Sunday, August 19, 2012

Delaware 8/17-8/19: Least Bittern, American Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-eyed Vireo, Bank Swallow

A long birding weekend in Delaware--2 days with a NJ Audubon sponsored trip and one day on our own in Sussex County--yielded 6 FOY with an excitability range from "Oh, that's good," to "Holy mackerel, look at that!"

The trip centered around  Bombay Hook, which has nothing to do with Bombay and is not a hook; rather it is an Englishing of the Dutch "Boompjes Hoeck," meaning "little-tree point." Before we met the group, Shari & I drove down Raymond Neck Road to the back of Finis Pond, looking for whatever passerines we might find, since most of the day we'd be concentrating on shorebirding. Leaders of the trip Scott Barnes, Linda Mack and Carol Hughes had the same idea so for a few minutes we all walked down the path and I heard, because Carol pointed it out, a Red-eyed Vireo. Not much else turned up, save for 2 Green Herons flying out of the pond and over the road. 

The holy mackerel bird of the weekend was Least Bittern. On Friday one flew over the road from behind us and dived into the reeds of Shearness Pond. I saw it for approximately .5 seconds. I haven't seen one of those birds in years, the only time being once from a bridge over Lemon Creek on Staten Island when one posed on a piling. I didn't like settling for just a glimpse of the bittern and next day the bird became "official" in my mind when a LEBI rose from the reeds of Shearness and flew out over the marsh, giving all of us great good looks as Scott excitedly called out its flight. 

Other FOY shorebirds Scott got us on were Pectoral Sandpiper (always a hard one for me), a sleeping Hudsonian Godwit, and 3 American Golden-Plovers that flew in on and settled down with their cousins, Black-belled Plovers

The final FOY was Bank Swallow, a bird I was happy to add and usually would have by this time of the year, since they are reliable at Great Kills Park on Staten Island in the summer. But we don't go to SI much anymore. 

Other hot spots we checked out were the potato fields on the way in to Bombay Hook where we found Horned Lark, as we usually do and Port Mahon a little farther south where every piling that didn't have a Great Black-backed Gull on it, had a Royal Tern, each one displaying its bad winter haircut. 

Sunday, on Linda's recommendation, we stopped, on our way to Prime Hook, at the DuPont Nature Center on the Mispillion River, site of an historic lighthouse. There we were able to add Shari's favorite, American Oystercatcher, to the weekend list. 

Fowler Beach was loaded with birds, particularly Black Skimmers, and the Prime Hook trails around the Visitor's Center had plenty egrets along with a couple of Green Herons. In all I had 88 birds for the weekend and I think Shari may have had a couple more since she saw a bluebird at Prime Hook and a gnatcatcher at Bombay Hook--both times I think I had my nose in a bird list. 

Here's what I saw:

Species             Count      First Sighting
Canada Goose      20      Bombay Hook NWR
Wood Duck      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Gadwall      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Mallard      20      Bombay Hook NWR
Blue-winged Teal      4      Bombay Hook NWR
Northern Shoveler      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Pied-billed Grebe      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Double-crested Cormorant      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Least Bittern      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Great Blue Heron      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Great Egret      25      Bombay Hook NWR
Snowy Egret      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Tricolored Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Green Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Black-crowned Night-Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Glossy Ibis      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Black Vulture      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Turkey Vulture      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Osprey      4      Bombay Hook NWR
Cooper's Hawk      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Bald Eagle      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Clapper Rail      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Black-bellied Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR
American Golden-Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR
Semipalmated Plover      1000      Bombay Hook NWR
American Oystercatcher      2      DuPont Nature Center (Mispillion)
Black-necked Stilt      4      Bombay Hook NWR
American Avocet      400      Bombay Hook NWR
Spotted Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Greater Yellowlegs      50      Bombay Hook NWR
Lesser Yellowlegs      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Hudsonian Godwit      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Ruddy Turnstone      5      Port Mahon
Sanderling      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.
Semipalmated Sandpiper      1000      Bombay Hook NWR
Western Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Least Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR
White-rumped Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Pectoral Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Stilt Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Short-billed Dowitcher      100      Bombay Hook NWR
Long-billed Dowitcher      4      Bombay Hook NWR
Bonaparte's Gull      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Laughing Gull      25      Bombay Hook NWR
Ring-billed Gull      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.
Herring Gull      2      Port Mahon
Great Black-backed Gull      180      Port Mahon
Gull-billed Tern      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Caspian Tern      10      Bombay Hook NWR
Common Tern      20      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.
Forster's Tern      50      Bombay Hook NWR
Royal Tern      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Black Skimmer      50      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.
Mourning Dove      10      Bombay Hook NWR
Barred Owl      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Chimney Swift      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Ruby-throated Hummingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Belted Kingfisher      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Peregrine Falcon      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Eastern Wood-Pewee      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Eastern Kingbird      5      Bombay Hook NWR
Red-eyed Vireo      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Blue Jay      1      Bombay Hook NWR
American Crow      1      Prime Hook NWR
Fish Crow      3      Dover
Horned Lark      10      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic
Purple Martin      10      Bombay Hook NWR
Tree Swallow      2      Bombay Hook NWR
Bank Swallow      10      Bombay Hook NWR
Barn Swallow      2      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic
Carolina Chickadee      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Carolina Wren      2      Prime Hook NWR
Gray Catbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Northern Mockingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Brown Thrasher      1      Prime Hook NWR
European Starling      5      Dover
Chipping Sparrow      1      Prime Hook NWR
Field Sparrow      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Northern Cardinal      1      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic
Blue Grosbeak      3      Bombay Hook NWR
Red-winged Blackbird      3      Bombay Hook NWR
Common Grackle      1      Bombay Hook NWR
Brown-headed Cowbird      9      Bombay Hook NWR
Baltimore Oriole      1      Prime Hook NWR
House Finch      2      Bombay Hook NWR
American Goldfinch      1      Bombay Hook NWR
House Sparrow      4      Dover

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