Tommorow's OLLI Field Trip to Mispillion

Wed, 5:45 am: The Field Trip is a GO. Fog looks to be the only weather issue. Dress warmly, as we will have a cool east wind.

Chance of rain looks limited, so I feel confident we have a GO. Check this blog just after 6 am in case NOAA is totally wrong with this evening's forecast for Mispillion Inlet:

Wednesday

A slight chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 75. East wind 10 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

We will meet at Prime Hook NWR Headquarters at 8am to car pool to Mispillion. If you wish to go directly to Mispillion on you own, please email me or Sally.

Do bring a rain repellent jacket, and be assured that at Mispillion we have some shelter outdoors, and and an indoor retreat with good Horseshoe Crab/Red Knot videos. Now per their web site, they do not open the Nature Center until 10 am, but they like me and Sally, so maybe earlier for our group. With all the recent heavy rains, mosquitoes are out in "swarms" so long pants and long sleeves are also recommended.

This is a highlight trip for us every year. Horseshoe Crabs date back to well before the age of dinosaurs, and Red Knots typically migrate over 9,000 miles a year from southern South America to the Arctic, stopping in the Delaware Bay to refuel on Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Links:
http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/crustaceans/horseshoe-crabs/facts/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_knot

Cape Henlopen about 1985

A summary of our last OLLI field trip on May 27, 2018

We had a great morning birding with so many special local birds cooperating and being viewed very well. Some immediate highlights that come to my mind are Grasshopper Sparrow and Eastern Meadowlark. I think most in the class got to see both birds through the scope. Both are declining due to habitat loss....grasslands....and Prime Hook NWR is doing a great job to maintain grassland habitat in the fields just before the Refuge Headquarters where we saw these two species.

Other highlights that pop into my mind were excellent views of Blue Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting. Both these birds favor edge habitat, which equals grasslands bordered by secondary growth and wooded areas.

In the shorebird category, we had our first views of Dunlin, now in breeding plumage with the reddish back and black bellies, along with Semi-palmated Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs. Our best location for these was a flooded field just off Fowler Beach Rd. Other waterbird highlights were about 50 Black Skimmers and about a dozen Least Terns along Prime Hook Road just before Prime Hook Beach.

Among the woodland bird highlights were excellent views of Prothonotary Warbler and Ovenbird. Both of these were seen very well along Deep Branch Rd. Many also had good views of Scarlet Tanager and Eastern Towhee.

I plan to publish a cumulative class list after our last class, which is May 30, meeting at Prime Hook NWR at 8 am and then car pooling to the DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion River. If you wish to go directly to Mispillion, just send me an email. Our target birds are shorebirds feeding on Horseshoe Crab eggs, and of course our main target bird is the Red Knot........Best, Bill

Weather is looking OK for tomorrow's OLLI class

Weather looks even a bit better, so we have a GO for this morning's OLLI class.

Here is the 4:54 am forecast:

Wednesday

Areas of fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 79. West wind around 9 mph becoming north in the afternoon.

From Tuesday, here is this afternoon's 3:54 pm NOAA forecast:
Wednesday

A chance of showers, mainly before 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 79. West wind around 9 mph becoming north in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. 

I will of course check before 6 am in case NOAA is "off-track"....as they were last week. I think we have a GO even with some rain after 8 am, as we can bird from the cars for a bit until any rain moves on.

Looking forward to birding with our OLLI class tomorrow......Bill and Sally 

PS - Reminder....We meet at Prime Hook NWR Headquarters at 8 am. Our focus tomorrow will be woodland migrants early, then shorebirds.....which are moving through in great numbers.

Today's Class is CANCELLED

Here is the latest NOAA Forecast:

Last update 16 May 4:54 am EDT 

Showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Patchy fog before 10am. High near 71. South wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. 

 

Birding in the rain and fog is at best difficult. There is also the possibility that some areas we were planning to visit could be flooded by the heavy rains last night. 

Here's hoping for good weather next week when we visit Prime Hook NWR.

No Melt Peanut Butter Suet and Woodbark Suet Sandwich

Hi All - The below link will take you to past posts about the 2 above topics, including details for making the suet. And in case you are worried about off-smells as you make it, our son came home when I was making some and said, "Hey Dad, whatever you are making it smells great"......I will say that after I told him what I was making, he decided it really was for the birds.

SUET

Best Birds from our OLLI class at Prime Hook on 5/2/2018....and tomorrow's plans

In summary we saw 44 species, and heard another 13, for a very respectable total of 57 species in 3 hrs. I am just going to list the highlight birds (which are all new birds for our class):

Osprey
Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated and Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Forester's Tern
Pileated Woodpecker
Great-crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - building a nest
Hermit Thrush - seen by all through scope on road to Fleetwood Pond
Wood Thrush heard very well - and our musicians recognized the flute-like quality of its song
Warblers heard - Northern Parula, Yellow, Yellow-throated, Prothonotory, and Ovenbird
Warblers seen - Yellow-rumped, Pine, Black-and-White, and Common Yellowthroat.
Scarlet Tanager was heard....and is high on our want-to-see list
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow

Weather for tomorrow's class looks excellent. Remember we meet at Bill and Sally's yard in Mill Pond Acres and will bird it plus we will analyze some of the special bird feeders, water features, and plantings. Then we will travel to the nearby Nature Conservancy McCabe Preserve. We will be back at Bill and Sally's by 10:45 am as several of us have an 11:30 commitment.

Best birds we observed at Cape Henlopen on 4/25/18

If you were on this field trip, you no doubt recall the cool, foggy and windy weather. My notes say a high of 55 degrees, and SE winds of 20+ mph. But we still saw some excellent birds:
Piping Plover
Black-bellied Plover
Willet
Sanderling
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Field Sparrow

Tomorrow's weather looks excellent and migrants are moving. We had 3 Baltimore Orioles in our yard on Sunday, and today had a Parula and a Yellow Warbler. As a reminder, tomorrow we meet at Prime Hook NWR headquarters just off Route 16, east of Route 1 at 8 am.
Best, Bill and Sally