Delaware 3/28-29--American Avocet, Lesser Yellowlegs, Laughing Gull, Forster's Tern, Rusty Blackbird

DuPont Nature Center, Mispillion, DE
Photo: Shari Zirlin

For my birthday, Shari took me on an all-expenses-paid trip to Delaware for birding and Indian food. The weather forecasts were not propitious but the best birding is done in the worst weather, right?

We arrived at Bombay Hook just in time for a snow shower. After checking out the headquarters area and finding a Chipping Sparrow in among the other sparrows, we headed for the dikes. There is only one bird in Delaware this time of year that I can't get in NJ and I got it right away in the Raymond Pool--American Avocet. There were a number of these beautiful shorebirds, scattered in the deep water. They are starting to come into breeding plumage, so their heads are taking on a soft brownish-red hue. I actually prefer them in their basic plumage when they are stark black and white, but they are great birds in whatever molt they're in.

Unfortunately, our trip was cut a bit short by car trouble. I had just had the Subaru serviced so I wouldn't have to worry about mechanical problems but a seemingly freak incident occurred. While I was driving on the dirt road, going slowly mind you, we heard a loud twang come from the back of the car. I stopped, got out, looked under the car, saw nothing. Then when we started driving a screeching sound was coming from somewhere below. When Shari drove the car, it sounded to me like it was coming from the front driver's side wheel. We limped slowly out of the refuge (ever birding, I managed to glimpse two Blue-winged Teal on the way out) and parked just outside the refuge boundary. Shari called Subaru road-side assistance and they said they'd have a truck out there within an hour. The problem was, where do you bring the car. The local Subaru dealership in Dover was going to close by 4 and we'd never get there in time and only the service dept could give us a loaner. We thought we'd be stuck there until Monday. Shari called our friends to take care of the cat and called the dealership again. They agreed to stay "a little late."

The tow truck got there a half-hour before ETA and after a loud, bumpy, ride into Dover, during which the tow truck driver vented his spleen regarding foreigners, we arrived at Winner Subaru. As the head of service backed the truck off the flatbed trailer, the screeching was loud. The chief mechanic said, "It's the backing plate, this should take five minutes."

He was wrong. It took three minutes. It took him longer to explain to me what happened than it did to fix it. The car had apparently managed to run over a stick or stone in just the right way to send it banging up again the backing plate of the wheel, bending it into the wheel. The twanging sound in the back was the object being hurled to the rear. All he had to do was adjust the plate and we were done. No charge. It wasn't even worth writing up a job ticket.

Which is great, except it leaves me wondering about those commercials where you see the car plunging into ravines and climbing mountainsides. If the car be disabled by a random stone on a well-tended, relatively smooth dirt road, how likely am I to drive it down a stream bed?

We were only 5 minutes from our hotel, so we drove over there and rested for a while before going out for the real treat of Dover, DE--Flavors of India, a restaurant in an inauspicious location. I have eaten Indian food in most of the famous NYC restaurants. I've eaten Indian food in the South Asian enclave of Woodbridge/Edison NJ. I've eaten Indian food in London. The very best Indian food I have ever eaten is in this restaurant in Dover, DE, built into the side of a Motel 8. There is a liquor store now where the lobby of the motel used to be (it has since been moved to the side of the building). When we first started to go to this restaurant, to use the rest rooms you had to leave the store and go into the motel lobby. They are now part of the restaurant.

We had a wonderful meal, as always. And by the way, it is cheap.

On Sunday we drove south to the Prime Hook NWR. I had seen interesting sightings from the area and we started finding a lot of birds in the fields and marshes along Prime Hook Beach Road. We spotted a flock of Snow Geese in a field, then a Peregrine Falcon flying overhead. A requisite Bald Eagle sitting in a dead tree. The ducks were closer in than they were at Bombay Hook and then the real treat--hundreds of avocets, some of them only a few feet away, giving glorious looks.

And then the first-of-year birds started to appear. A Forster's Tern over the marsh; Lesser Yellowlegs, easy to pick out in direct comparison with the Greater version; a couple of Laughing Gulls loafing on a sandbar.

We drove over to Prime Hook HQ area and walked around there--it was still pretty windy and cold for March 29. On the other hand, last year on my birthday we couldn't bird at all because of drenching rains. We bought the Subaru instead.

We walked around an area we hadn't explored much before and didn't find much aside from a couple of Pine Warblers and our first Rusty Blackbird of the year. Rusty Blackbirds at this time of year are misnomers. They're totally black and look pretty much like grackles without tails.

We explored a few more roads, picking up Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers, a Horned Lark in a farm field just off the coastal highway and at the DuPont Nature Center, Shari's favorite, American Oystercatchers. Having checked those big birds off the list, we drove up to Bombay Hook for one more spin around the impoundments, where we didn't find anything new for the trip, and drove back home from there, with 68 species and lots of tandoori to show for the effort.

Species             First Sighting

Snow Goose     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Canada Goose     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Mute Swan     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Tundra Swan     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Gadwall     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Wigeon     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Black Duck     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Mallard     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Blue-winged Teal     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Northern Shoveler     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Northern Pintail     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Green-winged Teal     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Ring-necked Duck     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Surf Scoter     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Bufflehead     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Common Merganser     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Red-breasted Merganser     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Ruddy Duck     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Double-crested Cormorant     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Great Blue Heron     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Great Egret     Prime Hook NWR

Black Vulture     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Turkey Vulture     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Osprey     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Northern Harrier     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Bald Eagle     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Red-tailed Hawk     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Coot     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Avocet     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Oystercatcher     DuPont Nature Center

Black-bellied Plover     Fowler Beach Rd.

Greater Yellowlegs     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Lesser Yellowlegs     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Sanderling     Fowler Beach Rd.

Dunlin     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Laughing Gull     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Ring-billed Gull     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Herring Gull     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Great Black-backed Gull     DuPont Nature Center

Forster's Tern     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Mourning Dove     Prime Hook NWR

Belted Kingfisher     Prime Hook NWR

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Kestrel     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Peregrine Falcon     Prime Hook Beach Rd.

Eastern Phoebe     Prime Hook NWR

Blue Jay     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Crow     Prime Hook NWR

Fish Crow     Prime Hook NWR

Horned Lark     Bakersfield Rd & Rt. 1

Carolina Chickadee     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Tufted Titmouse     Prime Hook NWR

Eastern Bluebird     Prime Hook NWR

American Robin     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Northern Mockingbird     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

European Starling     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Pine Warbler     Prime Hook NWR

Chipping Sparrow     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Fox Sparrow     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Song Sparrow     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

White-throated Sparrow     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Dark-eyed Junco     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Northern Cardinal     Prime Hook NWR

Red-winged Blackbird     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Rusty Blackbird     Prime Hook NWR

Boat-tailed Grackle     DuPont Nature Center

American Goldfinch     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

House Sparrow     Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge