Category: Delaware

Photo of a team of bird ringers sat on a beach under a shade cover processing birds. Photo by Cathy Ryden

Delaware 2023: 25 May–4 June

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Thursday 25 May

After two full weeks at Slaughter Beach, we were all well into the swing of the Project and another cannon-net catch was planned for midday at Osprey Beach. It was a gusty, chilly morning, but began to warm up and settle down around 09:00, by which point those who joined Shawn for mist-netting in the Ted Harvey woods had been up for many hours! Other activities of the morning included the construction of more exclosures around Piping Plover nests at Fowler Beach.

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A photo of a small flock of birds flying over water at sunset, with an orange sky above the shoreline. Photo by Cathy Ryden.

Delaware 2023: 18-24 May

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Thursday 18 May

Week two of shorebird fieldwork for the WWRG team in Delaware Bay began with the team’s third cannon-net catch… At a very relaxed 09:10, a setting team set off in the Jon boat into Mispillion Harbour and made for Back Beach. Meanwhile another group readied the Skiff with the rest of the equipment by making the most impressive chain to shift everything from the pickup truck into the boat. It was a shame this wasn’t caught on video! This swift method is now used at every opportunity, with great enthusiasm and to great effect.

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A group of shorebirds standing on a beach. Most are Semipalmated Sandpipers, but one is larger and is a Sanderling. All are white underneath - the sandpipers have grey backs and heads while the Sanderling also has reddish brown feathers. Photo by Cathy Ryden.

Delaware 2023: 10 – 17 May

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Wednesday 10 May

The first team of Brits made it safely across the sea and by the evening were looking over Mispillion Harbour in Delaware Bay, a long way from the UK. The sun dipped lower in the sky and the calls of Laughing Gulls filled the air as shorebirds foraged on the shores. For those who had come many times before, there was definitely a sense of returning to a familiar home. Jet-lag fatigue setting in, it wasn’t long after we arrived at this year’s WWRG base, on Slaughter Beach, that we all went to bed.

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A group of wader on the beach, by Rob Robinson

It was good to be back…

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Our third week started with the next aerial count; this one was setting out from Cape May at 08:00 hrs. We were all on site on time and got some counts done before the plane came over at the expected time. Strangely, the plane didn’t do the second pass over Mispillion, which is the usual protocol. There were good numbers of Knot on Back Beach, so the Mispillion count team stayed out to resight there, as did the Brock team, while Cathy and Lys went out to trap the PIPLs at Fowler’s. With relatively good resighting in Mispillion through the day there were three boat trips, with the last crew leaving when it started to get dark – the rest of us ate our frittata before they got back!

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Dunlin flying over water in Delaware

WWRG: back in the Bay

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So it’s three years since the WWRG team last came out to Delaware. Back then we bought our plane tickets and booked cars early as we were sure we would be coming over – then the World shut down… The only good thing was we got most of the costs of the flights and cars back. Into lockdown and virtually no fieldwork – it’s been a rough two years in many ways and we are still not out of the woods now – but we’re very grateful for vaccinations. This year we had to do supervised Covid tests and are living in a ‘bubble’ in a separate house – although we can use the basement of Penguin Manor to go and do data entry, but there is not too much of that yet.

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