Sanderling
I left Chincoteague Island early in the morning. As I was driving on the causeway to the mainland, I saw a juvenile Bald Eagle and pulled off onto the road shoulder, but by the time I got out of my car with my camera, it was gone. I drove north to the Ocean City Inlet to look, once again, for the Harlequin Duck, but only saw a few gulls. So I headed up the coastal highway to the Indian River Inlet in Delaware. There were hundreds of ducks when I was there in February 2014. When I got to the Indian River Inlet, I didn't see any ducks. There were a lot of Sanderlings and Dunlins on the rocks, and a lot of gulls and a few terns.
Sanderling
Dunlin
Bonaparte's Gull
Bonaparte's Gulls
Forster's Tern
Boat-tailed Grackles were foraging along the inlet.
Boat-tailed Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
I saw a Red-throated Loon in the inlet, and when a boat came its way, the loon took flight, running a bit on the water to take off.
Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon
I walked back to the front of the inlet. A Northern Gannet flew in.
Northern Gannet
Northern Gannet
And then I thought I got lucky. A lone duck flew south along the coast and as it passed the inlet, I was able to get one decent photo of it. Could it be a female Harlequin Duck? I hoped it was, but now I think that it was a female Surf Scoter.
Female Surf Scoter
It was time to head back to Cambridge, MD, and I decided to take a more direct route than to stop again at Ocean City Inlet.
Click here to continue on the afternoon in Cambridge, MD.