Wild Delaware

Like low-digit Delaware license plates, there will only be 1,000 signed and numbered copies of Wild Delaware. Publication is this November but if you order now you will receive a signed and numbered copy of Wild Delaware plus two free signed lithographs plus free shipping. Just click Order Wild Delaware Online! (above) for the pre-publication special.

White Clay Creek State Park near Newark was alive today with a mix of resident birds and migrating birds moving toward the northern states and Canada. Many of the migrating birds will be gone in the next few days and they will be followed by others heading north. I hope to get back into the forest along the banks of White Clay Creek several more times over the next two weeks to catch some of the transients as they pass through.

Kentucky Warbler

Acadian Flycatcher

Canada Warbler

Gray Catbird

Northern Waterthrush

Red-eyed Vireo

Veery

Barn swallows prefer to nest on man-made structures and this one lives under a bridge adjacent to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Hopefully his nest survived yesterday storm tide raging under the bridge.

It is impossible to imagine the devastation to wildlife by yesterday’s coastal storm that battered Delaware with wind gusts up to 56 mph, torrential rains and severe flooding along inland bays and wetlands. This morning I found a grackle gathering material to rebuild its nest that was destroyed by the storm.

Last night and today has been difficult for much of Delaware’s wildlife. There has been so much coastal flooding along the inland bays and ocean that birds like gulls and terns that nest on the ground have had their nests destroyed. Other animals like fox and groundhogs that have underground dens have suffered from the flooding as well. No doubt, the strong winds have destroyed tree nests of many other birds.

Plume hunting in the late 1800s and early 1900s reduced the population of the Great Egret by as much as 95% but the birds recovered when hunting them was made illegal.

Here’s a fly you have to like. This long-legged fly is a brilliant, metallic green chromatic beauty in the usually rather drab fly world. And this one doesn’t buzz around your head and bite you but prefers to feed on mites, aphids and small flies.

Do you think this Willet can swallow a whole sand crab? It was quite a mouthful but the Willet could do it.

Tadpoles abound this time of year at Ashland Nature Center and they are easily found in the fresh water marsh there.

You can see the surface tension under the legs of this water strider on a fresh water pond at Delaware Nature Society’s Ashland Nature Center. The front legs of this “pond skater” are short and built for grabbing prey and the longer middle and back legs are covered with fine waterproof hairs for floatation.