Bombay Hook - Sat.

ctaylor@seamail.nos.noaa.gov
Mon, 03 Aug 98 14:39:40 -0500 

Hi all,

Had a good trip to Bombay Hook this Saturday.  The pools were very dry.

Had 9 Wilsons Phalaropes at Raymond Pool, along with many stilt sandpipers,
lesser and greater yellow legs, SB dowitchers, black stilts, solitary
sandpipers, semilpalmated plovers, pectoral sandpipers (5),semipalmated
sandpipers, probably some westerns, but I can't really tell between them.  Some
very
interesting plumage variations, many somewhere between summer and winter
plumage. Also, Blue grosbeaks, indigo buntings, goldfinch, robins, towhee,fish
crow, the four gulls, forsters, common, and caspian terns.  A probable
Willow flycatcher (no eye-ring at all) but did not call.  Lots of wood ducks and
the resident canada's.  One very lonely looking domestic goose.  A single
king/clapper rail - it was very grey all over, so I couldn't tell which. Herons
included:  great blue, great egret, little blue, snowy, immature yellow crowned.
 Barn, Rough winged,bank swallows, and purple martins. Did not see any raptors
except the Turkey vultures (this should be Delaware's State bird - the blue hen
isn't even a native.)

We decided to try for the Upland Sandpipers at the Dover AFB after some great
Crabs at Sambos.  We went over by the museum gate where they were reported in
the Delaware Report, and found nothing on the airport side but lots of ground
hogs and meadow larks on the opposite side of the road.  We looked for twenty
minutes and decided to give up, packed the scope and binoculars and started for
home.  No sooner did we turn the corner to get off Rt. 9  that an upland
sandpiper crossed the road right in front of our truck.  We instantly pulled
over and watched as it went under the AFB fence, stayed for a while, and flew
further into the grounds while calling.  We had some very good close looks, and
followed it with our bins until it landed, next to another.  So we had two.  Not
bad for a twenty minute effort.  This was a lifer for both me and my husband,
and we both remarked on the luck of packing our gear.  We are starting to
believe 
that its a good chance that if we pack up our optics, a new bird will appear so
that 
we have to quickly unpack it to steal a good view.  I don't think I've ever had
a bird 
handed to me quite like that before. --- Well maybe the Sora that just stood
around 
by the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows all day last year would qualify. Or maybe
the
purple gallinule that I'd looked for all day, only to have it hanging out at the
end of the 
tram ride at Shark Valley in the Everglades N.P. close enough to touch. I almost

tripped over an aligator trying to walk along the path following it. 

I'm sure I've forgotten a few birds, but those were the memorable ones.


Christine Taylor & Dave Bradshaw
Reston, VA