We went birding with several members of the Sussex Bird Club and we covered five areas of the refuge. Some of the birds we identified by the Visitor’s Center were purple martin, bobwhite, red-bellied woodpecker, green heron, and northern mockingbird. Birds we identified in Raymond Pool included great egret, marsh wren, common yellowthroat, short-billed dowitcher, bald eagle (in the distant trees towards the bay), snowy egret, Canada goose, and American avocet. There were more American avocets in the afternoon than in the morning because the incoming high tide pushed them away from the marsh and into the pool. Shearness Pool gave is 28 species. Some of these birds were glossy ibis, trumpeter swans (2 along the far shore), cattle egret, yellow-billed cuckoo, great blue heron, black-necked stilt, tree swallow, orchard oriole, double-crested cormorant, mute swan, clapper rail, glossy ibis, common gallinule, laughing gull, and blue grosbeak. Birds in Bear Swamp Pool included lesser yellowlegs, Forster’s tern, least tern, willet, clapper rail, marsh wren, solitary sandpiper, Carolina wren, and eastern towhee. The last stop was Finis pool. We stayed here longer than the rest of the group. Some of the birds we identified here were yellow-crowned night-heron (1 adult and 1 imm.), American goldfinch, wood thrush, red-eyed vireo, orchard oriole, green heron, American robin, osprey, and eastern wood-peewee.
MY PHOTOS: marsh wren, glossy ibis, great egret, American avocet, snowy egret, lesser yellowlegs, American goldfinch, eastern kingbird
