Road Scholar Bird Checklist, Sep 27-30, 2016

The checklist can be accessed by clicking HERE. Note that there is a Magnifier button to enlarge the text located in the lower right hand corner. This check list also includes birds seen Friday with the group of 11 at Gordon's Pond.

Field trip locations and highlights are below:

Tuesday, 9/27 - Cape Henlopen State Park in the morning, a cruise south for about 3 miles on the Lewes Rehoboth Canal on the Cape Water Taxi in the afternoon. Weather cloudy with occasional drizzle. Highlights were both Yellow and Black-crowned Night Herons, and on the cruise, 10 Belted Kingfishers and many raptors, including 2 Adult Bald Eagles, a Merlin and a Kestrel.

Wednesday, 9/28 - Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge until after lunch, then Mispillion Inlet and Prime Hook Road in the afternoon. Windy, with one period of heavy rain. Highlights were 18 species of shorebirds including 3 Marbled Godwits and 1 American Golden Plover. Also several Bald Eagles and at least 2 Peregrines were seen.

Thursday, 9/29 - Indian River Inlet, Ocean off Rehoboth Beach, and the Ferry Terminal. Gale force winds all day with light to moderate rain in the morning, and heavy afternoon rain in the afternoon. We stayed indoors for programs during the afternoon. The only bird of note was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull seen very well mixed in with a flock of Great Black-backed gulls for comparison.

Friday, 9/30 - Gordon's Pond Trail by foot. Windy but only a light drizzle in the first hour. New birds on Friday included Sanderling, Northern Bobwhite, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Indigo Bunting.

Road Scholar - Birding Delaware's Seashore and Refuges Spring 2014

Spring has been hiding, as have the birds, but we still managed to record 92 species of birds in the past two days of cold temps, strong east winds, and lots of rain. About 10 species were only heard, the rest were also seen, and most seen well.

Our first day was at Trap Pond State Park, and included a Pontoon boat trip. Our second day was at Bombay Hook NWR, and included a tactical success having lunch on the bus because of heavy rain.

Highlight birds the past 2 days have been good looks at: Prothonotary Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Louisiana Water-thrush, Least Bittern, Black-crowned Night-Heron, several Bald Eagles, Black-necked Stilts, Blue-winged Teal........ and hearing the songs of Blue-winged Warbler, Marsh Wren, and Yellow-throated Vireo.

Again, thanks to Ed Crawford and John Hoyt for helping in Sally's absence due to her wrist injury.

Drying off and warming up,
Bill

 PS - RE: Name of Prothonotary Warbler, from Wikipedia:

• The name "Prothonotary" refers to clerks in the Roman Catholic church, whose robes were bright yellow.

Road Scholar FT to Mispillion and Bombay Hook 5/1/13

Dunlin and Black-necked Stilt, Bill Fintel photo

To begin the day we made a short stop at the Fintel’s backyard to hear about unique feeders and water features. There we also had good views of a calling Great Crested Flycatcher.

We then went to Evans Road at Slaughter Beach where we saw some reasonably close American Avocets. After that we stopped along the marsh just before the DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion, where we had amazingly good views of at least 5 Clapper Rails and a singing Seaside Sparrow.

Once at the Nature Center we saw many shorebirds, and after much searching found a single Red Knot which everyone viewed through a scope (there may have been 2 individuals). Other good birds observed there were a pair of American Oystercatchers and 3 Bald Eagles.

On the entrance road to Bombay Hook we had Horned Larks and an American Pipit in breeding (alternate) plumage. On the loop road around the impoundments we observed large numbers of shorebirds including Dunlin (above), Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plover, Least Sandpiper, Willet, Short-billed Dowitcher and great looks at Black-necked Stilts (above). We concluded our visit with excellent views of about 20 Black-crowned Night-Herons at Bear Swamp, and 2 White-crowned Sparrows at the Nature Center.

Our total species count for the day was 80 species. Weather was cool, breezy, and sunny.