Delaware 3/29-3/31--Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal (Eurasian), American Avocet, Short-billed Dowitcher, Glossy Ibis, Brown-headed Nuthatch

American Avocets, Bombay Hook

Shari & I spent a few days down in Delaware, ping-ponging between Bombay & Prime Hooks. It's an easy getaway for us and there are even a couple/three species that are hard to impossible to find in New Jersey. We got two of them this trip, plus a few other year birds. 

If before we got to Bombay Hook we were being entertained driving along the potatoe fields on Smyrna-Leipsig Road where hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls were following the tractors, like Cattle Egrets, presumably eating the insects that the ploughing kicked up--or worms, Shari suggested. We saw this action a few times down there and a couple of times we came up with a non-ring-billed gull in the mix--first a Bonaparte's Gull on the road to Bombay Hook (unusual down there and very unusual away from water) and then, a little farther south, a Laughing Gull was in the mix.

Lesser Scaup, Bombay Hook

Driving the impoundments at Bombay Hook, the most impressive sight was the duckage--ridiculous numbers of Northern Shovelers and Green-winged Teals. The more common waterfowl, like Canada Goose, Mallards, and black ducks, were at a premium. Maybe they were crowded out by the shovelers & teals There was one Lesser Scaup in the Shearness Pool that we saw a couple of times--surprisingly, a state bird for me. 

One of the specialties of Bombay Hook is American Avocet and we found a few at first in the Raymond Pool. Going on the "you only need one" premise, I was happy with the 50 or so we saw. Then, in the bay opposite Shearness, on mud flats, we had...hundreds! Some were still in their stark black & white plumage, but most were getting that russet on their necks and breast. I think I listed 350 on the first day and 500 a couple of days later, but those were just WAGs. The second largest number of shorebirds we saw were Dunlin, no shock there, but there were quite a few Wilson's Snipes in the reeds of both Shearness and Bear Swamp Pool. When I see a few Wilson's Snipes I'm happy--here there were dozens if you just scanned the reeds patiently, as Shari will do and I will not. Wilson's Snipe was also a state bird for me--number 200 in fact. We also found one Short-billed Dowitcher feeding like a sewing machine in Shearness. 

The next day we drove down to Prime Hook which was all right but nothing special. The water was high, so I didn't think it was worth looking into the Broadkill Marshes there and it was a little early to search the woods for warblers. But there are some spots on the way back to Dover that we like to look at. One of them, Big Stone Beach Road, is home to the northernmost population of Brown-headed Nuthatch in the country. Usually, Cape Henlopen State Park, a little south of Prime Hook, is where one goes to find them and they are not flagged as rare. Twenty or so miles to the north, in Milford where Big Stone Road is, they are. I remember the first time we went to look for them there, I was told that they frequent the loblolly pines. Not being really great on differentiating between conifers, I was worried I wouldn't be able to find those pines until I realized that all the pines in Delaware seem to be loblolly, just as all the pines around here are pitch. 

Still, it's a long road with a lot of pines and you're looking for a tiny bird, but I figured if we didn't go, we had no chance of finding them. We drove along the road, stopping every 10th of a mile, it seemed, listening for the birds, which sound like squeaky toys. We had just about run out of loblollies and were entering a marshy area when Shari heard them. We got out of the car and I recorded them on Merlin just to make sure and indeed they were. Then we found a couple picking at pine cones. They are adorable little birds and real treat to see. 

Glossy Ibis, Bombay Hook

The next day we went back to Bombay Hook. While we were parked at the visitor's center, a staffer came up to Shari and asked her if she'd bought a print down at Prime Hook the day before. She had, and I thought he might have been the artist. But no, he also worked down there and someone in the gift shop had told him that a lady in pink coat from New Jersey had dropped two $50 bills on the floor. As Shari was wearing her pink coat and standing next to our car with Jersey plates, he made the connection and told us that they were in an envelope down there.  I guess it pays to be distinctive. Shari called Prime Hook and told them we'd be down later. So our tour of Bombay Hook that morning was abbreviated but we did manage to see our first Glossy Ibises of the year and our first Blue-winged Teals. The blue-wings were scattered in with the dozens upon dozens of Green-winged Teal. I had seen that a Eurasian Green-winged Teal had been reported off and on but I had no interest in scanning hundreds of ducks for a horizontal bar as opposed to a vertical one in order to find what, here in Amurrica we consider a sub-species while over there in Yurrup they think it's a full species. However, another birder came over to us while were scanning for snipe at the overlook and told us the Eurasian Teal was in a pool in front of us and with little difficulty, we found it. It was too far away for any good pictures. It wasn't a life sub-species--I remember going to find one behind a trailer park on Staten Island, back when I was more adventurous. 

