Delaware 3/5-3/9--Sandhill Crane, American Avocet, Forster's Tern, Short-eared Owl, Tree Swallow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Towhee

Sandhill Cranes, Bombay Hook
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Shari & I spent a good part of the week in Delaware and despite some dreary weather, we did pretty well. We left late Tuesday morning in a persistent rain that continued all the way to Smyrna. But just as we turned onto to Whitehall Neck Road, about 2 1/2 miles from Bombay Hook, the rain stopped. About a mile up the road we saw a few Killdeer and then a couple of Horned Larks feeding the on the road and then we got our official greeting when about 5000 Snow Geese descended onto the sodden potato fields.  I know, because I kept seeing reports, that there was a Ross's Goose (I'll be glad to lose that eponym with the orthographically silly s's) in with them, but I wasn't about to spend hours sorting through the flock which pulsated like a gigantic living organism. 

Short-eared Owl, Bear Swamp Pool

Once inside the refuge proper we stopped to admire the new, very attractive, large Visitor's Center (hint, hint, Forsythe), and then started around the impoundments. Waterfowl, as you would expect in late winter, prevailed. No shorebirds, as the water levels were ridiculously high--areas that are usually marshy showed only the tips of the reeds and grasses breaking through the water. And the tide appeared high on the bayside too. We scored our first year bird with a Tree Swallow flying over Shearness Pool. We found what we would expect at Raymond Pool and Shearness--lots of eagles, ho hum, and then we started making our way around Bear Swamp Pool, hoping for the Glossy Ibis that had been seen there for what seemed like the last month as I read the rare bird reports for Kent County. The joke about Bear Swamp Pool as always been NO bear, NO swamp, and since it is usually just mud, NO pool, but like everything else in Delaware, this time the impoundment was flooded--Common Mergansers had no problem diving into its depths. Naturally, the last report of the ibis was on the 4th. Here on the 5th, nothing. But then Shari suddenly stopped the car, cussed, and told me to get out the scope. Just as I was pulling it out of the back seat, she cussed again, and I looked up to see a Short-eared Owl fly away from us onto a dead tree in the middle of the pool. Shari was disappointed that it wasn't as close as when she first spotted it, but with the scope we had very good looks, especially of its back, though it did rotate its head to give a couple of facial views. I took some digiscope photos, proving how perfectly camouflaged these owls can be. Not only was that a year bird for us, but it was our first Delaware Short-eared Owl. 

We spent a little under 3 hours there, leaving as it was started to get darker. We were amused to find one Wild Turkey crossing and recrossing the road to Finis Pool as if it couldn't make up its mind, and then just beyond the refuge gate, we had 7 more toms cross the road and run up a lane between the fields and the refuge. 35 species for the few hours we were there. 

Wednesday we weren't as lucky with the weather. The forecast was for rain in the afternoon, so our plan was to drive down to Mispillion and stand on the deck of the DuPont Nature Center, looking for shorebirds (read: oystercatchers), ducks, and what not. The forecast was optimistic. It started to rain a little about two miles from the center, and in earnest when we got there--a blowing, cold, nasty rain and DuPont has very little shelter--we stood under the eaves of the old lighthouse structure, but that doesn't help when the rain is horizontal. We did get Shari's oystercatchers, very briefly, a Black-bellied Plover, 7 eagles, ho-hum, gulls and let's get the hell out of here. The other part of our plan, which was to work our way north at some other spots, was obviously not going to work. We spent the rest of the day indoors. 

Thursday was better. Overcast, colder than I like, but better. At Bear Swamp Pool we took a little walk along the trail toward the back of the impoundment, thinking that maybe the ibis was there (why I wanted to see an ibis so badly escapes me since in a month or so they'll be all over the place) but of course, that bird was long gone. We did hear another year bird though--our first Eastern Towhee calling "chwink!" in the woods. As we were heading back to the parking lot for lunch, just emerging from the woods, Shari stopped and pointed right--"There they are!" "They" were two Sandhill Cranes feeding in a big field a quarter mile from the Visitor's Center. Sandhill Cranes are apparently not flagged as "rare" anymore in Kent County--just "infrequent." "Elusive" might be a better word, since no one else seems to have seen them that day. 

