Day 31 May 03, 2016, A trip to Prime Hook NWR from Lewes, DE

Day 31 May 03, 2016, A trip to Prime Hook NWR from Lewes, DE

It was not a propitious day starting out with a heavy fog and a light rain. There was not much hope for an improvement in the weather but we headed out to see this  10,000 acre NWR called Prime Hook.

Prime Hook is situated on the eastern Coast of Delaware, so it includes many pools mud flats  and some brackish ponds . It is a managed habitat  and therefore has holding ponds that are filled and emptied of water periodically adjusting to levels suitable for the wildlife that both inhabit the Refuge and for those bird and annals that are migrating seasonally.

Fleetwood Pond. IT was very still today. That  helps in 'birding'.

One of the foggy mud flats in the morning.

A lone Snowy Egret in a mud flat. Typical habitat for the
birds in the Refuge.

As usual, we stopped at the “Contact Center" or a ‘visitor center’ of you will. “Rosie” the attendant there (a vounteer) had just gotten back for a 4 month “holiday” in Florida, and admitted that things had changed since she was away. An example of that as she started to point out features and  stopping places on the map, Gen came in with  the introduction of a very new “Delaware Transportation map” (state Map) that had just been published this past year. it was a beauty and detailed most all the roads in Delaware. 

As Rosie was very familiar with the NWR, (she had volunteered there for seven years)  she numbered the “hot spots” for us that were on the Refuge roads. This is what we followed for the most part during the day starting with the parking lot just behind the Refuge Contact Center.

 We used roads like “Turkle Pond Road” and its companion road, “Broadkill Beach Road” (named after a river of the same name), “Deep Branch Rd”., “Prime Hook Beach Road”, where we ran into some multi million dollar homes along the beach and a few gates,  “Cods Rd.”, “Fowler Beach Road”, and finally “Slaughter Beach Rd.”, which led us back to the highway and back to the trailer.

An Osprey just taking off from a tree.

Those many Back Bellied PLovers with one Snowy Egret.

One of many Osprey seen today 

Two Turkey Vulture (note red head) 

The thousands of gulls that gathered in a farmers field.

A Blue Gray Gnatcather along side ofthe road.

But, all along these roads the birds were plentiful and close by for the most part.  It seems like the warblers are beginning to be seen more, with the spotting of these today;  COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, PRAIRIE WARBLER, YELLOW WARBLER, GOLDEN WINGED WARBLER, BALTIMORE ORIOLE,  and the  RUBY CROWNED KINGLET.

The biggest surprise near the end of the day where there was a blocked road near the beach, (Wildlife Svc. has protected the nesting shore birds by eliminating all travel there in some places.) was seeing hundreds of Black Bellied Plovers, We had not seen that many at one time  in all our 22 years of travels. There were other birds mixed in, but the plovers colorations (black bellies) was distinctive. 

A porton of one of the roads in Prime Hook NWR

More Rape seed is being grown every year.  This is used in bio fuels,
 has a high protein content, and used for lubricants.

Believed tobe related to the High Bush Blueberry. 

We totaled 71 birds during this day. That is the highest number on the trip thus far. We also recorded 12 new species, and now total 144 species on the trip.  We are not sure about tomorrow as there is one other similar NWR to visit, but also the area called Henlopen, where the Dutch first came to settle in the 1600’s.  Stay tuned.