Bombay Hook 8/28--Hudsonian Godwits

Hudsonian Godwit with Short Billed Dowitcher
(digiscope)

This morning, around 7:30, I texted the picture on the left to Scott with the question, "What this?" I was standing on the road next to the Raymond Pool at Bombay Hook, getting a head start on the 2nd day of birding on the NJ Audubon trip. I was pretty sure I knew what I was seeing, but I always want confirmation. Scott texted back almost immediately, 'HUGO!' short for Hudsonian Godwit. Rare in New Jersey and just as rare in Delaware. And I had a flock of 10 of them in front of me. Scott told me to hold them down until he, Linda, Carole and the rest of the group got there. I looked in the car for the Superglue, but it wasn't in the glove compartment where I left it.

This was my third day on the impoundments and while the birding had been fine since Monday afternoon when I arrived, the two species I was hoping for were no shows. A Sedge Wren had been reported in the field on the road to Raymond, but it looked like that field had been recently mowed--hence, no wren. And a big flock of American White Pelicans had been reported for a couple of weeks when the tide was high at Leatherberry Flats across from the Shearness Pool but those birds seem to have wandered off. So we were left to look at hundreds of American Avocets and a building flock of
which today reached over 250!

Avocets, godwits and dowitchers

Plus thousands of peeps to sort through, looking for the elusive Western Sandpiper, not a game I'm very good at--it requires patience which I don't have because the line was too long when they were handing it out. But thanks to Scott, Linda, and Carole, I did see a few.

So the godwits were definitely the highlight of the trip. They were, though, what I call "Dr John birds," since I found them only because I was at the right place at the right time. Skill had little to do with it. Unfortunately, two of our group didn't get to see them because they arrived late, about 20 minutes after a Peregrine Falcon came buzzing through putting up all the birds. Most of them came and settled back into the pool after the threat was gone--the Hudwits, however, didn't.

I made one trip around the pools by myself Monday afternoon, a couple of partial forays before the official start of the day's birding on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a couple of loops around with the group, plus we made a stop at Port Mahon Road to the south of us on Tuesday and a quick trip a few miles north to Woodland Beach today. Other than the godwits, the most pleasing bird for me to see on the trip was a very pretty Bobolink female perched up on a stem in Bear Swamp Pool. A few Bobolinks had been flying overhead both days, giving their "plink" call, but that is so unsatisfactory to me that I didn't bother to count them. Seeing one was much better. And it was about the only interesting bird in that whole impoundment which despite its name has

NO BEAR NO SWAMP NO POOL

For my 3 days out of state I listed 82 species. Surprisingly, Dunlin and Boat-tailed Grackle were both flagged as rare, whether for time of year or for location I don't know.

Species               First Sighting

Canada Goose   Bombay Hook

Mute Swan   Bombay Hook

Wood Duck   Bombay Hook

Blue-winged Teal   Woodland Beach

Mallard   Bombay Hook

Green-winged Teal   Bombay Hook

Mourning Dove   Bombay Hook

Chimney Swift   Bombay Hook

Clapper Rail   Bombay Hook

American Avocet   Bombay Hook

Black-bellied Plover   Bombay Hook

Semipalmated Plover   Bombay Hook

Hudsonian Godwit   Bombay Hook

Stilt Sandpiper   Bombay Hook

Sanderling   Port Mahon Rd.

Dunlin   Bombay Hook

Least Sandpiper   Bombay Hook

Pectoral Sandpiper   Bombay Hook

Semipalmated Sandpiper   Bombay Hook

Western Sandpiper   Bombay Hook

Short-billed Dowitcher   Bombay Hook

Long-billed Dowitcher   Bombay Hook

Greater Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook

Willet   Bombay Hook

Lesser Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook

Laughing Gull   Bombay Hook

Ring-billed Gull   Bombay Hook

Herring Gull   Bombay Hook

Great Black-backed Gull   Bombay Hook

Caspian Tern   Bombay Hook

Forster's Tern   Bombay Hook

Royal Tern   Port Mahon Rd.

Double-crested Cormorant   Bombay Hook

Great Blue Heron   Bombay Hook

Great Egret   Bombay Hook

Snowy Egret   Bombay Hook

Little Blue Heron   Bombay Hook

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Bombay Hook

Glossy Ibis   Bombay Hook

Black Vulture   Bombay Hook

Turkey Vulture   Bombay Hook

Osprey   Bombay Hook

Northern Harrier   Bombay Hook

Bald Eagle   Bombay Hook

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Bombay Hook

Downy Woodpecker   Bombay Hook

Northern Flicker   Bombay Hook

Peregrine Falcon   Bombay Hook

Eastern Wood-Pewee   Bombay Hook

Great Crested Flycatcher   Bombay Hook

Eastern Kingbird   Bombay Hook

White-eyed Vireo   Bombay Hook

Red-eyed Vireo   Bombay Hook

Blue Jay   Bombay Hook

American Crow   1654 N Dupont Hwy, Dover

Purple Martin   Bombay Hook

Tree Swallow   Bombay Hook

Bank Swallow   Bombay Hook

Barn Swallow   Bombay Hook

Marsh Wren   Bombay Hook

Carolina Wren   Bombay Hook

European Starling   Bombay Hook

Gray Catbird   Bombay Hook

Brown Thrasher   Bombay Hook

Northern Mockingbird   Bombay Hook

Cedar Waxwing   Bombay Hook

House Sparrow   Bombay Hook

American Goldfinch   Bombay Hook

Field Sparrow   Bombay Hook

Seaside Sparrow   Bombay Hook

Song Sparrow   Port Mahon Rd.

Swamp Sparrow   Port Mahon Rd.

Eastern Towhee   Bombay Hook

Bobolink   Bombay Hook

Orchard Oriole   Bombay Hook

Red-winged Blackbird   Bombay Hook

Boat-tailed Grackle   Port Mahon Rd.

Common Yellowthroat   Bombay Hook

Yellow Warbler   Bombay Hook

Northern Cardinal   Bombay Hook

Blue Grosbeak   Bombay Hook

Indigo Bunting   Bombay Hook