Friday was the best day weather-wise--sunny and seasonable. We drove down to Prime Hook. Prime Hook is harder to bird than Bombay Hook because it takes in so much more territory and requires a lot more driving. What we usually do, and did, is walk around the boardwalk area and the marsh trail, look at one of the ponds, and take a ride down to look at the Broadkill Marsh. But, because I noticed an interesting listing on eBird, we took a walk on a trail we'd never tried before--it was in an area with the rather convoluted designation Turkle Pond--pinewoods--Fleetwood Pond. We'd been to the ponds before, but never before walked the trail, which is less than a mile, and goes through a loblolly pine stand. Loblolly pines are the preferred (and for all I know, only) habitat of the Brown-headed Nuthatch. (It isn't hard to identify loblolly pines in Delaware--find a pine tree and it's a loblolly). To find Brown-headed Nuthatches, we have either gone to Cape Henlopen, we're you can track them down on a certain trail, or else on Big Stone Beach Road in Kent County (where the population there is flagged as rare) which was one of our abandoned stops on Wednesday. I had no idea they were present at Prime Hook. We walked along the trail for about quarter of a mile, and it was deadly quiet. Shari played the recording of the nuthatch, which really does sound as it is described, like a pet's squeak toy, but we got no response. On a spur off the main trail which leads to a wetland (where, because of the phragmites, we could see nothing) we heard, as we were heading back, the little squeak. Again. And again. And then persistently, one, then two. Shari played the recording again and called in a chickadee, but then, crawling down the pine tree head-first, just like a nuthatch should, we saw the brown-capped little bird. I have to say it was quite a thrill--there is something very satisfying about find a tiny bird in a big area. But it wasn't a Kent County bird--Shari was not sympathetic. 

We did go down Broadkill Road to look at the marsh, but again, the water was very high, and there were no shorebirds--there was no mud or high spots for them, except for one sandbar, where I saw some gulls and smaller white birds. One was flying, and with the scope I could see that they were Forster's Terns (FOY), so not a totally wasted trip. 

Raymond Pool
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Today, the weather again sucked. Overcast, and with a steady wind, making 45 degrees feel more like 35. Rain was supposed to start around noon. We went to Bombay Hook, intending to make a relatively quick trip around and then head back to New Jersey. Despite having seen some really good birds, I was still a little let down because we hadn't seen one of the Delaware specialties. That changed at Raymond Pool when Shari said that flock of birds that had just flown in looked like shorebirds, but they were too big. "Which means," I said, "they might be avocets." I didn't think I'd be scoping much in the wind, but to make sure of our identification, I pulled out the scope and got on the flock--180 American Avocets (give or take). The flock was very nervous, with good reason, as an eagle, ho-hum, was making its rounds over them. They would pick up and circle around the pool, then land, then do another touch and go. It didn't help for one of them as we saw the eagle flying off with an avocet in its talons. I love avocets in winter plumage--I think the high-contrast black-and-white coloration is much more appealing than the russet they have when they're breeding. As I was counting the avocets, Shari was whisper-yelling at me to come back to the car. "Hurry up, hurry up," (now there's a switch, her telling me to hurry up). What she wanted me to see was the two Sandhill Cranes, feeding right in front of us in Raymond Pool. Again, I don't think anyone else reported them today. 

The eagle taking the avocet was not the most dramatic eagle meal we saw this trip. Yesterday, before we finished for the day, we decided to take a drive down Port Mahon Road, which has to be the most dismal spot in Delaware, a rock-strewn unpaved road with derelict piers and utility poles in the middle of the road.  But a good place to look for shorebirds, gulls, ducks, and so forth. Except maybe not in the winter, since there was virtually nothing there except for the usual gulls and, ho-hum, 4 eagles. We didn't bother going to the end of the road, since the place is a flat tire waiting to happen, but on our way out, on smooth macadam, a car was stopped in the middle of the road "What's he looking at?" As he was blocking the road, he drove off, but we stopped to see a vulture and an eagle standing on the side of the road, the eagle eviscerating a red fox. The vulture was just waiting for the eagle to finish. Eagles can kill a fox, but they'll usually go after easier prey, so this might be roadkill. The eagle dragged the fox around, looking for the tasty bits, I suppose. And the vulture just stood by.

Forgive me, but the English major in me is about to come out: T.S. Eliot, Nobel Prize-winning poet, had a concept he called the "objective correlative," in which, as I remember, an image stood for an emotion. Watching the eagle disembowel the fox was the objective correlative for Port Mahon Road. 

