Sunday, Jan. 18

Black Scoter photo courtesy of Frode Jacobsen. Harbor and Gray Seals photo courtesy of Rita Modesti.

Registration is open! All reservations will be confirmed via email. No cancellations after January 2, 2026. Trips are subject to weather cancellations.

Make the Dogfish INN your Basecamp for Winter BirdINNg! Pair your birding adventure with a stay at the Dogfish INN in historic downtown Lewes, and visit Dogfish Head’s off-centered world before and after your field trips at the at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, and Brewings & Eats and Chesapeake & Maine in Rehoboth Beach.

Please note (updated 2:30 pm on Sunday, Dec. 28): We are currently updating our website to accommodate PayPal’s recent payment button upgrades. We are working quickly to restore the ‘Add to Cart’ function and apologize for any temporary inconvenience. Thank you for your patience.

MORNING TRIPS

Bays, Ponds & Beaches: Tower Road, Silver Lake & Gordon’s Pond (DRIVING/HIKING)
Time: 8:00 – 11:00 am
Cost: $30/person
Guides: Russ Kovach & Jim Rapp
Meeting Location: bayside beach parking area on Tower Road, just south of Dewey Beach, DE. GPS coordinates: 38.674928, -75.073242

Please note: There is no entry fee for Tower Road in January.

Click here to register for the Bays, Ponds & Beaches field trip.

Canvasback. Photo courtesy of Dr. Frode Jacobsen.

This fun winter field trip will include short drives, hikes and stops at some of the best birding hotspots in the Rehoboth Beach/Dewey Beach area. We’ll meet at the bayside beach parking area on Tower Road to scope Rehoboth Bay for waterfowl and shorebirds. From Tower Road, we’ll drive ~two miles to our next stop at Silver Lake, a tranquil oasis in Rehoboth Beach known for its diverse winter duck population. From Silver Lake, we’ll drive ~three miles to end our avian adventure with a ~1.6 mile round-trip hike to the Gordon’s Pond overlook at the southern end of Cape Henlopen State Park.

Participants will drive their own vehicles. Total driving distance is ~five miles and total hiking for the morning is under two miles.

Indian River Inlet & Burton Island (DRIVING/HIKING) 
Time: 8:00 – 11:00 am
Cost: $30/person
Guides: Chris Bennett & Anthony Gonzon
Meeting Location: South jetty of the Indian River Inlet, DE, near Big Chill Beach Club, 27099 Coastal Hwy, Bethany Beach, DE 19930. GPS coordinates: 38.607106, -75.062124

Please note: There is no entry fee for Delaware Seashore State Park in January.

Click here to register for the Indian River Inlet & Burton Island field trip.

Red-throated Loon. Photo courtesy of Dr. Frode Jacobsen.

The Indian River Inlet and inland bays offer some of Delaware’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 Common and Red-throated Loons. Purple Sandpipers are usually observed on the inlet jetties. Horned Grebes and Brant can be viewed from the trails near Burton Island on Rehoboth Bay.

Participants will drive their own vehicles from the Indian River Inlet to Burton Island. Total driving distance is less than 2.5 miles.

What goes better together than birds and beers? Here are Dogfish Head’s off-centered ale pairing recommendations for the Winter Delmarva Dogfish BirdINNg Weekend! Please drink responsibly.

60-minute IPA: Brewed using a boatload of intense Northwest hops, we boil this continually hopped IPA for a full 60 minutes, adding more than 60 hop additions continuously to create a bold and timeless flavor. Continually hopped to deliver a pungently, citrusy, grassy hop flavor without being crushingly bitter, 60 Minute IPA is a surprisingly sessionable IPA for the craft enthusiast.

Citrus Squall: Citrus Squall is the perfect storm of a double golden ale and a paloma cocktail brewed with grapefruit juice, blue agave nectar, lime peels and a touch of sea salt, bringing strong gusts of citrusy hop and grapefruit aromas, counterbalanced by a downpouring of bright and tart grapefruit flavor and a blue agave nectar sweetness. 

SeaQuench Ale: Objectively the most refreshing beer we’ve ever brewed, SeaQuench Ale is a session sour mash-up of a crisp Kölsch, a salty Gose and a tart Berliner Weiss brewed in sequence with black limes, sour lime juice and sea salt. The result? A citrusy-tart union that has captured the attention and hearts of beer, wine and margarita drinkers alike!

Please note:

  • No cancellations are accepted after January 2, 2026. For a further explanation of our refund policy, please click here.
  • Trips will go rain or shine, unless torrential rains prevent us from viewing wildlife.
  • If the trip is canceled due to dangerous conditions, we will notify you via email. Please note that the email will be sent to all participants BCC, so you may need to check your email spam folder. A full refund will be provided within 15 days.