Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge - Part 1

Last week, my husband and I attended a day of the Spring Delmarva Birding Weekend; our first destination was the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Smyrna DE. We learned so much from our time with our guide that we’ll plan another trip to the refuge soon so we can take it slow and do even more photography. I have so much to share from the 3 hours we were there this time, that I’ve divided it into 2 blog posts! At the visitor center, there were American Goldfinch enjoying thistle seeds,

Purple martins in and out of the ‘apartments’ and

A white throated sparrow that sat still long enough for me to photography. There were also robins and a brown thrasher which did not!

We did a short hike through some woods and heard/saw a lot of warblers but they move so fast I didn’t get any pictures. Even the cardinal moved to fast for me. We climbed an observation tower and there was an American Avocet visible through the foliage along with smaller birds beyond the distance my camera could capture well. At another location, there were many more Avocets.

There were also Black-Necked Stilt. I’m showing three pictures below of the same scene...zooming in. The black and white birds with the legs are the stilts.

More tomorrow….

Photographs through my Office Window – April 2017

There has been a lot of activity through my office window this month. The squirrels are feasting on the tender samaras in the maple – early in the month

And then a couple of weeks later when the leaves are unfurling.

The squirrels have a pathway around our yard via trees and fence…rarely on the ground.

The robins are around but don’t seem as numerous as previous years.

We now have two kinds of sparrows: chipping sparrows and

White throated sparrows (with the dash of yellow above their eye).

The blue jays are still frequent visitors to the bird bath.

I haven’t seen a lot of grackles but there was one that visited our yard long enough for a picture.

We have a pair of cardinals again this year – probably nesting nearby.

Mourning doves like the birdbath and the roof line of our covered deck. This one seemed to want its picture taken!