For our 3 full days and 2 partial ones, we had 72 species. Not as many as I had hoped, but quality made up for quantity:

Species             First Sighting
Snow Goose    Whitehall Neck Rd.
Canada Goose    Bombay Hook
Mute Swan    Bombay Hook
Tundra Swan    Bombay Hook
Wood Duck    Bombay Hook
Northern Shoveler    Bombay Hook
Gadwall    Bombay Hook
Mallard    Bombay Hook
American Black Duck    Bombay Hook
Northern Pintail    Bombay Hook
Green-winged Teal    Bombay Hook
Bufflehead    Bombay Hook
Hooded Merganser    Bombay Hook
Common Merganser    Bombay Hook
Ruddy Duck    Bombay Hook
Wild Turkey    Bombay Hook
Pied-billed Grebe    Bombay Hook
Mourning Dove    Whitehall Neck Rd.
Sandhill Crane    Bombay Hook
American Avocet    Bombay Hook
American Oystercatcher    DuPont Nature Center
Black-bellied Plover    DuPont Nature Center
Killdeer    Whitehall Neck Rd.
Greater Yellowlegs    Bombay Hook
Dunlin    Bombay Hook
Bonaparte's Gull    DuPont Nature Center
Ring-billed Gull    DuPont Nature Center
Herring Gull    DuPont Nature Center
Great Black-backed Gull    DuPont Nature Center
Forster's Tern    Prime Hook 
Great Egret    Bombay Hook
Great Blue Heron    Bombay Hook
Black Vulture    Dover
Turkey Vulture    Bombay Hook
Northern Harrier    Bombay Hook
Cooper's Hawk    Prime Hook
Bald Eagle    Bombay Hook
Red-shouldered Hawk    Prime Hook
Red-tailed Hawk    Bombay Hook
Short-eared Owl    Bombay Hook
Belted Kingfisher    Bombay Hook
Red-bellied Woodpecker    Bombay Hook
Downy Woodpecker    Bombay Hook
Northern Flicker    Bombay Hook
American Kestrel    Milford
Blue Jay    Dover
American Crow    Prime Hook
Fish Crow    Dover
Carolina Chickadee    Bombay Hook
Tufted Titmouse    Bombay Hook
Horned Lark    Whitehall Neck Rd.
Tree Swallow    Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Nuthatch    Prime Hook 
Carolina Wren    Bombay Hook
European Starling    Dover
Gray Catbird    Bombay Hook
Northern Mockingbird    Bombay Hook
Eastern Bluebird    Bombay Hook
Hermit Thrush    Prime Hook
American Robin    Bombay Hook
House Sparrow    Bombay Hook
House Finch    Bombay Hook
American Goldfinch    Bombay Hook
Fox Sparrow    Prime Hook 
White-throated Sparrow    Bombay Hook
Song Sparrow    Bombay Hook
Eastern Towhee    Bombay Hook
Red-winged Blackbird    Bombay Hook
Common Grackle    Bombay Hook
Boat-tailed Grackle    DuPont Nature Center
Yellow-rumped Warbler    Bombay Hook
Northern Cardinal    Bombay Hook 

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

Delaware 8/22-8/25--American Golden-Plover, Black Tern

Black Tern

Come for the avocets, stay for the rarities.

Shari & I & our buddy Bob Auster spent 4 days in Delaware this week, mostly at Bombay Hook, bracketed around an NJ Audubon trip led by Scott Barnes. The trip didn't get off to an auspicious start. We got into Delaware a little after noon on the 22nd and headed straight for the pond on Amalfi Road in Clayton, in order to get the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks "out of the way." However, in a phrase that was to be repeated many times over the next four days, the pond was "dry as a bone," and thus, no ducks. 

On to Bombay Hook, a short distance away. A Sedge Wren had been reported across from the pay station "where it always is" so we stopped to listen. "Always" apparently has a stale date because we never heard, never mind saw, the bird in the four days we were there. The construction of a new visitor's center/HQ across the road didn't add to our listening enjoyment. 

Next stop, Raymond Pool. Never have I seen so much mud with nothing on it. Not a sandpiper, an egret, a gull, or a tern. Empty. Fortunately, things picked up at Shearness Pool around the bend where we started lots of egrets, along with what, a few years ago, would have been an astonishing number of juvenile White Ibis. Here's a bird that used to a rarity and is now being seen in great numbers much farther north than its usual breeding area. That's good news right? Nope. They're coming north due to climate change.

