Bombay Hook

We took a quick trip down to Delaware in the middle of August. We go there to see American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, Horned Larks, lots of shorebirds, and any rarities that might be around. We saw them all. The oddest find was when Shari spotted a Brant in the Raymond Pool. A Brant in summer is odd enough; when I checked the Bombay Hook checklist to see what season they were expected, Brant wasn't listed at all. The bird was a total out lier.

Not much of a photograph, but good enough to convince eBird of our sighting: That's a line of Avocets in the background that I kept in the photo to put the Brant in context

We were also mildly surprised to find one Snow Goose and very happy to see a Black-headed Gull, our first North American record (we saw them in France in 2007)

Aside from BH, we like to scope the potato fields that border the refuge for Horned Larks--plenty there this time, along with hundreds of Killdeers and Semi-palmated Plovers. One day we'll find an Upland Sandpiper in the troughs.

We also took a quick trip down to Port Mahon, which is a long road running along and out into Delaware Bay. Apparently a recent storm tore up the road, so we were only able to make it about 2/3 of the way down before we gave up. We don't have four-wheel drive. In fact, with all the dirt roads we drive on anyway, we weren't amazed when we found out last week that our back shocks were shot and had to be replaced.

I have no idea why they decided to place 2/3 of a picnic table in this spot--just about the furthest point from the entrance.

The combined list (73 species):
Bombay Hook, Whitehall-Liepsic Crossroads, Port Mahon

Snow Goose

Brant

Canada Goose

American Black Duck

Mallard

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Glossy Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Cooper's Hawk

Peregrine Falcon

Clapper Rail

Sora

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Killdeer

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Spotted Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

Dunlin

Stilt Sandpiper

Short-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

Black-headed Gull

Laughing Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Least Tern

Caspian Tern

Common Tern

Forster's Tern

Mourning Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Acadian Flycatcher

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Kingbird

Blue Jay

American Crow

Horned Lark

Tree Swallow

Bank Swallow

Barn Swallow

Carolina Wren

Marsh Wren

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Eastern Towhee

Seaside Sparrow

Blue Grosbeak

Red-winged Blackbird

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow