Wild Delaware

People tell me all the time I must be really lucky to see the things I do. That’s true enough but to be in the right place at the right time takes more than luck. Still, when it all comes together and I catch a red fox with just the first rays of sunrise light on his face I feel very, very lucky!

If you get up before sunrise and get out into the wild areas of Delaware you may be surprised by what you can find. Today was a great morning with a hazy sunrise and a mother deer with two fawns crossing a shallow pond.

Sunrise was beautiful today with the August haze diffusing the light. I was hoping to photograph deer and wading birds along the edge of my favorite salt marsh but none were to be found. And then the sun disappeared behind a cloud. That’s when I found a large cluster of blue crabs in shallow water. Hundreds had gathered and were grouped together in lines and in piles. At first it seemed they were mating but it was really a very rare occurance that Chesapeake Bay watermen call a “crab jubilee.” During hypoxic and anoxic conditions, almost all underwater creatures are affected. Perhaps the most dramatic reaction to low oxygen conditions is when oxygen starved crabs crawl out of the water onto land in search of oxygen. Hot weather like yesterday’s record-setting temperatures reduce the amount of oxygen in the water. August 9, 2007

White-tailed probably outnumber tourists in Cape Henlopen State park in the winter but not in the summer when they retreat deep into the woodlands. June 2007

This is the morning that makes getting up well before the crack of dawn worthwhile. There was a touch of fog in the air and it was clear in the night sky overhead. In short, a perfect morning to photograph wildlife. I made it to a brackish pond in Sussex County before sunrise and found the shallow mudflats covered with herons, egrets, ibis and seagulls. At sunrise the light was soft and warm with the wildlife mostly back-lit making the shape of the wading birds stand out against the background. August 7, 2007

With my son Jay at the helm of his fishing boat, we headed up the Broadkill River from Lewes at sunset. Around each turn we found herons and other wading birds. I caught this great blue heron springing into the sky from the roof of a duckblind. August 3, 2007