Also in Shearness we had two of the shorebirds that make Bombay Hook an attraction--a couple of Black-necked Stilts and hundreds of American Avocets. The stilts turned out to be a problem on the trip. While the group saw perhaps 70 species each day, we never came across any stilts, which for some of the people in the group would have been a life bird. Then today, as we made our last pass around the refuge, Bob found a single stilt, again in Shearness. A much closer look, too, than what we'd had on Monday. What frustration!

Green Heron, Shearness sluice gate

Tuesday morning, we met up with the group. Happily, Raymond Pool, at high tide in the surrounding marshes, was full of birds, as was Shearness where I got my first year bird of the trip, a Black Tern. Not a rarity down there, but a darn hard bird for me to see in New Jersey. Not a rarity, yet not exactly seen in flocks either. One on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, three today. 

After spending perhaps a little more time than I like squinting into a scope (I'm of the Mississippi Fred McDowell school of birding--You Got Ta Move), we drove on to Bear Swamp Pool. Here's the joke about Bear Swamp Pool: No Bear, No Swamp, No Pool. Dry as a bone. 

Which makes good habitat for the so-called "grasspipers." Everybody started scanning the flocks of little shorebirds in front of us but I focused on the empty quarter farther away. After a while, all the little peeps look the same to me (because, they are, for the most part, the same), so I look for single anomalies away from the flock. And even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, because back at the edge of the "pond" I saw a medium-sized shorebird with dove-like head and buffy coloring. "Uh, Scott." Luckily, Scott was somehow able to look in the vicinity of where my scope was pointed and confirmed that it was indeed, a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Not a year bird (had one at Whitesbog in July), but a rarity and a good one for the group. I didn't have much time to bask in my glory, because a few moments later Scott called out "Golden-Plover!" An American Golden-Plover was seen in flight and then landed far back in the pond (naturally) among a slew of gulls & egrets. A number of birders were able to get their scopes on it after an assiduous search and I believe everyone in the group got a half-way decent look at this bird which, surprisingly, is not considered rare this time of year in Delaware. New for the year for me though. 

After lunch, we headed down to Port Mahon Rd, a rough road (though not as rough as I remembered it in the past) along the bayshore where we were treated to a Royal Tern show, along with a number of Caspian Terns.

Bonaparte's Gull

The next day was more scoping in Raymond Pool where Scott, somehow, picked out a Dunlin, a few Western Sandpipers, and a Wilson's Phalarope from the thousand or so Semipalmated Sandpipers picking at the mud. On our return trip, Scott stopped the caravan at the sluice gate of Shearness Pool. There, in the channel with a flock of Laughing Gulls in every molt, was a Bonaparte's Gull in basic plumage. Rare this time of year and an easier bird (for me, at least) to identify when it isn't in it's winter garb.

Clapper Rail juvenile

When the trip was over, mid-afternoon, Shari, Bob & I drove down to Mispillion to check out the bay and the jetty at the du Pont Nature Center. It was a little bit disappointing; not many shorebirds on the beach, no oystercatchers, and only a smattering of terns on the pilings. But, a family of Clapper Rails close in kept us entertained as the mama and a couple of juveniles ran in and out of the reeds and fed on the shell-covered sand bar. 

Today we were not ambitious, so we didn't go, as we sometimes do, all the way down to Prime Hook. Instead, we made one more fast (3 hours, 18 minutes) run around Bombay Hook. Aside from the Black-neck Stilt, probably the most interesting bird we added to our trip list was a Sora whinnying from the reeds at Shearness. 

For the trip I listed 88 species. I think Bob may have seen a couple of high/fast flying birds that I missed. 

