Bombay Hook 8/18-8/20--Curlew Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Bobolink

Curlew Sandpiper (on the right) with Semipalmated Plovers & Semipalmated Sandpipers

 For the second time in less than a month, Shari & I were at Bombay Hook, this time for our annual NJ Audubon field trip led by Scott Barnes. The weather reports were promising, with only a slight chance of rain--but slight chances are why people gamble, and we lost the bet on the first and third days. 

We left NJ around 12:30 in the afternoon in a drizzle and by the time we got to Bombay Hook, around 3, for a quick turn around the impoundments (the trip started officially the next day) it was a steady rain and not the conditions for scoping the mud for rarities. So uncharacteristically optimistic was I that the weather would be warm and dry that I didn't pack a rain jacket or even a long-sleeve shirt. I had to buy an overpriced long-sleeve shirt with a sappy nature scene on the back from the gift shop there so I wouldn't freeze in the gusting winds. But everyone seemed to like the shirt and since my head doesn't revolve like an owl's, what I couldn't see didn't bother me. 

We were on our way back driving the two-way road at Shearness when we saw Scott and Linda in coming in the opposite direction. We stopped and talked for a while griped about the weather. Naturally, looking at their list on eBird later in the evening I saw that they'd listed about 50% more birds than we did, but it's not a competition--unless I'm winning. 

The next morning, thankfully, it was dry, as well as overcast and unseasonably cool. The group headed out for the impoundments, making our first long stop at Raymond Pool where the Semipalmated Sandpipers were feeding in droves. This time of year is a good time to look for Western Sandpipers if you have the patience to glean the slightly different field marks that distinguish them from Semipalmated. I don't. In fact, when I was at Brig on Sunday, I didn't even bother to carefully scan the flocks of semis there--why aggravate myself--and get bitten by greenhead flies--when in a couple of days Scott will pick out a few "obvious" Westerns and I can get them on the year list that way. It isn't like they're a particularly handsome bird--finding them is a game that I don't want to play. So, Scott picked out a few that day and I even found a couple on my own by accident while scoping some dowitchers.  When I looked at the some of the other eBird lists for that day I saw that one well-known birder had listed 80 Western Sandpipers and noted that it was probably a low count. That's just showing off, I think. 

Now, the bird I did want to see was a little farther up the road. Looking at the rare bird alerts before we came down, I saw that in the north end of Raymond a Curlew Sandpiper had been spotted. Curlew Sandpipers are a Eurasian species and quite rare in North America--I've seen a few but never in Delaware. This bird was attracting some of what Linda calls the "glitterati" of birding and they were all clustered at the north end where the bird was still being seen, ironically too close to the road and thus obscured by the high grass, making it difficult for the shorter birders in our group to see it. A falcon coming through scattered the thousand birds on that mud flat and we moved on, only to find out, when we had stopped at Shearness, that the bird had returned, so we did too ensuring that everyone in the group got to see this good-looking rarity. I was pleased and surprised by how fast I was able to find it and that Shari was able to see the bird without much fuss. I was even able to take a few pictures to prove I saw it. 

Roseate Spoonbill

The other rarity at Bombay Hook was a Roseate Spoonbill which I was more concerned that Shari see since it wasn't even a month bird for me. It had been out feeding while we were back at the Curlew Sandpiper spot, but by the time we returned to Shearness it had wandered back into the reeds. However, moving up the road a bit got us a different angle and the bird was in sight. "You can't miss it," someone in the group said, not knowing how easily I can miss it, especially when the directions include references to clumps of grass at the end of the peninsula when there are many clumps of grass on a few different peninsulas, but, again, like the Curlew Sandpiper, I did quickly find it. And so did Shari. 

Black Swan with Snowy Egret, Caspian Terns, and Canada Geese

The silliest sighting of the day was long-staying Black Swan that we originally saw when we were there in July. Lots of jokes about "Black Swan events" which just proves that the economist who coined that expression knew nothing about ornithology because if you're in Australia a Black Swan is expected. 

Black-necked Stilt

For the first day of the trip, we had 56 species. Today, when I was packing the car it was drizzling. Looking at my weather app it said it was cloudy. So, want do you want to believe--the app or your own lying eyes? All the way up to Bombay Hook it was cloudy in theory, raining in reality. And the trip started in a slight drizzle which got heavier as we progressed along Raymond. But we did add a few trips birds, like Bank Swallow and Pectoral Sandpiper and we did find the Curlew Sandpiper again, this time too far out for any really satisfying looks. By the time we got to Shearness it was a steady rain and we were contemplating bagging it but the weather app said that the rain would stop in 30 minutes--why I put any credence in that I don't know--maybe I was just glad that the app reflected reality for the first time today. So, we continued with the group up to Bear Swamp Pool and glad that we did since a small flock of Bobolinks was sighted and although a Jeep flushed them so that we at first only saw them silhouetted in flight, they soon returned, with two landing in a tree beneath a singing Blue Grosbeak--which didn't like them there and chased them away. And then, popping up in the tall grass were two Sandhill Cranes. And it had stopped raining.

That was pretty much it for the charismatic birds on the trip. In all, including about an hour along lovely Port Mahon Road, Shari & I had 76 species for the 2 1/2 days we were in Delaware. It rained all the way back on our drive north. 

Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Black Swan^#
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
Mallard
American Black Duck
Green-winged Teal
Wild Turkey
Mourning Dove
Clapper Rail
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone*
Curlew Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Sanderling*
White-rumped Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
American Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern*
Double-crested Cormorant
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Green Heron
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue Jay
Carolina Chickadee
Bank Swallow
Tree Swallow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
European Starling*
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow*
Eastern Towhee
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting

^#Not Countable
*Port Mahon Rd