Dupont Nature Center – Part 2

We stopped along the road that connects the Dupont Nature Center to the road on higher ground since it was a place that clapper rails are seen frequently. Our guide played the call of the bird…and we heard a response! We did see peeps on the mud flats that were studded with snails; I took a few pictures as we waited for the rail to show itself. But the bird did not make an appearance.

Our group caravanned to several beaches near the Dupont Nature Center. The red roof of the Nature Center was visible from the first one. 

The tide was going out…not many birds around since it was too early for the horseshoe crabs to have laid their eggs. I photographed the debris at the high tide make…welk egg cases, pieces of horseshoe crab shells and broken or conglomerate shells.

On another beach, there were gulls (probably juvenile ring-billed gulls) finding dinner! The clouds were thickening and the lightning was not very good for photography by this time. We called it a day and headed home.

Dupont Nature Center – Part 1

Last week, my husband and I attended a day of the Spring Delmarva Birding Weekend; I’ve posted (part 1, part 2) already about the birds I photographed at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Smyrna DE. The second destination was The Dupont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve. The Nature Center itself was closed while we were there but we used the outside deck for the first half of our bird watching. Double-crested Cormorants were on pilons just out in the water from the nature center and on a sandy spit.

Zooming in on the sand spit that would be under water at high tide – Horseshoe Crabs are visible. Soon they will be laying their eggs – a feast for migrating short birds that need the burst of high energy food to complete their trek to the far north.

Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows were both flitting around near the Nature Center too. The Tree Swallows have white breasts and the Barn Swallows are rust colored; the Barns Swallows seems to be preening their feathers every time they sat on the pilons – hence the almost comical poses in the photographs below.

There was a female Osprey on a nesting platform.

Two American Oyster Catchers flew in and landed on the jetty.

A Royal Tern watched from near the fishing boats. The black feathers always look like a bad toupee to me!

A Black Skimmer swooped down low on the water…I didn’t quite catch the bird skimming.

This European Starling looks a scruffy but the iridescence of the wing feathers shows up with the bright sun.

Tomorrow I’ll write about a beach we visited near the Dupont Nature Center.