Saturday in Delaware

As it turned out the torrential friday night-saturday morning rain gave way to a mostly bright day in Delaware. It was shame, though understandable based upon the forecast, that the PA Young Birders field trip was cancelled. Debbie, Becky and I decided to proceed with an unofficial trip to Delaware.

The potato fields (above) around Cartenza Road were covered in common shorebirds such as Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, Killdeers, Black-bellied Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, gulls and Horned Larks. This is peak time for certain desirable ‘grass-piper’ species and today we were very successful. A couple of Upland Sandpipers played hide and seek amongst the potato leaves though showed well on several occasions. With many parts of the fields under water, birds were feeding around the water’s edges and this is where we came across a Stilt Sandpiper and dozens of Pectoral Sandpipers. In another section across Rte 9, the bare ground produced a Buff-breasted Sandpiper and a couple of Baird’s Sandpipers, thanks to Bill Stewart and Andy Martin.

In a fallow field along Port Mahon Road we found two White-rumped Sandpipers (above front right) foraging amongst Semipalmated Sandpipers and plovers. Even though the tide was high along Port Mahon Road it did not make a difference to the species we expected to see. Royal and Forster’s Terns patrolled the coastline and Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpipers and a few Least Sandpipers foraged at the tide line which, in places, was on the road!
The overnight heavy rains had filled the impoundments at Bombay Hook, which meant that the avocets and stilts had moved elsewhere. Egrets (above), of course, were plentiful including a Cattle Egret along Shearness dike, as were two Snow Geese.

On the dike road a mixed flock of ‘peeps’ (above) including Western Sandpipers, attempted to land in front of our vehicle. A nice surprise was a pair of Bobwhite quail that ran along the dirt road between the soybean fields.

At the headquarters building four or five Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (above) spent a great deal of time chasing each other away from the feeders.

At Thousand Acre Marsh at the base of Reedy Point Bridge we found a few Little Blue Herons, over a dozen American Avocets as well dozens of Caspian Terns. But the biggest surprise here was six Marbled Godwits (above) and seven Black Terns. It turned out to be a great day.