Species        First Sighting
Canada Goose  Bombay Hook
Mute Swan  Bombay Hook
Wood Duck  Bombay Hook
Mallard  Bombay Hook
Mourning Dove  Bombay Hook
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  Bombay Hook
Clapper Rail  Bombay Hook
Virginia Rail  Bombay Hook
Sora  Bombay Hook
Black-necked Stilt  Bombay Hook
American Avocet  Bombay Hook
Black-bellied Plover  Bombay Hook
American Golden-Plover  Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Plover  Bombay Hook
Killdeer  Bombay Hook
Ruddy Turnstone  Port Mahon Rd.
Sanderling  Port Mahon Rd.
Dunlin  Bombay Hook
Least Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
White-rumped Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Pectoral Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Western Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Short-billed Dowitcher  Bombay Hook
Wilson's Phalarope  Bombay Hook
Spotted Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Solitary Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Greater Yellowlegs  Bombay Hook
Willet  Bombay Hook
Lesser Yellowlegs  Bombay Hook
Bonaparte's Gull  Bombay Hook
Laughing Gull  Bombay Hook
Ring-billed Gull  Wawa New Castle
Herring Gull  Bombay Hook
Great Black-backed Gull  Bombay Hook
Caspian Tern  Bombay Hook
Black Tern  Bombay Hook
Common Tern  DuPont Nature Center
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
Tricolored Heron  Bombay Hook
Green Heron  Bombay Hook
Black-crowned Night-Heron  Bombay Hook
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  Bombay Hook
White Ibis  Bombay Hook
Glossy Ibis  Bombay Hook
Black Vulture  Port Mahon Rd.
Turkey Vulture  Bombay Hook
Osprey  Bombay Hook
Cooper's Hawk  Bombay Hook
Bald Eagle  Bombay Hook
Red-shouldered Hawk  Bombay Hook
Red-tailed Hawk  Bombay Hook
Belted Kingfisher  Bombay Hook
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Bombay Hook
Downy Woodpecker  Bombay Hook
Peregrine Falcon  Bombay Hook
Eastern Wood-Pewee  Bombay Hook
Acadian Flycatcher  Bombay Hook
Eastern Phoebe  Bombay Hook
Eastern Kingbird  Bombay Hook
White-eyed Vireo  Bombay Hook
Red-eyed Vireo  Bombay Hook
Blue Jay  Bombay Hook
Fish Crow  Dover
Carolina Chickadee  Dover
Tufted Titmouse  Bombay Hook
Tree Swallow  Bombay Hook
Barn Swallow  Bombay Hook
Marsh Wren  Bombay Hook
Carolina Wren  Bombay Hook
European Starling  Bombay Hook
Gray Catbird  Bombay Hook
Eastern Bluebird  Bombay Hook
House Sparrow  Bombay Hook
American Goldfinch  Bombay Hook
Eastern Towhee  Bombay Hook
Bobolink  Bombay Hook
Red-winged Blackbird  Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Cowbird  Bombay Hook
American Redstart  Bombay Hook
Northern Cardinal  Bombay Hook

Great Egrets (mostly)

Delaware Specialties 5/19-5/21--Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Grasshopper Sparrow

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Clayton, DE

Shari & I celebrated our anniversary in Delaware this weekend, because

Dover is for Lovers

 (I just made that up, but if the Dover Tourism Bureau would like to get in touch with me...)

American Avocets

Naturally, before we even dropped off our bags, we did a spin around Bombay Hook. There are two shorebird species that are rare visitors to New Jersey yet are commonplace at BH. The first, American Avocet, we found a dozen of in the Raymond Pool, the first impoundment you come to. They were about the only shorebirds in the pool, in which the water was very high--good for the dozen swans in there, not so good for migrating shorebirds. The second shorebird, Black-necked Stilt, can be a little more elusive, even there, but we found a smattering of them around Shearness Pool, the biggest impoundment and usually the spot with most of the action. The excitement there, the last week or so, has been a pair of Sandhill Cranes. The Shearness Pool is not a place you'd expect to find cranes--they seem to gravitate more to fields full of corn stubble, although their close cousins, the Whooping Cranes, make their living in marshes. Knowing they were there we spent some time scanning the northern shore of the pool, quite a distance away. Eventually, Shari located them, loping along the edge of the marsh. They were really far away, but they are really big birds, so identification was not a problem. 

Black-necked Stilt

After a few hours there it was getting toward 5 o'clock, but I wanted to make one more stop before we headed for the place we were staying. Last year, at an obscure retention pond on the edge of subdivision in Clayton, about 10 miles west of Bombaby Hook, a flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks made themselves at home for a good part of the summer. We saw them in September of last year when we were down there. This year, they returned, a flock of 20 strong. I can't resist these goofy looking birds, so we drove 20 minutes to spend 4 minutes looking at them, then drove down to Dover. 

