We go to Bombay Hook in order to see the avocets and they didn't disappoint--there were a couple of hundred, starkly beautiful in their black & white alternate plumage. On our second trip around the impoundments, Shari found a lone Black-necked Stilt among the avocets in Raymond Pool, a rarity for this time of year. The other rarity we came across was a single Tundra Swan way in the back of Raymond Pool, obvious by it's bill and size. So, a late stilt and an early swan.
We ended the day by going to the best Indian restaurant on the East Coast and I've eaten in all the famous ones in NYC as well as in the South Asian enclave of central Jersey. It is in the most unlikely of spots, a Super 8 motel on DuPont Highway in Dover. To use the rest room you have to leave the restaurant and go into the motel's lobby, which is decorated in early 70's Seaman's Furniture style. When I told the owner that it was the best Indian food I'd ever had, he proudly pointed to the wall where there were framed magazine covers of Delaware Magazine proclaiming his restaurant (A Taste of India) as the best Indian restaurant in Delaware which is like being the best Italian restaurant in Kuala Lumpur--there isn't a lot of competition.
Today the weather started out threatening and made good on its threat about halfway to Prime Hook--a cold rain which I though promised to make birding either miserable or impossible. However, just as we pulled into the parking lot of the refuge the rain, for the most part stopped, and despite falling in an on again of again manner the 2 plus hours we were there, we managed to find some nice birds including an FOY Winter Wren, 3 Brown Thrashers which I miraculously saw before Shari, and hundreds of Great Egrets roosting in trees, looking, from a distance like cotton balls, as well as skulking in the reeds.
So, in heat, wind, cold, and rain we managed 60 species for the weekend.
10/6: Bombay Hook (Crows in Dover)
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Canada Goose 150
Snow Goose 100
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Tundra
Swan 1
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Gadwall 50
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American Black Duck 18
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Mallard 25
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Northern Shoveler 100
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Northern Pintail 5
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Green-winged Teal 10
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Ruddy Duck 30
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Pied-billed Grebe 9
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Double-crested
Cormorant
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Great Blue Heron 15
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Great Egret 50
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Snowy Egret 15
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Little Blue Heron 3
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Turkey Vulture 10
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Osprey 1
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Northern Harrier 1
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American Coot 6
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Black-bellied Plover 3
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Black-necked
Stilt 1
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American Avocet 225
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Greater Yellowlegs 20
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Lesser Yellowlegs 50
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Semipalmated Sandpiper
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Western Sandpiper 1
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Dunlin 75
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Stilt Sandpiper 1
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Laughing Gull 100
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Caspian Tern 5
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Forster's Tern 50
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Belted Kingfisher 1
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Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
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Merlin 1
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Peregrine Falcon 1
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Eastern Phoebe 6
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Blue Jay 5
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American Crow 1
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Fish Crow 12
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Carolina Chickadee 1
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Tufted Titmouse 1
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Carolina Wren 2
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Gray Catbird 1
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Northern Mockingbird 1
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European Starling 10
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Savannah Sparrow 1
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Northern Cardinal 1
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Red-winged Blackbird 210
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House Finch 2
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American Goldfinch 4
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Snow Goose 24
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American Black Duck 2
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Mallard 5
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Northern Shoveler 10
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Double-crested
Cormorant 1
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Great Blue Heron 15
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Great Egret 210
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Snowy Egret 50
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Glossy Ibis 2
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Northern Harrier 1
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Greater Yellowlegs 10
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Laughing Gull 100
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Forster's Tern 5
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Belted Kingfisher 1
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Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
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Northern Flicker 2
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Peregrine Falcon 1
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Eastern Phoebe 3
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American Crow 1
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Carolina Chickadee 1
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Winter Wren 1
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Carolina Wren 2
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Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
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American Robin 50
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Gray Catbird 2
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Northern Mockingbird 5
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Brown Thrasher 3
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European Starling 300
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Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
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Eastern Towhee 1
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Song Sparrow 1
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Northern Cardinal 1
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Red-winged Blackbird 50
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