Delaware 8/17-8/19: Least Bittern, American Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-eyed Vireo, Bank Swallow

A long birding weekend in Delaware--2 days with a NJ Audubon sponsored trip and one day on our own in Sussex County--yielded 6 FOY with an excitability range from "Oh, that's good," to "Holy mackerel, look at that!"

The trip centered around  Bombay Hook, which has nothing to do with Bombay and is not a hook; rather it is an Englishing of the Dutch "Boompjes Hoeck," meaning "little-tree point." Before we met the group, Shari & I drove down Raymond Neck Road to the back of Finis Pond, looking for whatever passerines we might find, since most of the day we'd be concentrating on shorebirding. Leaders of the trip Scott Barnes, Linda Mack and Carol Hughes had the same idea so for a few minutes we all walked down the path and I heard, because Carol pointed it out, a Red-eyed Vireo. Not much else turned up, save for 2 Green Herons flying out of the pond and over the road. 

The holy mackerel bird of the weekend was Least Bittern. On Friday one flew over the road from behind us and dived into the reeds of Shearness Pond. I saw it for approximately .5 seconds. I haven't seen one of those birds in years, the only time being once from a bridge over Lemon Creek on Staten Island when one posed on a piling. I didn't like settling for just a glimpse of the bittern and next day the bird became "official" in my mind when a LEBI rose from the reeds of Shearness and flew out over the marsh, giving all of us great good looks as Scott excitedly called out its flight. 

Other FOY shorebirds Scott got us on were Pectoral Sandpiper (always a hard one for me), a sleeping Hudsonian Godwit, and 3 American Golden-Plovers that flew in on and settled down with their cousins, Black-belled Plovers. 

The final FOY was Bank Swallow, a bird I was happy to add and usually would have by this time of the year, since they are reliable at Great Kills Park on Staten Island in the summer. But we don't go to SI much anymore. 

Other hot spots we checked out were the potato fields on the way in to Bombay Hook where we found Horned Lark, as we usually do and Port Mahon a little farther south where every piling that didn't have a Great Black-backed Gull on it, had a Royal Tern, each one displaying its bad winter haircut. 

Sunday, on Linda's recommendation, we stopped, on our way to Prime Hook, at the DuPont Nature Center on the Mispillion River, site of an historic lighthouse. There we were able to add Shari's favorite, American Oystercatcher, to the weekend list. 

Fowler Beach was loaded with birds, particularly Black Skimmers, and the Prime Hook trails around the Visitor's Center had plenty egrets along with a couple of Green Herons. In all I had 88 birds for the weekend and I think Shari may have had a couple more since she saw a bluebird at Prime Hook and a gnatcatcher at Bombay Hook--both times I think I had my nose in a bird list. 

Here's what I saw:

Species             Count      First Sighting

Canada Goose      20      Bombay Hook NWR

Wood Duck      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Gadwall      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Mallard      20      Bombay Hook NWR

Blue-winged Teal      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Shoveler      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Pied-billed Grebe      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Double-crested Cormorant      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Least Bittern      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Great Blue Heron      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Great Egret      25      Bombay Hook NWR

Snowy Egret      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Tricolored Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Green Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black-crowned Night-Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Glossy Ibis      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black Vulture      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Turkey Vulture      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Osprey      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Cooper's Hawk      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Bald Eagle      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Clapper Rail      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Black-bellied Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR

American Golden-Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Semipalmated Plover      1000      Bombay Hook NWR

American Oystercatcher      2      DuPont Nature Center (Mispillion)

Black-necked Stilt      4      Bombay Hook NWR

American Avocet      400      Bombay Hook NWR

Spotted Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Greater Yellowlegs      50      Bombay Hook NWR

Lesser Yellowlegs      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Hudsonian Godwit      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Ruddy Turnstone      5      Port Mahon

Sanderling      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Semipalmated Sandpiper      1000      Bombay Hook NWR

Western Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Least Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

White-rumped Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Pectoral Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Stilt Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Short-billed Dowitcher      100      Bombay Hook NWR

Long-billed Dowitcher      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Bonaparte's Gull      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Laughing Gull      25      Bombay Hook NWR

Ring-billed Gull      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Herring Gull      2      Port Mahon

Great Black-backed Gull      180      Port Mahon

Gull-billed Tern      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Caspian Tern      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Common Tern      20      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Forster's Tern      50      Bombay Hook NWR

Royal Tern      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black Skimmer      50      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Mourning Dove      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Barred Owl      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Chimney Swift      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Ruby-throated Hummingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Belted Kingfisher      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Peregrine Falcon      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Eastern Wood-Pewee      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Eastern Kingbird      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Red-eyed Vireo      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Blue Jay      1      Bombay Hook NWR

American Crow      1      Prime Hook NWR

Fish Crow      3      Dover

Horned Lark      10      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Purple Martin      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Tree Swallow      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Bank Swallow      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Barn Swallow      2      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Carolina Chickadee      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Carolina Wren      2      Prime Hook NWR

Gray Catbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Mockingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Brown Thrasher      1      Prime Hook NWR

European Starling      5      Dover

Chipping Sparrow      1      Prime Hook NWR

Field Sparrow      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Cardinal      1      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Blue Grosbeak      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Red-winged Blackbird      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Common Grackle      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Brown-headed Cowbird      9      Bombay Hook NWR

Baltimore Oriole      1      Prime Hook NWR

House Finch      2      Bombay Hook NWR

American Goldfinch      1      Bombay Hook NWR

House Sparrow      4      Dover