Mid-Atlantic - May 2025 - Day 1 - Delaware and New Jersey

The drive from Dulles to Dover takes you around Washington DC, past Annapolis and over Chesapeake Bay, through the east side of Maryland and finally into Delaware along country roads. It was a very late night and I didn't go to sleep until the time I would normally be waking up. The trip had been planned like this so at to be in position near Bombay Hook NWR first thing on Saturday morning. This had seemed like the best birding spot in northern Delaware in terms of species diversity, a good place to start the trip. 

Remarkably we started the first eBird list at 6.47am, sleep playing second fiddle to a deep desire to get out birding. Like many nature reserves in the US Bombay Hook is a drivable loop, and I am sure you will not be surprised to learn that the vast majority of birders and photographers don't even get out of their cars, they simply cruise along with optics pointing out of the window, stopping when they see something interesting or vaguely close. This of course then leads to small gaggles of vehicles (engines running!) all stopped together as the people behind are curious as to what the car in front has seen. Not really my style. That said, it was a great reserve with vast numbers of waders and as such it was a great shame that I did not have a scope - I really need to invest in a tiny travel scope, possibly not even of tremendous quality, just to cater for these situations. Our first stop was the tower at Raymond Pool, a short walk from a small car park - naturally we were the only people there. The pool is enormous, and was carpeted with Dunlin, Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers. We identified these by virtue of them being on the closest shoreline, but there were birds as far as the eye could see. Bald Eagles cruised overhead with Osprey, and a Northern Harrier passed over. In the scrub underneath the tower were a Yellowthroat, White-eyed Vireo and numerous Catbirds and Red-winged Blackbirds, whilst Orchard Oriole and Yellow Warbler sang at eye level and a Brown Thrasher dashed through. As we headed back towards the car a Pileated Woodpecker started to drum, Carolina Wrens sang, and a Red-eyed Vireo was high above us. Why are the trees in America so tall?

Raymond Pool

The Boardwalk Trail was having some work done so we carried on the Shearness Pool which was probably six times the size of Raymond's. The first Willet, more Great Blue Heron and Snowy Egret, Mute Swans, Green-winged Teal and Grey Plover out on the saltmarsh, with Prothonotary Warbler, Swamp Sparrow, Marsh Wren and loads of Common Grackle along the margins. A good stop was at the head of the Parson's Point Trail, with another Pileated Woodpecker, a pair of Red-bellied Woodpecker, the first Ovenbirds, Great Crested Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, Blue Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting, and various warblers that Merlin picked up but that we couldn't locate - Black-and-White and Blackpoll amongst them. Our rules for using Merlin are quite straightforward. For a first sighting you can't count anything until you have actually seen it. For subsequent pick ups you can only count it if you can recognise it which obviously this early in the trip was extremely hard. By the end of the three days though we were confidently identifying lots of species on song, often before Merlin got there, including Ovenbird, Parula, Cardinal, Wood Thrush, Carolina Wren, Great Crested Flycatcher and Red-bellied Woodpecker. It is a great tool if used properly, and can really help the unfamiliar birder eke out species they would not have known were present. We found it indispensable. We did see a lot of absurd use though, of people simply wandering around with a phone in their hand. No binoculars, perhaps a camera, and Merlin presumably then became their eBird list. 

Red-winged Blackbird

Wood Thrush

Smaller pools along Dutch Neck Road gave up American Coot, a Black-necked Stilt, Green Heron, and close enough views of waders to be able to pick out definitive Semipalmated Sandpipers. We drove the full circuit at Bombay Hook over five hours, ending up with a list of 68 species which we thought was pretty decent. We had however burned tons of time not seeing at least 10 more species that Merlin had said were present, so the time was now close to midday and we were only just leaving our first stop. Per the itinerary I had carefully planned this was still within tolerance, in fact we were leaving slightly earlier than I had predicted so we were able to stop in the Augustine Wildlife Area a little further north whilst heading up to Wilmington where we turned left for Jersey. We chose Ashton Tract as this short stop, adding Downy Woodpecker, Cattle Egret, Field Sparrow and Pine Warbler to the ever-growing list.

We arrived at Fort Mott State Park in the great State of New Jersey just before 3pm, now perhaps later than I had planned, and birded the obvious forest trail to the east of the old gun emplacements towards the Civil War cemetery. This was excellent if a little quiet at this point in the day. Highlights included excellent views of Northern Waterthrush and Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, and Fish and American Crows side by side vocalising, which is always helpful for the uninitiated. New Jersey was a not a State tick, simply a side excursion to ensure we passed through all six in this area, as well as an opportunity to boost a feeble State list of just 37 gained from a few hours on Cape May in 2019 whilst in transit back to London. Fort Mott was chosen simply as it was the best looking site just over the Delaware border.

The woodland trail at Fort Mott SP

At about 4pm we crossed back into Delaware and headed back to Augustine, somewhat of an arse about tip way of doing things, but using eBird on the fly had meant we were alerted to a good area, Thousand Acre Marsh, that we had driven right past a few hours earlier. Seeing as it was not much of a detour to get back there that's what we did, picking up some Wild Turkey on the way. What had brought us back was recent and very precise news of a Wilson's Phalarope, Glossy Ibis and a Shoveler - the latter is admittedly not very exciting but we were pretty keen on the other two, especially the Phalarope. Our lack of scope let us down again and we could not find it. To be fair it should have shone out light a bright white beacon so I suspect it simply wasn't visible and was hiding in one of the smaller pools, however the duck was asleep on the far bank and some Glossy Ibis were feeding around the corner from where they had been reported. Yay! We also pulled a Sand Martin out of the many hirundines here. Of note were 14 Bald Eagles in one scan, all lined up along the shore. A pretty cool sight. With the day running out we birded a couple of sites close to here, Dragon Run Marsh, just over the canal, as well as the Canal Wildlife area, adding Pied-billed Grebe and Chimney Swift to the list. Disappointingly and despite having taken great care, I also discovered a Deer Tick crawling on my cloths at this spot, as well as one in the car and one on my head. These had either come from standing stationary just that little bit too close to some grass, or they had parachuted commando style from overhanging branches as I passed. I constructed a brief strip search of myself, or as best I could manage in public, before we headed west to Maryland and our accomodation in Aberdeen, which is a satellite town of Baltimore and close to Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River which we would be birding tomorrow. It had been a long day but a good sleep beckoned. 84 species the tally.