Delmarva Coast, February 26, 2014
Rehobeth to Dover
All photos are © Marshall Faintich
Prime Hook NWR, Delaware
The Delaware Birding Trail is comprised of 14 wildlife refuges and beaches along Delaware Bay. Walt and I had researched these sites, read recent birding postings, and decided to check out 4 of the sites on this trip. Most of the recent postings were from the Prime Hook NWR, although there was no way to tell if that meant there were more birds there, or more people posting from there along the Delaware Birding Trail.
We hoped that we would awake to sunny skies, but instead, it was cold, windy, and there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground, with scattered snow as we drove around that morning. The birds didn't seem very happy about the snow, either.
| | |
Savannah Sparrow
Great Blue Heron
Green-winged Teals
There were multiple roads from the highway that led into different parts of Prime Hook, and Walt and I travelled back and forth several times that morning looking for birds. There was a field along the highway that had a couple of large, wooden Bald Eagle structures in it. On one pass by that field we saw a flock of Snow Geese.
Snow Geese
By 11:00 a.m., the snow was starting to clear, and we saw another flock of Snow Geese in a different field.
Snow Geese
Snow Geese
We kept checking areas at Prime Hook, but didn't see very many birds, other than the large flocks of Snow Geese. We did see several flocks of Canada Geese, and one of the flocks had at least two Cackling Geese mixed in with the larger Canadas. [Update: these smaller geese may be Lesser Canada Geese]
Cackling Geese [Update: these smaller geese may be Lesser Canada Geese] and larger Canada Goose
Cackling Goose [Update: this goose may be a Lesser Canada Goose]
The skies finally cleared around 1:00 p.m., and we saw a huge flock of Snow Geese that merged with another flock and formed giant ribbons in the sky.
Snow Geese
Snow Geese
Shore birds came out along some of the some of the lakes, and there were a few duck species in the lakes. We headed back to the Prime Hook visitor center and saw a few woodland and lake birds.
Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs
Eastern Towhee
Northern Shoveler
Slaughter Beach, Delaware
Our second stop of the day along the Delaware Birding Trail was at Slaughter Beach, where rails and marsh sparrows were supposed to be common. All we saw there was a distant flock of shore birds and a few ducks.
Common Goldeneyes
Greater Scaup
Click here to go the day #4 report and photos: Dover to Chincoteague.
Hit your Back Button to return to previous page or click here to return to the top of the 2014 Delmarva Coast blog page.
E-mail comments on this report
Return to blog page home