Saturday, Nov. 21 Trips & Reservations – Delmarva Birding Weekends

MORNING FIELD TRIPS

Indian River Inlet, Delaware Seashore State Park & Silver Lake (DRIVING/HIKING)
8:00 – 11:30 am
Cost: $25/person
Meeting Location: South jetty of the Indian River Inlet, DE, near Big Chill Beach Club

Please note: Cost does not include entry fee for Delaware Seashore State Park, which must be paid through Nov. 30. Access is granted with a Delaware State Parks Annual Pass, or with a day-use fee of $5/vehicle with DE tags or $10/vehicle with out-of-state tags. For more information, please visit Delaware State Parks Passes, Tags & Fees.

The Indian River Inlet and Delaware Seashore State Park offer some of Delmarva’s best coastal birding. Indian River Inlet is home to a huge mixed flock of sea ducks including all three scoters and Long-tailed Ducks that may be joined by Common Eider and Harlequin Duck, Great Cormorants and both Loons. Purple Sandpipers may be present on the inlet jetties. After searching for lingering songbird migrants at Burton Island, we’ll caravan to Silver Lake in Rehoboth Beach to scope for ducks.

Newport Farms Waterfowl Wonderland (DRIVING/HIKING)
8:00 – 11:00 am
Cost: $25/peron
Meeting Location: the cul-de-sac at the end of Hayes Landing Road near Berlin, MD

The 2,200-acre Newport Farm reveals spectacular waterfowl watching replete with a remote 70-acre freshwater pond next to the vast forests and marshes of Newport Bay. For this reason, this trip enjoys one of the highest species counts during our weekends. Bird lovers on this one-of-a-kind trip will enjoy short walks totaling less than a mile. The bucolic scene provides a breathtaking backdrop to one of Maryland’s most-renowned Bald Eagle spectacles. We’ll search for multiple duck species on the water, fast-flying falcons in the skies, and we may get lucky with American White Pelicans on the pond! After the tour, enjoy a leisurely lunch in Berlin before our afternoon field trip begins at 1:30 pm in Heron Park.

AFTERNOON FIELD TRIPS

Prime Hook NWR and Fowler’s Beach (DRIVING/HIKING)
1:30 – 5:00 pm
Cost: $25/person
Meeting Location: DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor, 2992 Lighthouse Rd., Milford, DE 19963

THIS TRIP IS SOLD OUT.

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Milton, Delaware, is the perfect birding location for welcoming winter waterfowl. We’ll search for the marshes and shallow water for ducks, geese and swans, and search the nearby forests for raptors and winter songbirds. We will end the trip at Fowler’s Beach, the northern access to Prime Hook NWR, where we will walk out to the beach in search of wintering shorebirds. As the sun sets at the end of the day we will scan the marsh for hunting Short-eared Owls. The trip will involve some easy walking, and car caravans between major stops.

Meeting Locations

Please note:

Food and drink are not included in the trip cost.
No cancellations are accepted after November 10, 2020, unless diagnosed or quarantined with COVID-19.
Trips will go rain or shine.
If the trip is canceled due to dangerous conditions, a full refund will be provided. We will notify you via email of trip cancelation before noon on Friday, Nov. 20.

Banner photo, left to right: Northern Harrier, Canvasback and Northern Shoveler. Photos courtesy of Frode Jacobsen.