Thursday, we drove south. Last year in September we discovered Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, right next to the ferry and liked it, so we started there. The real attraction at that park is Brown-headed Nuthatch. Delaware is just about the northernmost end of its range. Occasionally, some are reported in Kent County (the middle one of Delaware's 3), but they're rare there, while in Sussex, the southern county, they're listed as expected. When we first went to look for them in Kent a few years ago, someone told me the road to go on and then to look in the loblolly pines. Man, I thought, I'm no arborist, what's a loblolly pine look like? I didn't realize that in Delaware, all the pine trees are loblolly pines. We found the nuthatches that day. The problem with the nuthatch is that it likes to be very high up in the trees and loblolly pines, unlike the more stunted pitch pines we have around us, are very tall trees. You more often hear them than see them. That was the case at Henlopen. We walked on the same trail as we had last year, but it took us a little longer to hear the distinct squeaky toy call than it did previously. At first, Shari heard them (of course), and then I was able to hear them, but although it sounded like they were right in front of us, we couldn't get eyes on them. 

We worked our way back to Dover, stopping at a couple of favorite spots--Broadkill Marsh, which is part of Prime Hook, and the DuPont Nature Center in Mispillion. Scoping the jetty from the deck of the nature center we saw an overwhelming number of shorebirds feeding along the narrow shore, where dozens of horseshoe crabs were washed up on the sand. There were easily 10,000 Dunlins, and Ruddy Turnstones, Short-billed Dowitchers, and Black-bellied Plovers in the hundreds. It was like a pulsating carpet of birds. Out of all of them I was able to pick out one Red Knot, which impressed me, since I'm not one for standing around scoping, looking for what does not belong.  

Today, we returned to Bombay Hook, looking for whatever we hadn't send or heard before. We started out on the Boardwalk Trail and almost immediately got Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and then out on the marsh, we heard a Seaside Sparrow. Marsh Wrens were singing their bubbly song everywhere. The Raymond Pool's levels hadn't changed--still full of swans, and the dozen avocets of Thursday continued.  On our way toward the exit, Shari heard a Grasshopper Sparrow. They're pretty hard to hear, at least for me, but I got out of the car, cocked my head, and heard the thin, insect call. Sadly, these birds have disappeared from my local spot. I used to be able to go to Colliers Mills, walk along Success Road, and see hear a few sparrows. No longer. Probably too many dogs being trained to hunt in those fields. The best part, though, was coming back after our second loop, we stopped to listen and couldn't hear any GRSPs but, just as Shari restarted the car, one flew out of the field to our left, zipped in front our windshield, and helicoptered down into the middle of the field across the road.  

Green Heron

At the turnoff from Raymond to Shearness, there's a little muddy area. This morning we saw a photographer intently looking down into the space, but we didn't think much of it, since what interests a photographer is necessarily interesting to us. But coming back toward the visitor's center, we saw more people staring in, so we pulled over. It just looked like mud and grass until I saw the Green Heron skulking around. Not a rarity or a year bird (well, it was for Shari), but a great looking bird and a family fave. 

Our 3 days' list total is 88. Amazingly, it does not include Song Sparrow. How that got missed is a total mystery. Sometimes you are unaware of a gap in the list until after it is compiled, but on the 2nd day I'd mentioned to Shari we hadn't heard or seen any, so I was on the lookout and still came up empty.

