Birding
Where I've been/What I've seen
After much preparation (a grand total of fifteen minutes) the night before, my team, the Dabbing Dowitchers, was ready to go. A short drive to the woods of Cape Henlopen State Park later, and we got started. We decided to take the route less taken and walk to the less crowded beach. On the way, we found an Eastern Towhee, as well as a flyby Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Additionally, Purple Martins flew over, as a Gray Catbird and a Field Sparrow called off to the side. Once on the beach, we scanned for shorebirds and were rewarded with a Ruddy Turnstone as well as some Sanderlings. Some gulls on the beach included a Herring and Greater Black-backed. Not much success was had after this and we walked back to enter the nearby forest. We had incredible luck once inside the forest, hearing a Yellow-billed Cuckoo while Common Yellowthroats called everywhere. Unfortunately, we dipped on Pine Warbler while we were here. In a little opening with a pond, we found several forms of herons, Great Blue, both Egrets, and Green. Also present were Eastern Wood-Pewees, Eastern Kingbirds, and a flyover Red-winged Blackbird. By now we had fifteen minutes left so we continued down to a larger pond, where at our first vantage point I spotted a flycatcher, dipping its tail and perched up high. This came back to bite us later when most of the group could not find it, as it happened to be an Eastern Phoebe. Both varieties of yellowlegs flew around, and with much scanning of the peeps, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers were found. A Blue Grosbeak and a few Cedar Waxwings landed in a nearby tree while we were here. We moved a bit further down, dodging bikers to our last vantage point. Here as time ran out, a mixed flock of Glossy and White Ibis flew in, adding two more to our total. When the results were tallied, the group I was in had received second place by one species. If two more people had seen the Eastern Phoebe, and we did not dip on the Pine Warbler, we would have won (D:). Despite the close finish, our group was happy with the result, as 44 species in an hour on foot is pretty good.
After a gret time at the beach, we again returned to the Virden Center and got cleaned up for the barbeque dinner that we would later have. The ABA store was then opened, and I had the chance to meet Jeff Gordon, who was super nice. We then had an awesome photo quiz put together by Bill (I got second), and I won an awesome t-shirt. After a little reflection on the camp, the early flights said their goodbyes, and then went to bed. A little while later, I also went to bed, as I had one of the later flights at noon.
This concludes the Avocet Trip Report :D, let me know how you liked it below
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Waking up later is always nice, especially when you have a great day of birding despite not getting up at the crack of dawn. The ferry (CMLF) boarded just after eight, so we could wake up much later than the previous day. Once on board the CMLF, the Brant was spotted again, as well as a Surf Scoter, a Fish Crow, and some flyover Atlantic Brown Pelicans (interesting to see compared to the California ssp. I usually see).
The next stop was at Cape May State Park, famous for its hawk watch in the fall (we were there about 2 months too early). We decided to check out the hawk watch platform anyway, where we watched a Mute Swan chase a Canada Goose in full “warship” mode, and heard a Northern Bobwhite. We walked along the trail on the side for a bit, looking at the WWII bunker, and watching another Gull-billed Tern. We continued along, seeing more Common and Forester’s Terns, and had decided to turn around after a while of seeing nothing. We heard another Bobwhite after walking about half of the distance, and stopped to try to find it. After about thirty seconds of waiting, it emerged, crossing the trail slowly, and only a few inches for some of the camper’s feet. It was truly incredible to watch, even if the bird was potentially from captive origins. Nothing else was really seen here after this memorable experience. Our last stop before getting back on the ferry was at the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, where the only things of interest were a few juvenile White Ibis, and we took a group picture on the top of the observation deck. We then headed back to the vans, and left for the ferry.
The ferry was much more alive with gulls on the way back, but only three Wilson’s Storm-Petrels were found. Three Black Scoters were also found upon entering Lewes’s harbor, quite possibly the same ones from the few days previous. We then went back to the Virden Center, and found out our groups for the Big Green Hour, before coming up with a team name and a basic strategy for the next day. Today we got up nice and early (sometime around 4:30). Why? We were headed on a two-hour drive to Chincoteague NWR. Here we planned to target Sandwich Tern, Piping Plover, White Ibis, and more.