We drove back to Prime Hook, at lunch, go our money, spent some of there in the gift shop, then drove back to Bombay Hook where, if anything, it seemed like the numbers of shovelers, teal, avocets, and snipes were increasing. But we didn't add anything new. 

When we got home on Saturday, we found that our iron feeder pole had been snapped in half and our feeders scattered about or missing. At first, I thought "wind" but when I found a feeder in the woods, I knew that the bear had been back and snacking on our seeds. And indeed, it was reported yesterday a few blocks away from here, caught walking around by a doorbell camera. I'll have to take our feeders in for the foreseeable future--that is the ones we still have. 

For our 3 days down there, we had 77 species + the sub-species +a Mallard/American Black Duck hybrid. 

Species              First Sighting
Snow Goose   Whitehall Neck Road
Canada Goose   Bombay Hook
Mute Swan   Bombay Hook
Blue-winged Teal   Bombay Hook
Northern Shoveler   Bombay Hook
Gadwall   Bombay Hook
Mallard   Bombay Hook
American Black Duck   Bombay Hook
Green-winged Teal   Bombay Hook
Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) Bombay Hook
Lesser Scaup   Bombay Hook
Bufflehead   Bombay Hook
Ruddy Duck   Bombay Hook
Pied-billed Grebe   Bombay Hook
Mourning Dove   Prime Hook
American Coot   Bombay Hook
American Avocet   Bombay Hook
American Oystercatcher   DuPont Nature Center
Killdeer   Bombay Hook
Dunlin   Bombay Hook
Least Sandpiper   Bombay Hook
Short-billed Dowitcher   Bombay Hook
Wilson's Snipe   Bombay Hook
Greater Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook
Lesser Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook
Bonaparte's Gull   Whitehall Neck Road
Laughing Gull   Bay Rd
Ring-billed Gull   Smyrna Leipsic Rd,
Herring Gull   Bombay Hook
Great Black-backed Gull   DuPont Nature Center
Forster's Tern   Bombay Hook
Double-crested Cormorant   Bombay Hook
Great Blue Heron   Bombay Hook
Great Egret   Bombay Hook
Snowy Egret   Bombay Hook
Glossy Ibis   Bombay Hook
Black Vulture   Prime Hook
Turkey Vulture   Bombay Hook
Osprey   DuPont Nature Center
Northern Harrier   Bombay Hook
Cooper's Hawk   Big Stone Beach Rd.
Bald Eagle   Bombay Hook
Red-shouldered Hawk   Big Stone Beach Rd.
Red-tailed Hawk   Whitehall Neck Road
Belted Kingfisher   Prime Hook
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Prime Hook
Northern Flicker   Dover
American Kestrel   Dover---Rt 9
Eastern Phoebe   Prime Hook
Blue Jay   Prime Hook
American Crow   Prime Hook
Fish Crow   Bombay Hook
Carolina Chickadee   Bombay Hook
Tufted Titmouse   Dover
Tree Swallow   Prime Hook
White-breasted Nuthatch   Big Stone Beach Rd.
Brown-headed Nuthatch   Big Stone Beach Rd.
Carolina Wren   Bombay Hook
European Starling   Dover
Northern Mockingbird   Bombay Hook
Eastern Bluebird   Prime Hook
American Robin   Bombay Hook
House Sparrow   Bombay Hook
House Finch   Bombay Hook
American Goldfinch   Prime Hook
Chipping Sparrow   Prime Hook
Field Sparrow   Prime Hook
Dark-eyed Junco   Big Stone Beach Rd.
White-throated Sparrow   Dover
Song Sparrow   Bombay Hook
Swamp Sparrow   Prime Hook
Red-winged Blackbird   Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Cowbird   Prime Hook
Common Grackle   Bombay Hook
Boat-tailed Grackle   DuPont Nature Center
Pine Warbler   Prime Hook
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Prime Hook
Northern Cardinal   Dover