Blackwater NWR on April 24, 2022

This tour was with our daughter Emily and her 2 children.  They did all of the Blackwater loop trail by bike, and Sally and I did it by car.  Sally was the driver, and I was the photographer. Below are some highlight pictures, and here is a FWS link to Blackwater NWR.

 

King Rail

Solar Power for Visitor Center

Ribbon Snake above

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret below

Field trip 5/20/15 to the DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion

Yes we were racing the incoming tide today, and I feel most did see our target bird, the Red Knot. Plus for sure, all saw the shorebird migration spectacle, where the shorebirds are feeding heavily on the Horseshoe crab eggs to make their final journey to their Arctic breeding grounds.

My rough estimate of the total numbers of shorebirds we saw, including distant and in flight is 20,000+ . Numbers of Red Knots??? An impossible question from our vantage point. What did I see and was confident they were Red Knots? Maybe 50. But based on extrapolating that up to a % of 20,000 shorebirds, I would estimate there were well over 1,000 Red Knots there. Your homework assignment is to research this years Red Knot migration, and see what the dedicated professionals (mostly volunteers) are seeing.

Now a final exam question: Is the best quote: "thin as a rail", or "clean as a rail"...???

Thanks to John Long for a great photo of a Clapper Rail today.