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!!
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| $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.
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| X means closed left lane |
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| 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.
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| lifer buddy #532.2 |
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| Indian River Inlet bridge |
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| Surf & Black Scooters |
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| 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.
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| Snow Geese |
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| tons of them in fields |
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| 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.
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| 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!!
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