The Eastern Shore Birding Festival took place on October 5th and 6th at Cape Charles, Virginia. The festival hopes to increase the awareness of the role Virginia's Eastern Shore in bird migration and of the need for habitat preservation. Another goal was to show the benefits of ecotourism to the local economy. I was fortunate enough to attend the festival along with several of my Prodigy birding friends.
I left very early in the morning so that I could make a stop at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. As I was looking at songbirds in a tree, a ring-necked pheasant exploded into flight. A northern harrier worked the fields as tree swallows circled overhead. Among the songbirds seen were black-throated green warblers, swamp sparrows, American redstarts, and common yellowthroats. An immature black-throated blue warbler gave temporary identification problems as did a solitary vireo. House wrens and chipping sparrows were among the other goodies. A flock of thousands of snow geese was a pleasant surprise. I did not come across too many shorebirds, but did see a good variety of ducks - green-winged and blue-winged teal, mallards, American wigeon, and gadwalls. Raptors included a black vulture, a pair of red-tailed hawks flying side by side, and a pair of kiting American kestrels.
In addition to the birds, Bombay Hook offers some very attractive scenery, flora, and other wildlife.
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to Cape Charles
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Copyright ©
1996 Richard L. Becker