Delaware 9/29-10/2--Sora, Common Gallinule, Marbled Godwit, Hudsonian Godwit, Brown-headed Nuthatch

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Clayton, DE

The distance to Delaware is about as much traveling as my psyche can stand, so for the third time this year Shari & I made the rounds of Bombay Hook a couple of times, ate good Indian food in Dover, and explored a new birding spot (for us) in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware). 

We started the trip at Winterthur Gardens, where Shari has always wanted to visit. While it is a large open area with forests and grasslands, it wasn't exactly teeming with birds. Besides birding is not a multi-tasking activity. Here's what I took out of the visit: If you're a DuPont & have all the money in the world and never worked a day in your life you can collect a lot of beautiful things and spend a lot of time worrying about the color mix of flowers in your gardens. The next day we went to Bombay Hook. 

Common Gallinule, Bombay Hook

For the last couple of months a quartet of Roseate Spoonbills have been residing in the Shearness Pool there, not venturing very far from the pullout on the road called the Daly Overlook. Normally, I would spend a lot of time looking into the Raymond Pool first, which you come upon first on the drive, but, as is my wont with rare birds, I insisted we drive directly to the Shearness to get the rarity "out of the way." They weren't hard to find which seems silly to say of big pink birds, but it is amazing how furtive they can sometimes be. Of course, for me, they were just state birds, but they were year birds for Shari. While we were looking at them I heard a Sora whinny and while I was idly scanning the impoundment, I came upon a Common Gallinule lazily feeding in front of us. So that was two year birds as a bonus. 

Another bird to look for down there are the American Avocets. We found them on a mud flat in the bay. Mixed in with them were a huge flock of Green-winged Teals, which, because they are so small and feed by scooping their beaks in the muck, often fool you into thinking they're shorebirds, but, mixed in with the teal Shari did find one large shorebird as she was scoping which turned out to be our year Marbled Godwit. Marbled Godwit was one of the target birds for the trip since they've avoided us in NJ. 

Another long-staying rarity in Delaware, and high on the list of Zirlin's Favorite Goofy Birds, is a flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that have, as is typical for this species, plunked themselves down in retention pond in the middle of a housing development in Clayton, SW of Smyrna. Shari at first wasn't too enthusiastic about driving there but after a trip to the DuPont Nature Center (where we got her the requisite American Oystercatchers) another report came in and she decided that it was worth the 45 minute drive to spend 4 minutes counting a flock of 11. 

On the first day of October we didn't go to Prime Hook as is our usual practice, but instead drove a little farther south to Cape Henlopen, near the Lewes Ferry. This state park, with it's pine forests, beach trails, and old military batteries, seemed like a combination Sandy Hook and Island Beach SP. The specialty of the house there is Brown-headed Nuthatch, which is really the only bird in Delaware you can't expect to find in New Jersey. Some are easier in Delaware, like the avocets, but the only bird on the DE list that would be a big deal in NJ is the BHNU. Very occasionally one wanders across the bay to Cape May but never any farther north than that. They're even considered rare 25 miles north of Cape Henlopen where Shari & I have seen them on Big Stone Beach Road in Kent County. 

So without really knowing where to look we started on a trail behind the nature center that led to the bay and back. Lots of pines, no nuthatch. We inquired within as to location and were told that the trail we'd been was a good one for them, but if they weren't there to try the Pine Lands Trail near the old fort. Hardly had we stepped onto the trail than we heard them, little squeak toys high in the crowns of the trees. We could see them flitting about but as they are about the same size as the Golden-crowned Kinglets which were also feeding in the trees, separating them was a little difficult. 

On the trail behind the nature center we saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and in the bay we spotted a large flock of Brown Pelicans. Nothing remarkable about either, though both species are cool to find, but it turns out that they were state birds for us. I was surprised, especially by the pelicans. A lot more work to be done in Delaware. 

Hudsonian Godwit, Bombay Hook

Finally, on Saturday, the second, we returned to Bombay Hook where the mix of birds was quite different than than two days before, although the spoonbills were still out in the open and the Sora was still whinnying. Where there were 60 avocets, now there were only two. Where do they go? There were many more Black-bellied Plovers than on Thursday and mixed in with them was one sleeping bird with some white on its tail that had me puzzled. Finally, another birder sidled over to us and told there was a Hudsonian Godwit among the Black-bellied Plovers. "Third one from the right." Oh, you mean the sleeping bird that had me puzzled? So both of the likely godwits are on the year list now. 

I don't know why, but Tricolored Heron is listed as rare at Bombay Hook. I assume it is a seasonal rarity. One was reported in Bear Swamp Pool on Thursday but we missed it; it was reported again on Saturday and driving by I found it immediately, right in front of us. And then I found a second one. 

For our 4 days in Delaware we listed 90 species which is pretty good considering the relatively late starts we got, reducing the number of passerines on the list. 

11 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 
1 Snow Goose 
451 Canada Goose 
44 Mute Swan 
30 Blue-winged Teal 
90 Northern Shoveler 
25 Gadwall 
160 American Wigeon 
83 Mallard 
11 American Black Duck 
45 Northern Pintail 
510 Green-winged Teal 
10 Wild Turkey 
5 Pied-billed Grebe 
15 Rock Pigeon
10 Mourning Dove 
1 Clapper Rail 
2 Sora 
1 Common Gallinule 
62 American Avocet 
3 American Oystercatcher 
253 Black-bellied Plover 
1 American Golden-Plover 
114 Semipalmated Plover 
1 Hudsonian Godwit 
1 Marbled Godwit 
1 Sanderling 
13 Dunlin 
301 Semipalmated Sandpiper 
2 Short-billed Dowitcher 
75 Greater Yellowlegs 
3 Willet (Western) 
2 Lesser Yellowlegs 
25 Laughing Gull 
74 Herring Gull 
15 Great Black-backed Gull 
7 Caspian Tern 
58 Forster's Tern 
3 Royal Tern 
50 Double-crested Cormorant 
30 Brown Pelican 
21 Great Blue Heron 
55 Great Egret 
65 Snowy Egret 
2 Little Blue Heron 
2 Tricolored Heron 
4 Roseate Spoonbill 
4 Black Vulture 
22 Turkey Vulture 
4 Osprey 
2 Northern Harrier 
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 
4 Bald Eagle 
2 Belted Kingfisher 
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
12 Red-bellied Woodpecker 
3 Downy Woodpecker 
3 Northern Flicker 
1 American Kestrel 
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee 
13 Eastern Phoebe 
1 Red-eyed Vireo 
18 Blue Jay 
2 American Crow 
18 Carolina Chickadee 
8 Tufted Titmouse 
210 Tree Swallow 
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 
6 Golden-crowned Kinglet 
1 White-breasted Nuthatch 
3 Brown-headed Nuthatch 
19 Carolina Wren  
3 European Starling 
18 Gray Catbird 
5 Northern Mockingbird 
4 Eastern Bluebird 
1 American Robin 
23 House Sparrow 
10 American Goldfinch 
4 Chipping Sparrow 
6 Savannah Sparrow 
3 Song Sparrow 
1 Swamp Sparrow 
2 Eastern Towhee 
20 Red-winged Blackbird 
25 Boat-tailed Grackle 
2 Black-and-white Warbler 
1 Palm Warbler 
10 Pine Warbler 
3 Northern Cardinal 

Roseate Spoonbill, Bombay Hook