Sunday, February 19, 2017

Bombay Hook

Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge is located on the shore of Delaware Bay, on the Delaware side. in August and September, a series of ponds and marshes provide a stopover point for thousands of shorebirds heading south, including the largest number of American Avocets on the east coast:

HM7A3679

Thousands of smaller shorebirds, like these Semipalmated Sandpipers, stop by as well:
HM7A5002

Snowy Egrets are nesting residents there:
HM7A3733

At one point as we watching the avocets, all of them raised their heads and looked in one direction, away from us:
HM7A3628

And here was the reason - look right above the avocets on the right. It's a Peregrine Falcon. The picture is a bit blurry, but you can still see the face pattern:
HM7A3631

The peregrine didn't get an avocet, but it did get a sandpiper:
HM7A3664

Another hunter, another success: Great Egret getting hi fish:
HM7A4625

Least Sandpiper, the smallest of them all:
HM7A3579

Other pleasures of summer:
HM7A4855

HM7A4042

HM7A5467

HM7A5425

More than just birds and butterflies was flying over Bombay Hook that day:
HM7A5103

Salem Nuclear Plant, visible from Bombay Hook. It's actually on the NJ side of the bay, but visible from miles around.
HM7A3953

In other news, in Bayonne Bay last summer, a juvenile gull found its lunch:
HM7A3589

Bay house sparrows on a New York street:
HM7A3529

And the father showed up with some food:
HM7A3518

HM7A3476

HM7A3469

1 comment: