I went on a bird trip with the Sussex Bird Club to Bombay Hook NWR. The group consisted of about 20 people. We drove together caravan-style to five areas of the refuge. The following describes the birds that I identified (some people saw some birds that others did not). Birds I saw at the Visitor’s Center included American goldfinch, mallard (flock of 4), bald eagle, and northern cardinal. Just past the stop sign on the right was a sedge wren among the reeds. All of us heard it and I caught a brief glimpse of it. Some of the birds we saw in Raymond Pool included double-crested cormorant, American avocet, semipalmated plover, black-bellied plover, western sandpiper, semipalmated sandpiper, and greater yellowlegs. Some of the birds we saw in Shearness Pool included Forster’s tern, great blue heron, least sandpiper, mute swan (1), black-necked stilt, osprey, short-billed dowitcher, and laughing gull. In Bear Swamp Pool, birds included great egret, gull-billed tern, little blue heron (5 immatures), snowy egret, and turkey vulture. The last stop was Finis Pool. The highlight there was an immature black-crowned night heron and immature yellow-crowned night heron fairly close to each other. There was also an adult black-crowned night heron, belted kingfisher, green heron, spotted sandpiper, and solitary sandpiper.
MY PHOTOS: yellow-crowned night heron, black-crowned night heron, American avocet, gull-billed tern, Forster’s tern, great blue heron, double-crested cormorant
