the island's turtles from predators - while acknowledging that loss is a part of life.

WILLEM: People have said to me, well aren't you upset that the king snakes are eating the turtle eggs?

And it's like, no, I think it's really exciting to see that.

WILLEM: We're letting these guys go in the most recently completed wetland.

WILLEM: I think when you work with animals like turtles you need to be honest with yourself.

Not every single one is going to make it.

NARRATOR: Whether, predator or prey, newcomer or just passing through, each species here plays its part in this ever evolving ecosystem...on an island rebuilt from the Bay (music) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: To stream episodes of Outdoors Maryland , visit mpt.org/outdoors and don't forget to follow us on social media.

(owl hoots) Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural resources at dnr.maryland.gov, or download the official mobile app.

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