After this we went to a nearby pond for a little bit more birding before lunch. Here we had a bunch of herons, and the highlight being a flyover Sandwich Tern. After lunch we went on the Wildlife Drive where we saw a Delmarva Fox Squirrel, a formerly endangered subspecies. My camera also ran out of battery at some point. We didn't see an awful lot of particularly interesting things on the drive besides a Cliff Swallow, and an Eastern Meadowlark (the first for the camp). After this we left Chincoteague and made a stop in Selbyville, Delaware to find the Eurasian-collared Doves at the north-eastern most part of their range. Honestly, I never expected to be chasing a Eurasian-collared Dove, as they are EVERYWHERE here in San Diego. Some other westerners were joking about this as well. After this stop we drove straight back to the Virden Center
I will start by saying, It was MUCH easier to sleep the previous night. Today we did not travel very far, but headed to the nearby Prime Hook NWR, around what I believe was a 30 minute drive. We did not spend all that much time at Prime Hook itself, as we had some other spots to head to as well, (Richard Clifton’s Farm and DuPont Nature Center). In the short amount of time we did spend inside the NWR, we found some nice birds, including Black Skimmers, and many, many, Bald Eagles and Ospreys. We unfortunately came at High Tide, so shorebirds were not to be seen (except for Flyovers). We then proceeded to the nearby beach, but before that, a nice Seaside Sparrow popped out of the reeds nearby, to be spotted by the watchful eyes of one of the leaders.
In the patch of forest we found some very nice passerines, including Red-eyed Vireo (two day photo nemesis no more), Acadian Flycatcher (a lifer), heard only Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadee, and as we were exiting, a heard-only Yellow-billed Cuckoo (lifer). Also there was a Red Spotted Purple Butterfly with a partly damaged wing. After this not many more birds were seen, but we did have an uncooperative Question Mark Butterfly. I’m just going to give a little shoutout to George and Joe, who from this little day have gotten me hooked on butterflies and moths. We then left the Clifton farm for our last stop of the day, DuPont Nature Center. Usually in May, for one day, the harbor is filled with Red Knots, their arrival timed perfectly with when the Horseshoe Crab spawning in this exact harbor. We learned all of this from Bill Stewart, who was giving us a brief discussion on the research being done at this spot when George said something along the lines of, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there is a strange gull flying along the seawall.” Everyone suddenly turned and tried to find it, eventually everyone getting on it, and from Josh Ward’s very good photos from this distance, it was determined to be a LITTLE GULL, another highlight for that day. After Bill finished giving his talk on Red Knots, we scanned the area, where we found a pair of American Oystercatchers and not much else.
We decided to make one more stop, to see if we could find out where the morning flyover White Ibis roosted, although we didn't see them land, they flew over, perhaps returning from Prime or even Bombay Hook. Additionally, this seemed to be a popular Heron spot, as we had Green, Black-crowned Night, many Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and two Tricolored.
We then returned to Virden center and called it a night.
After the first very successful stop we continued on to Bombay Hook, where we first birded around the visitor center, observing Purple Martins, Indigo Buntings, Brown Thrasher, as well as Eastern Wood-Pewees, the first Gray Catbird of the trip, and a Red-eyed Vireo. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird also frequented the two feeders. We decided to continue on into the refuge itself after two fairly successful stops in a row. The refuge was fairly quiet, however we did have singing White-eyed Vireos and Field Sparrows along the road before making our first stop near Raymond Pool. A few terns, and both species of yellowlegs flew overhead while watching. Bank, Tree, and Barn Swallows glided low over the surface of the water. Black and Turkey Vultures, a Bald Eagle, and some Ospreys circled overhead, looking for a meal. In the pool itself were several Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, and American Avocets. Across from the pool in the marsh, a single Clapper Rail bathed, providing an unusually long look at a rail. Someone also picked out a single Dunlin here. A few Marsh Wrens sang out from over the marsh as well. The next place we stopped at was the Shearness pool. Here the first thing we saw were some exotic Mute Swans in the pool, and many, many shorebirds in the marsh/mudflat. Many ducks also could be found in this pool, being Green-winged Teal, Mallard, American Black, and Wood. Other than that it was almost the same as Raymond Pool. At the end, when we were closer to the shorebirds we had a Black-necked Stilt, a lifer for most of the group. We also had a lesson in looking through shorebirds, and picking out unusual ones (of which there were none). After this the group headed back to the visitor center to eat some lunch before heading to Bear Swamp Pool.
On the way, we made a stop at one of the more productive passerine spots the camp goes to, a random sect of woods off of a road. My camera decided to die on me so no photos. Here we had a Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Warbler, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Pine Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Great Crested Flycatcher and a Red-eyed Vireo. Apart from that it was very quiet. That was the end of birding for the day, and we had some free time before dinner (I played some frisbee).
I arrived at Philadelphia Intl. at around noon after a multi-day, three flight excursion from San Diego just to make it by the 2pm cutoff for Avocet. Upon arriving I had to nearly walk the entire airport, as I was on a smaller regional jet, which of course, was in the terminal farthest away from where the ABA van was parked. It was a nice stretch after being kind of cooped up on a plane for the past few hours. After an approximately 15 minute walk there, I arrived at the van, where again I waited for everyone to arrive. It was there I saw my first two birds of the trip, which coincidentally were the same as mine from Camp Colorado, the ever so rare House Sparrow and Rock Pigeon.
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