Wild Delaware

WILMINGTON, DE – The Delaware Museum of Natural History presents Wild Delaware: The Photography of Kevin Fleming on view June 11 through September 7, 2008 at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal in Lewes.

Dramatic images by award-winning photographer Kevin Fleming showcase the wildlife and wild places found along the Delaware River Estuary. Many photographs capture lively animal behavior with breathtaking detail, such as two Piping Plovers competing for the same worm along the shore. All of the flora and fauna depicted in the exhibit can be seen within a 30-minute drive of Lewes.

”The extraordinary images in Wild Delaware clearly demonstrate Kevin’s talent for documenting the beauty, diversity, and importance of natural resources in the state of Delaware,” the museum’s Executive Director Halsey Spruance said. “The Delaware Museum of Natural History is proud to promote the appreciation of state wildlife in this special exhibit.”

A Delaware native, Fleming started his career in the newspaper business and went on to travel the world as a photographer for National Geographic. He worked in 26 countries photographing subjects as diverse as the subatomic world of high-energy physics and New Zealand sheep ranchers. His assignments took him around the globe to places like to Somalia, the Mediterranean, and the Canadian Arctic.

Fleming as been recognized as “America’s Best Observer” by Readers Digest and received the Roy Klein Hall of Fame Individual Achievement Award at the Delaware Governor’s Tourism Summit in April. The exhibit will travel to the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington, Delaware, in November in conjunction with the publication of Fleming’s forthcoming book titled Wild Delaware.

What: Delaware Museum of Natural History’s Wild Delaware: The Photography of Kevin Fleming
Where: Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal, 43 Henlopen Drive, Lewes, DE 19958
When: June 11 - September 7, 2008
Cost: Free

About the Delaware Museum of Natural History-

As the only natural history museum in Delaware, DMNH opened its doors in 1972 to excite and inform people about the natural world through exploration and discovery. The museum houses the state’s only permanent dinosaur display, surrounded by exhibits of mammals, shells, and other specimens from around the world. The museum houses world-renowned scientific collections of mollusks and birds, including the second largest collection of birds’ eggs in North America. For more information, call 302-658-9111 or visit www.delmnh.org.

When I was a teenager, my father built and installed a Wood Duck box on the stream right outside my bedroom window. Unfortunately, we never had Wood Ducks nesting in the box, we had Screech Owls. I still remember the first time I heard the Screech Owl’s song which can be described as a whistled whinny. What it really sounded like - the first time I heard it - was the horrible scream of a crime victim. After just a few days of getting used to the screech of my owl neighbors I learned to enjoy their unusual song.

Dozens of American Goldfinches continue to invade a field planted with lanceleaf coreopsis near Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. These photographs are from my second visit to the field and I am still hoping to catch a bunch of these colorful little birds in one shot.

I’ve been trying to photograph a Green Heron nest with chicks and have not been very successful the past three days. So I have not been able to post any new images. This full moon setting is on the Broadkill yesterday morning. Today brings the first day of summer and, perhaps, a little better luck…

I wasn’t expecting to photograph Mute Swan this morning at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge as they are more frequently found in Delaware in the winter. Beautiful to see and photograph, Mute Swan were introduced here from Europe where they live as tame birds on lakes in urban areas. Actually they are breeding birds from the Central Asian steppes. Here in Delaware this invasive species can eat as much as eight pounds of aquatic vegetation daily causing huge damage to the eco system of bays and ponds.

An American Goldfinch picks the seeds from a lanceleaf coreopsis late today. The seeds from this yellow flowering plant are a favorite food of this equally yellow bird.

Sunset last night brought a beautiful rainbow that connected both sides of the salt marsh at Canary Creek new Lewes.

Don’t miss out on the special pre-publication offer for Wild Delaware.

You know you are going to want this book for your own coffee table and everyone on your Christmas list will cherish the gift of Wild Delaware.

Order Wild Delaware now and you will receive two free lithographs with each copy! Publication of Wild Delaware 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.

Colorful Green Herons are one of my favorite birds to photograph. They are such intent fisherman you can feel their concentration as they crouch in the shadows and on branches awaiting an unlucky fish to swim by. This year-old green heron was watching the water from low branches just above the surface. When it spotted a fish - somehow through a thick carpet of duckweed - it would pounce.

An American Kestrel - sometimes called a Sparrow Hawk - lands at its knothole nest with a beak-full of bug to feed its young today.  This tiny falcon is about the size of a robin and is possibly the most colorful American raptor. The American Kestrel catches anything from grasshoppers, dragonflies and other bugs to small snakes and mice. I have to thank famed local bird photographer Kim Steininger for showing me this nest.