Species                                           First Sighting
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  Amalfi Dr. Retention Pond
Canada Goose  Bombay Hook
Mute Swan  Bombay Hook
Mallard  Bombay Hook
Mourning Dove  Cape Henlopen State Park
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  Bombay Hook
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  Cape Henlopen State Park
Clapper Rail  Bombay Hook
Sandhill Crane  Bombay Hook
Black-necked Stilt  Bombay Hook
American Avocet  Bombay Hook
American Oystercatcher  Broadkill Marsh
Black-bellied Plover  Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Plover  Bombay Hook
Killdeer  Bombay Hook
Ruddy Turnstone  DuPont Nature Center
Red Knot  DuPont Nature Center
Dunlin  Bombay Hook
Least Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Sandpiper  Bombay Hook
Short-billed Dowitcher  Bombay Hook
Greater Yellowlegs  Bombay Hook
Willet  Bombay Hook
Lesser Yellowlegs  Bombay Hook
Laughing Gull  Bombay Hook
Herring Gull  Broadkill Marsh
Great Black-backed Gull  DuPont Nature Center
Caspian Tern  Bombay Hook
Forster's Tern  Bombay Hook
Royal Tern  DuPont Nature Center
Double-crested Cormorant  Bombay Hook
Great Blue Heron  Bombay Hook
Great Egret  Bombay Hook
Snowy Egret  Bombay Hook
Green Heron  Broadkill Marsh
Glossy Ibis  Broadkill Marsh
Turkey Vulture  Bombay Hook
Osprey  Cape Henlopen State Park
Bald Eagle  Bombay Hook
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Dover
Downy Woodpecker  Bombay Hook
Northern Flicker  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  Cape Henlopen State Park
Fish Crow  Bombay Hook
Carolina Chickadee  Cape Henlopen State Park
Tufted Titmouse  Cape Henlopen State Park
Purple Martin  Bombay Hook
Tree Swallow  Bombay Hook
Barn Swallow  Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Nuthatch  Cape Henlopen State Park
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  Bombay Hook
House Wren  Bombay Hook
Marsh Wren  Bombay Hook
Carolina Wren  Bombay Hook
European Starling  Dover
Gray Catbird  Bombay Hook
Brown Thrasher  Bombay Hook
Northern Mockingbird  Lewes
Eastern Bluebird  Bombay Hook
Wood Thrush  Bombay Hook
American Robin  Bombay Hook
Cedar Waxwing  Dover
House Sparrow  Bombay Hook
House Finch  Dover
American Goldfinch  Bombay Hook
Grasshopper Sparrow  Bombay Hook
Chipping Sparrow  Cape Henlopen State Park
Field Sparrow  Bombay Hook
Seaside Sparrow  Bombay Hook
Eastern Towhee  Bombay Hook
Eastern Meadowlark  Whitehall Crossroads
Red-winged Blackbird  Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Cowbird  Cape Henlopen State Park
Common Grackle  Bombay Hook
Ovenbird  Bombay Hook
Common Yellowthroat  Bombay Hook
Yellow Warbler  Bombay Hook
Blackpoll Warbler  Bombay Hook
Pine Warbler  Cape Henlopen State Park
Scarlet Tanager  Bombay Hook
Northern Cardinal  Bombay Hook
Blue Grosbeak  Bombay Hook
Indigo Bunting  Bombay Hook

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

Bombay Hook 5/19 & 5/21--Northern Bobwhite, Black-necked Stilt, Swainson's Thrush, Grasshopper Sparrow

Black-necked Stilt

There aren't too many birds in Delaware that we can't find in NJ, but there are a couple of specialties of the state that make a trip down there worth the while for a little 14th anniversary getaway. We started our first trip around Bombay Hook on midday Wednesday. The impoundments there seem better "controlled" for shorebirds than Brig and there were thousands of them--Dunlins, dowitchers, Least Sandpipers, semipalm and semisand, Black-bellied Plovers, the occasional tringa species. My strategy was to look for anything bigger than a Black-belly Plover and it wasn't until the far end of the Shearness Pool on our way return trip that I found one of those specialties, a single Black-necked Stilt. It just stood out with its bubblegum pink legs, towering over the peeps pecking at the mud.  Interestingly, there were no avocets this trip, while in March we had hundreds. Where do they go? It isn't like they fly north to mate, otherwise we'd be inundated with them in NJ instead of getting excited about the 3 that show up at Brig. 

The next day Shari & I did a little exploring, going down to the southwest part of the state to tour the Delaware Botanic Gardens which are all native plantings. It was interesting, but not a place to see many birds on a hot morning. Our trip to Prime Hook yielded little, though Eastern Meadowlark in the entrance fields was a surprise and a state bird for us. Some rarities had been reported along Big Stone Beach Road which we had birded a few years ago with great success. This year, not so much--no Brown-headed Nuthatch, no Sedge Wren. A pair of Indigo Buntings that looked to be nesting was the most interesting sighting. Then we doubled back to one of our favorite spots, The DuPont Nature Center which did not disappoint with thousands of shorebirds on the beach along the jetty, including two more Black-necked Stilts, along with hundreds of Ruddy Turnstones and a dozen or so Red Knots. 

