Feb 11 2009
Wordless Wednesday: Brown-headed Nuthatch on Rusted Chain
I haven’t participated in Wordless Wednesday before, but this photo, taken last fall in Cape Henlopen State Park, seems to fit. Click that link for other word-free goodness.
Archive for the 'Delmarva' Category
Nov 24 2008
A Whistling-Duck at Silver Lake
Forrest Rowland and I got out early this morning with the intention of birding Burton’s Island, but we had made it only a few meters down the trail when my cell phone rang. It was Michael O’Brien, calling from Cape May to say that Mark Garland and a Cape May Bird Observatory group that Mark was [...]
Nov 17 2008
Cave Swallows, at last!
A strange thing happens within birding circles–a rare bird can go from a point of pride to a source of a certain kind of shame. Up until this year, having seen a Cave Swallow in Delaware was a distinction that would have produced at least low-level envy among many in this community. Now, it’s rapidly reaching [...]
Oct 27 2008
Fourteen Sparrows
We had a terrifically successful sparrow trip yesterday, tallying 14 species of Emberizids (the family that includes New World sparrows, as well as things like towhees, longspurs, juncoes & some of the buntings).
photo by Jim White
We began at Indian River Inlet, where the marsh was very, very good to us. We enjoyed soul-satisfying studies of [...]
Oct 11 2008
A Yard Full of Surprises
Halloween is Liz’s favorite holiday, so she really gets into decorating the yard for it. But not with prefabricated junk–she strives for something far more authentic.
Friday, she started weaving a web. When complete, I won’t be able to walk through it, as I did when making that afternoon’s trip to the mailbox, where a wonderful [...]
Oct 09 2008
Laughing Gull Spits, or Sneezes?
Yesterday afternoon, I was out in downtown Lewes along the canal and photographed some Laughing Gulls in the parking lot of the public boat launch. Below, I’ve assembled a short series of photos into a flash video. Watch it once or twice to see if you can spot anything strange. A tip: click the “play” [...]
Oct 07 2008
Underrated Birds I: Boat-tailed Grackle
How can we possibly explain the scorn heaped upon grackles? They are so big and beautiful and spectacular–just look at that handsome buck above. He’s splendid, if just a little bit sandy. How can you not be impressed?
Grackles do, it’s true, have some annoying behaviors–they’re abundant, gregarious, and noisy; moreover, they steal a percentage of our crops [...]
Oct 05 2008
Dirty Scaly Chicken Toes
If I were to say the words, “Fall Color,” what would you picture? Sugar maples in Vermont? An aspen grove in Colorado? Probably not, I would guess, a saltmarsh in Delaware. Well, here’s a shot I took on Friday (03 October):
A pleasant little scene of autumn golds, but nothing that would draw busloads of leaf [...]
Oct 05 2008
Publicity
After Monday’s 1048 raptors counted at the Cape Henlopen hawk watch, the news spread over DE-BIRD (as the news of every day does) and through an article by Molly Murray in the News-Journal (featuring an Osprey photo by yours truly). Thursday, October 2nd, a sizable crowd assembled for what looked to be the next big flight [...]
Sep 26 2008
Chincoteague II: the Wash Flats & Hybrid Geese
Ned Brinkley, proud booster of his adopted hometown of Cape Charles (and author of the recent National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America), scans one of the storied sites of mid-Atlantic birding: the Wash Flats. A broad expanse of salty sand, mud, and low vegetation, the Wash Flats are famous among birders [...]
