Delaware Shores & shorebird Migration

 I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

 I hope everyone is enjoying Spring, it is a great time of the year to see the migrating birds.  After a spring full moon and the water temp's in the high 50's, the horseshoe crabs make their way out of the Delaware Bay. The arrival of the spawning horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay is timed perfectly for the migrating shorebirds.  Last weekend, beside Bombay Hook NWR hubby and I also visited the Delaware beaches hoping to see some of these migrating birds.

Slaughter beach above is one of the stops we made to check out the horseshoe crabs and to look for birds. On the path to the beach we saw a few Tree Swallows and the Purple Martins at their houses. Hubby and I walked up and down the beach turning over any horseshoe crabs that was stranded on its back. We were doing our part in trying to save these declining horseshoe crabs.

Shorebird congregations will feast upon the thousand of horseshoe crab eggs. The birds depend on these eggs to refuel during their spring migration. Saving these horseshoe crabs is important, not only to protect this arthropod species but to prevent the decline of shorebirds like the Red Knots and the Semipalmated Sandpipers. 

The horseshoe crab is like a hotel for living creatures that are attached to the shell of the horseshoe crab. Some of these hitchhikers have no effect on the day to day life of this horseshoe crab, but over time they may degrade the shell.

The male horseshoe crab will hang onto the female as she crawls up the beach laying thousands of eggs in sandy nest. As the female drags the male they in turn fertilize the eggs in each nest as they are pulled over the nest and eggs.

The Horseshoe crab can lay as many as 60,000 to 120,000 tiny green eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time.

 

For me seeing these gathering of the horseshoe crabs and seeing thousands of shorebirds is an awesome wildlife spectacle. On this day we saw mostly laughing gulls.  I believe the migrating shorebirds are still on their way to the Delaware shore. Hopefully there will be plenty of eggs to help refuel these migrating birds on their journey to their breeding grounds in the Artic.

Birding Bombay Hook and Delaware

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and  Our World Tuesday

I have been posting so many photos from my trip I have been ignoring other outings I have been on since being home. We visited the Delaware shore and the Bombay Hook NWR the weekend of the Super Moon.

 Above Bonaparte's Gulls, Dowitchers, Super Moon, Swallow at the Dupont Nature Center, last bottom right more Dowitchers.

The mating season of the horseshoe crabs happens during the spring full moon when the tides are high. The female horseshoe crab will dig a hole in the sand and deposit her eggs and then the male will fertilize the eggs with his sperm. Nature is cool. Somehow the migrating shorebirds, especially the Red Knots find their way to the Delaware shore to feast upon these horseshoe crab eggs. Apparently, the birds know the schedule better than I. We were a few days to a week early to see the large count of shorebirds. But, I was happy to see all the Dunlins with their spotted black bellies, the Ruddy Turnstones, Dowitchers and hundreds of gulls.

 From a distance it was hard trying to id all the smaller shorebirds mixed in with the gulls. But, I did see a few Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones and lots of Dunlins.

During this visit we also make a quick stop at the Bombay Hook NWR. The wildflowers looked beautiful and enjoyed seeing more birds.

The Yellow Crowned Night Heron  was seen near the Black Crown Night Heron rookery. The BC Night Herons were perched in trees between the leaves so it was difficult to see them much less take any photos. I did count at least 7 BC Night Herons but I am sure there were many more.

 The wild irises were gorgeous.

We saw many BC Night herons, Great Egrets, GB Herons, Snowy Egrets,  along with Dowitchers and more Dunlins.

Back at home we were able to see the full moon setting over our lake.


To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday. 
Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and thanks to the hosting group at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post and I hope everyone has a great week ahead.