Delaware . . . the state!

March is starting off with a road trip. Even though it is still cold and snowy here in Columbus, I still got to do some traveling. Last March, team Dickcissel, traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. We got to bird for 3 days, and I saw 136 species, including 4 lifers. This March, I got to drive over 500 miles one way to Millsboro, Delaware to see Sharon Gambill. Since my father passed away in 2001, Sharon has lived in Delaware, but now is in the process of moving to the west coast. So, I got a chance to see her and pick up any remaining items from my father's estate.  Lots of books, artwork, memory boxes, and luckily his ABA year lists!!

 
 

$6 toll eastbound

Traveling by car over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Del-Marva Peninsula is scary. Because of its height, the narrowness of the spans (there are no hard shoulders), the low guardrails, and the frequency of high winds, it is known as one of the scariest bridges not only in the USA but, in the world. Several incidents related to the bridge have occurred in the past. In some cases, these have caused significant closures and traffic congestion on either side approaching the bridge. On July 19, 2013, a tractor-trailer hit a car from behind forcing the car on top of the concrete Jersey wall. The car straddled the wall and then fell about 27 feet into the water with the driver inside. The driver escaped the sinking car and swam to safety. I always try to travel on the bridge at daylight. Night time is just too eerie and you are tired from the over 400 miles driven already.

X means closed left lane

She survived, 2007 Chrysler Sebring

There are great national wildlife refuges on the east coast of Delaware, espcially during spring migration. Bombay Hook, Prime Hook, Cape Henlopen State Park and Indian River Inlet are just
four great places to bird all year around. The first stop was Prime Hook, but not a lot was going on. It was around 33 degrees and strong winds. I did mange to walk the dike trail and got several first of year(FOYs) birds like Tundra Swan, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Bonaparte's Gull. Probably 1000 Northern Pintails where in display too.

Next stop, the all new Indian River Inlet bridge. It carries four lanes of Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) over the Indian River Inlet between the Indian River Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The bridge is within Delaware Seashore State Park between Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach. Since it is the connector between the ocean and the bay, it is a great place to bird. Guess who I saw there up close?? My lifer buddy, a Long-tailed duck!! I'm getting good at IDing them lately. 

lifer buddy #532.2

Indian River Inlet bridge

Surf & Black Scooters

all Black Scooter with Orange bill

 

 

At the east end of the bridge, I got to see about 200-300 Surf & Black Scooters, in full breeding plumage. The birds where a little skittish, so I didn't want to get too close. Here are the two best pictures I could get. Great news, I'm scootered out for my BigYear 2014.  I've got a three speciecs. I missed the Black Scooter last year. You can see Black and White-winged in Ohio. The most common bird you see this time of year around the east coast is the Snow Goose. I'd say I counted about 4000-5000 birds all weekend. Flying over, sitting in the fields, just everywhere. I only saw about 25 Canada Geese in one spot.    

Snow Geese

tons of them in fields

GBBG, larger/blk mantle/pink legs

A couple of other FOYs that I got where the Cedar Waxwing and Greater Black-backed Gull. So the trip did produce 7 first of year birds, and 38 total species. Not bad for only a couple hours of birding and bad weather conditions.

Cedar Waxwings

                         


                                                                     



Below are two pieces of my dad's artwork I wanted to share. There is so much, not really sure where to start. I believe this is a breeding plumage Red Knot, pen and ink, with color added to it.

To the right is from the ABA newsletter "Winging It"(1989-2001) that Buddy illistrated every month. He did the cover artwork, and then added in drawings of the current RBA(rare bird alert) for the month. This was all before computors and email, just old fashioned mailed publications. This copy is from January 1993, "A pelagic trip to the Dry Tortugas" by Will Russell. My records show that Buddy saw the White-Tailed Tropicbird on May 2, 1982 in the Dry Tortugas. Enjoy!!


Next post: Florida life birds or bust!!

Life bird . . . again

Last year during a run of 16 life birds, I saw the Long-Tailed duck at Dillon State Park lake. I was at the boat ramp of SR146 and scoped the duck at 200-300 yards with a group of Scaup. It was a female/immature, but far away.  That was my life bird. But not to fear. This cold winter has produced lots of hard to get ducks, scooters and grebes in Ohio. They come down here because it's even colder up there in Canada.
Single digit temperatures didn't deter me from the hunt for the elusive long-tailed duck, for a second time. On Februray 12th at Deer Creek Dam spillway 9am, it was so cold, it was beautiful. I parked right up front in the lot, and the ducks where 30 yards away. One drake and three hens. 

bird #531.2

Spillways where hot in 2014

females

Cardinal in the tree?

Bam! Oldsqaws

Looning at you kid

Because this has been coldest winter we've had in the last 20 years, a lot of birds have come down to the only open water there is. Great places to see waterfowl up close are natural spring filled ponds and  spillways at the dams of Hoover, Alum, Deer Creek, Griggs, O'Shaugh. The Common Loon was at Hoover a couple of days later.
On the 26th of February, I drove up to Alum Creek dam to see some geese. I have been looking for a small Cackling Goose to finish off my winter goose hunt, and hoped to see one. But instead got this Snow Goose(blue morph) or Ross Goose(blue morph)(which another birder told me he thought it was).  My guess is Snow Goose, especially after you see my next post about my trip to Delaware . . . the state!@11.
This looks like the end to winter for 2014. February had 12" of snow and this winter is now 3rd snowiest for central Ohio.  The Olympics are over and the snow is gone for now. Back to normal temps for March. Maybe some early migrants/rarities with warmer weather. But the eye on the prize is Florida at the end of the month. Need me some lifers.

Next post: DE or bust!

Common Loon

Snow or Ross goose?

11/3/2013 LTD