Bombay Hook 8/23--Hudsonian Godwit

A small portion of the American Avocets at Bombay Hook

We spent the weekend in Delaware, mostly for the shorebirds. If you want to see American Avocets, this is the place to go.  Even though Bombay Hook is virtually on the same latitude at Brigantine, if one or two avocets make it across the bay to Brig it is a very big deal, while at Bombay Hook, seeing 200, 300, or 400 avocets is commonplace. Black-necked Stilts are also usually reliable down there too, but not this weekend. That was a little disappointing--I'll have to make do with the stilt I saw in the spring at Manahawkin.

Our year bird on Friday we found fairly quickly in Raymond Pool, the first big impoundment on the auto route--two Hudsonian Godwits. Not the fifty that flew behind us last week at Brig, but as I always say, I only have to see one. Naturally, the picture I digiscoped is not very satisfactory. As soon as I got my camera they decided to rest and tucked their bills in.

Godwits (top center) avocets, dowitchers, Caspian Terns

Other nice finds Friday were about 25 Wood Ducks in the Bear Swamp Pool (the joke is usually no bear, no swamp, no pool, but the water was pretty high this time), a Peregrine Falcon stirring up the thousands of shorebirds, a couple of female Blue Grosbeaks and an Indigo Bunting at the visitor's center while we were eating lunch.
We managed 50 species for one go-round, starting around noon.
Canada Goose  40
Wood Duck  25
Gadwall  1
American Black Duck  10
Mallard  35
Blue-winged Teal  1
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  10
Great Egret  20
Snowy Egret  25
Little Blue Heron  2
Glossy Ibis  8
Turkey Vulture  2
Clapper Rail  1    Heard
Black-bellied Plover  25
Semipalmated Plover  10
American Avocet  300
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Lesser Yellowlegs  25
Hudsonian Godwit  2
Semipalmated Sandpiper  3000
Short-billed Dowitcher  500
Long-billed Dowitcher  1
Laughing Gull  4
Ring-billed Gull  1
Caspian Tern  15
Forster's Tern  2
Mourning Dove  5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1    Visitor ctr
Peregrine Falcon  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  3
Eastern Phoebe  1
Eastern Kingbird  6
Red-eyed Vireo  1    Heard
Tree Swallow  7
Barn Swallow  1
Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard Finis Pool
Carolina Wren  2    Heard
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  5
Northern Mockingbird  3
European Starling  1
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard
Field Sparrow  1    Heard
Northern Cardinal  2
Blue Grosbeak  2
Indigo Bunting  1    Visitor ctr
Red-winged Blackbird  3    Raymond pool
American Goldfinch  16
House Sparrow  1