Viewing nature with Eileen: Delaware Shorebirds

Showing posts with label Delaware Shorebirds. Show all posts

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Delaware Shores & shorebird Migration

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring, it is a great time of the year to see the migrating birds. After a spring full moon and the water temp's in the high 50's, the horseshoe crabs make their way out of the Delaware Bay. The arrival of the spawning horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay is timed perfectly for the migrating shorebirds. Last weekend, beside Bombay Hook NWR hubby and I also visited the Delaware beaches hoping to see some of these migrating birds.

Slaughter beach above is one of the stops we made to check out the horseshoe crabs and to look for birds. On the path to the beach we saw a few Tree Swallows and the Purple Martins at their houses. Hubby and I walked up and down the beach turning over any horseshoe crabs that was stranded on its back. We were doing our part in trying to save these declining horseshoe crabs.

Shorebird congregations will feast upon the thousand of horseshoe crab eggs. The birds depend on these eggs to refuel during their spring migration. Saving these horseshoe crabs is important, not only to protect this arthropod species but to prevent the decline of shorebirds like the Red Knots and the Semipalmated Sandpipers.

The horseshoe crab is like a hotel for living creatures that are attached to the shell of the horseshoe crab. Some of these hitchhikers have no effect on the day to day life of this horseshoe crab, but over time they may degrade the shell.

The male horseshoe crab will hang onto the female as she crawls up the beach laying thousands of eggs in sandy nest. As the female drags the male they in turn fertilize the eggs in each nest as they are pulled over the nest and eggs.

The Horseshoe crab can lay as many as 60,000 to 120,000 tiny green eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time.

For me seeing these gathering of the horseshoe crabs and seeing thousands of shorebirds is an awesome wildlife spectacle. On this day we saw mostly laughing gulls. I believe the migrating shorebirds are still on their way to the Delaware shore. Hopefully there will be plenty of eggs to help refuel these migrating birds on their journey to their breeding grounds in the Artic.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Clapper Rail

The Clapper Rail are my entry for this weeks Camera Critters click on my link to see more critters.
My skywatch post now follows my Clapper Rail.

One of the most exciting birds and the best bird I saw last weekend in Delaware was the Clapper Rail. My birding friends and I were headed to the shore when we heard these Clapper Rails. I have always wanted to see a Rail and up till now I was only able to hear them.

They are not the best photos but, they show the Clapper Rail's size, bill, the habitat where they find their food and water.

They are very shy birds and like to hide in tall grasses. I read online that the populations are down in the USA due to the destruction and loss of coastal marshland. The Clapper Rail is a chicken size bird that rarely flies, it is graysih brown with a chestnut breast.

They eat crustaceans, insects and small fish. They search for food while walking, sticking the bill into the water or mud. It was a cool experience for me to see this bird out in the open.

This is my post for Friday Ark and to see more animals on the Ark just click on my link.

Also my entry for Michelle's Nature Notes click and visit to see more nature post.
Thanks for stopping by my blog, I appreciate your visit.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Shorebirds

This past weekend I went to Delaware with a few friends from my bird club. We stopped at a few places along the Delaware shore to see the migrating birds.

The American Avocets at Bombay Hook NWR were beautiful along with hundreds of Dunlins and Dowitchers.

The Dunlins have black circles on their bellies.

The Avocets have black and white wings and their bills are slightly upturned. The breeding adult has an orange head and neck.

The Laughing Gulls were one of the most common birds we saw along the shore.

The Glossy Ibis

Check out Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday for more wonderful post and photos.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks to 2sweetnsaxy and Susan for their fun memes.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Avalon Shorebirds

I have added the first two skywatch photos, they were taken the same day as the shorebirds below. I thought the sunset had some pretty color on the bottom of the clouds and one tiny little hole was lighting up with color.

To see more great skies from all over go to Skywatch Friday

This week I am posting my Avalon shorebirds from my September visit to the NJ shores. We stopped in the town of Avalon and walked along the beach. My hubby just likes walking anywhere and I love checking out the birds. During this visit we saw a lot of American Oystercatchers, Black Skimmers, Egrets and some other peeps.

Black Skimmers in flight

I love the beaks of the Oystercatchers they look like carrots.

To see more great Watery Wednesday shots go and visit 2sweetnsaxy at waterywednesday

To see some great outdoor shots got and see Susan at Outdoor Wednesday

Thanks to the hosting team of Skywatch... Sandy, Louise, Wren, Sylvia, Fishing Guy and Klaus

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Birding Bombay Hook

Saturday I spent the day birding Bombay Hook, Delaware and the nearby Port Mahon. Bombay Hook was just wonderful and I was very happy to see all the birds we saw. If you enjoy wildlife and have not been to Bombay Hook you should plan a visit soon. We started off the day braving the bugs while walking on the boardwalk trail. During the walk we saw a wonderful sighting of a GREEN HERON in flight. The Green Heron is one of my favorites of the herons except for maybe the Littel Blue Heron which is also a favorite. Also there were Great Egret trees and what I believe was a very noisy Marsh Wren.

The AMERICAN AVOCETS in the picture below were a real treat to see and one of my favorites sightings of the day. Even with a large amount of Avocets the Great Egrets had the highest count of all the birds we saw.

At the Raymond Pool we saw more Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Great Blue Herons, American Avocets, several species of Sandpipers, Sanderlings, Yellowlegs, Willets, Black Necked Stilts and probably the most Short Billed Dowitchers I have ever seen.

Further along the drive at the Shearness Pool we saw even more Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Glossy Ibis and GB Herons. Along here we also saw adult BLACK CROWNED Night Herons and a few juvenile BC Night Herons.

As we made our way along the drive to Finnis Pool, I was excited to see the male and female BLUE GROSBEAKS. They were out in the open and gave me some very good looks.

This is close to where I had got my surprise lifer, a NORTHERN BOBWHITE decided to come out of the brush and walk on the road in front of my car. Yahoo, a Bombay Hook lifer!

Here is a list of other birds I saw in no special order: Juvenile Bald Eagle, unidentified Terns, Killdeer, Common Yellowthroat Warbler, Mockingbird, American Goldfinch, Eastern Kingbird, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Eastern Wood Pewee, Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Laughing Gulls, Yellowlegs and Wood Ducks . Along with seeing birds we saw a lot of turtles. At Port Mahon there were many different Swallows, a couple of Ospreys, Ruddy Turnstones and Sandpipers, Dunlins and Sanderlings.

Viewing nature with Eileen