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DVOC Field Trip Report
by Steve Kacir

June 13, 2009
Delaware Breeding Bird Atlas Field Trip to Bombay Hook NWR

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Thirteen is my lucky number, and June 13, 2009 was no exception. I met the one field trip participant brave enough to hit Bombay Hook in mid-June at the refuge’s visitor center parking lot at 7:15AM, after a quick scouting jaunt and blood donation at Finis Pool. My only participant was Ana Pazos, a new member of the DVOC who comes to us by way of Puerto Rico. After ascertaining that no other refuge visitors were at the parking lot for the field trip, Ana and I took a quick walk around the headquarters where we quickly confirmed breeding for Purple Martins and added a few other observations including calling Northern Bobwhites and Ring-necked Pheasants. Unfortunately, every step we took exposed us to more and more biting flies. The clouds of fierce insects and a desire to get to Finis Pool while the morning magic had not wore off sent us to the car and its blessed fly-free air-conditioned comfort. After jotting down an impressive list of species, we headed towards the entrance gate in the hopes that the Northern Bobwhite that had been perched there upon my arrival might still be in the area. Alas, the bird had flown, or walked away or maybe been eaten by flies. We turned around, confirmed House Sparrow on nest, and made our way to Finis, stopping briefly on the way to take in a few species including at least four Greater Yellowlegs at Raymond Pool and Black-necked Stilts with their puffball chicks that were stumbling around a grassy island at Shearness. We also had a large number of basking Diamondback Terrapins on the mudflats across from Shearness Pool, where we also spotted Ospreys, Bald Eagle, Forster’s Terns and a Black Skimmer.

If you have never gone directly to Finis Pool as your first major stop on a morning’s tour around Bombay Hook, I really cannot recommend it strongly enough. That particular area of the refuge is extraordinarily active at that time, and the herpetological diversity can be staggering. We got slightly sidetracked by two photographers who, as it turned out, where hoping to shoot some photos of Red Foxes at the beaver pond. None of us saw any foxes there, but a White-tailed Deer did crash through, and I saw a Green Heron fly in and land somewhere nobody could see it. Ana and I wished the photographers luck and headed to the Allee house for a brief tour of one of the edges of my block, a quick turn around, and a vain attempt to find a bobwhite in the open. We saw no bobwhites there, but we did hear them constantly. What we did see was a Horned Lark with a juvenile Horned Lark in attendance; unfortunately for me, these larks refused to enter my block despite massive attempts at mind control and some pretty unsophisticated driving. The Horned Larks refused to give up on the block adjacent to mine and even flew off deeper into that block.

Finis Pool did make up for the disappointment of the Horned Larks, though. On the drive back towards the beaver pond, Ana heard what she thought was an Ovenbird, and I was inclined to agree, though the bird did not sing again. On the road to Finis, we heard another and were able to see this one as well. Other birds on that road included Eastern Wood-pewees, Acadian Flycatchers, Eastern Towhees, Blue Grosbeaks and Orchard Orioles. These last two species were both widespread and seemingly impossible to miss all across the refuge that day, and we were able to see behavior in each that indicated probable breeding. At the first part of Finis Pool, we added Eastern Painted Turtle, Green Frog and Carpenter Frog to our herp list. Then, as we were reaching the more open area of water, I spotted an Eastern Box Turtle basking at the side of the road. I couldn’t resist and retrieved my camera, getting a few photographs of this cooperative turtle, then moved it out of harm’s way. A few more steps revealed a very young Common Snapping Turtle also basking in the road. I shot some photos of the youngster, and Ana squeaked in a Prothonotary Warbler. After transplanting the tiny turtle back into the water where it was relatively safe from being crushed by cars, Ana and I turned our attention to the Prothonotary Warbler. At first it seemed like we could gain the attention of any species but this long-billed marsh warbler, but soon we heard them singing. Though, we were not able to verify any countersinging, there seemed to be at least three different males singing in the area. Our next encounter involved a petite Eastern Ribbon Snake, who posed for the camera before undulating off the side of the path. A cooperative female Ruby-throated Hummingbird made and appearance and flew around the island just off the path. A White-eyed Vireo started singing away, and making short appearances in the more open areas. I imitated a Barred Owl, which got the hummingbird’s interest as well as that of some Red-eyed Vireos, but not the owls themselves. There was a warbler singing in the woods that got our attention. At the time, I thought it was a Northern Parula with an odd song, but I now believe the bird to be an American Redstart – the second redstart I’ve heard on the refuge during safe dates. We tried to entice the warbler into making its presence known, but we had no success. Turning around, we discovered we had overlooked a pile of Northern Watersnakes basking on the water control device. Two of the snakes were mating, locked in a serpentine embrace. We watched these snakes for some time, and I tried my best to photograph them despite the unfortunate angle and lighting. It’s amazing how time flies in a salt marsh and we found ourselves ready for lunch by the time we were out of Finis.

After a brief repast at Wendy’s, we were back in the refuge. The clean-up tour of the remaining pools and paths began at the boardwalk trail, where we braved a fearsome density of deerflies to reach the peace and comfort of the marsh boardwalk. Our reward was in watching a Seaside Sparrow gathering nest material and the getting to hear the Marsh Wren chorus. We listened for Sedge Wren and hoped for some less common waterfowl to make an appearance, but eventually dove back into the fly-infested woods. A brief respite in the air-conditioned fly-free (relatively fly-free at least) Scion, and we were moving on to Raymond Pool, where we got to see a Marsh Wren secretively collecting nest material. Here we also noted a couple of Double-crested Cormorants and some Willets. We did not tarry long at Bear Swamp as the incoming tide had obliterated the mudflats, and we had spent a good amount of time there earlier. We made a brief stop to examine a group of small egrets in hopes of Little Egret or something else of interest. We didn’t find any mega-rarities, but we did have a very interesting Snowy Egret. This was a bird in high breeding plumage, showing reddish orange lores and feet. The bill shape, posture, size and overall appearance of the bird confirmed this bird as a Snowy Egret, and the nuptial plumage on the chest was easily visible. The plumes on the back of the head were somewhat less visible than what I was used to seeing in this species, but those feathers could be seen well in a slight breeze. Bear Swamp had Killdeers and more of the usual suspects, including Black-crowned Night-herons at the usual roost site. After leaving Bear Swamp, we believed we’d done a decent survey for breeding birds (and nonavian reptiles too), and we headed for some other Kent County locales.

Port Mahon had Royal Terns on poles and a beach length of gulls, but the real stars of the show were some late breeding Horseshoe Crabs, not to mention the sky which was just gorgeous. At the deer stand parking area, a Killdeer performed a distraction display for us. Then we were off to Ted Harvey, where we walked out to the beach hoping for a lingering shorebird or too, but settling for flyby Least Terns, roadside Fowler’s Toads and a Blue Grosbeak. On the way back, we felt like we were racing against the oncoming storm, and we found the gate that had barred our entrance had been opened permitting two cars to drive up the road while we made our way back to the car. We tried for a quick look at the Cliff Swallow colony near Augustine Beach. The storm foiled that plan, and we called it a day.