Friday, our last day, we started at Bombay Hook around 8 in the morning and it was by far the most productive of our days. Along with 3 more very entertaining Black-necked Stilts, we added 3 more year birds, two of them thanks to Shari's sharp hearing. As we started on the drive Shari asked me what sparrow made a little insect sound. Of course, I hadn't heard it. I suggested, knowing the habitat and knowing that I'd seen them there in the past, Grasshopper Sparrow. I played her the song and she said, "That's what I heard." And so did the bird because it flew right to the edge of the field and gave us brief but diagnostic looks. Later, along the Bear Swamp Pool trail we saw a thrush that wasn't one of the Wood Thrushes we'd been hearing in various spots. It stayed behind leaves but we got decent enough looks to confirm Swainson's Thrush, a thrush that for some reason eludes me pretty regularly around here. 

As we started to go around a second time after lunch, by the Grasshopper Sparrow field Shari called out "Bobwhite." She'd heard it, I hadn't. Of course. We waited but no second call came. We drove around Raymond, Shearness, Bear Swamp Pool again, skipping the tangent of Finis Pool. On our way back, just before we made the turn to take us to the HQ parking lot, we both heard BOBWHITE as if it were in the car with us. Shari was relieved that not only was she not having auditory hallucinations but that I'm not completely deaf yet. 

For our 3 days in Delaware we had 84 species plus two very good Indian meals (Flavor of India on Dupont Blvd next to the Super 8 Motel).

Species              First Sighting
Canada Goose   Bombay Hook
Mute Swan   Bombay Hook
Mallard   Bombay Hook
American Black Duck   Bombay Hook
Green-winged Teal   Bombay Hook
Northern Bobwhite   Bombay Hook
Wild Turkey   Bombay Hook
Rock Pigeon   Big Stone Beach Rd.
Mourning Dove   Bombay Hook
Clapper Rail   Bombay Hook
Virginia Rail   Bombay Hook
Black-necked Stilt   Bombay Hook
Black-bellied Plover   Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Plover   Bombay Hook
Killdeer   Bombay Hook
Ruddy Turnstone   DuPont Nature Center
Red Knot   DuPont Nature Center
Stilt Sandpiper   Bombay Hook
Dunlin   Bombay Hook
Least Sandpiper   Bombay Hook
Semipalmated Sandpiper   Bombay Hook
Short-billed Dowitcher   Bombay Hook
Greater Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook
Willet   Bombay Hook
Lesser Yellowlegs   DuPont Nature Center
Laughing Gull   Delaware Botanic Gardens
Ring-billed Gull   Bombay Hook
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
Little Blue Heron   Bombay Hook
Glossy Ibis   Prime Hook
Turkey Vulture   Bombay Hook
Osprey   Delaware Botanic Gardens
Bald Eagle   Bombay Hook
Red-tailed Hawk   Hilton Garden Inn
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Bombay Hook
Eastern Wood-Pewee   Bombay Hook
Great Crested Flycatcher   Bombay Hook
Eastern Kingbird   Bombay Hook
White-eyed Vireo   Bombay Hook
Yellow-throated Vireo   Bombay Hook
Red-eyed Vireo   Bombay Hook
Blue Jay   Bombay Hook
American Crow   Delaware Botanic Gardens
Fish Crow   Hilton Garden Inn
Carolina Chickadee   Delaware Botanic Gardens
Tufted Titmouse   Bombay Hook
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Bombay Hook
Purple Martin   Bombay Hook
Tree Swallow   Bombay Hook
Barn Swallow   Bombay Hook
Marsh Wren   Bombay Hook
Carolina Wren   Bombay Hook
European Starling   Delaware Botanic Gardens
Gray Catbird   Bombay Hook
Brown Thrasher   Bombay Hook
Northern Mockingbird   Hilton Garden Inn
Swainson's Thrush   Bombay Hook
Wood Thrush   Bombay Hook
American Robin   Bombay Hook
House Sparrow   Bombay Hook
House Finch   Bombay Hook
American Goldfinch   Bombay Hook
Grasshopper Sparrow   Bombay Hook
Chipping Sparrow   Bombay Hook
Field Sparrow   Bombay Hook
Seaside Sparrow   Bombay Hook
Eastern Towhee   Bombay Hook
Eastern Meadowlark   Prime Hook
Red-winged Blackbird   Bombay Hook
Brown-headed Cowbird   Prime Hook
Common Grackle   Bombay Hook
Boat-tailed Grackle   DuPont Nature Center
Ovenbird   Bombay Hook
Common Yellowthroat   Bombay Hook
Yellow Warbler   Bombay Hook
Blackpoll Warbler   Bombay Hook
Northern Cardinal   Bombay Hook
Indigo Bunting   Bombay Hook