Sunday, March 16

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

For Sunday, March 16, we are running two morning field trips that are guaranteed to be fun and birdy! In Delaware, we’ll explore Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Milton, DE. In Maryland, we’ll host a new birding and oyster-tasting field trip with our friends at Baywater Seafood. In the afternoon, we may run a “Scoters & Seals” cruise in Lewes, DE from 2:30 – 5:00 pm if we can get 30 participants.

Registration is open for the morning trips! We have started a wait list for the Sunday afternoon cruise. Scroll down for more information.

MORNING TRIPS

Birds of Prime Hook NWR (DRIVING/HIKING)
Time: 8:00 – 11:00 am
Cost: $30/person
Meeting Location: Prime Hook NWR Visitor Center, 11978 Turkle Pond Rd, Milton, DE 19968. GPS coordinates: 38.830404, -75.248497

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Milton, Delaware, offers a cornucopia of birding opportunities – from saltmarsh and bay beach to freshwater ponds and rich, deciduous woodlands. We’ll sample each of the main habitat types looking for winter shorebirds and waterfowl. Scan the fields on your drive into the refuge for large flocks of Snow Geese! The trip will involve some easy walking and car caravans between major stops. Meet at the Prime Hook NWR Visitor Center on Turkle Pond Road. For a sample of the birds currently being observed at Prime Hook NWR, check out the eBird hotspot.

Chincoteague Bay Birding & Oyster Tasting (DRIVING/HIKING)
Time: 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Cost: $40/person
Meeting Location: the Baywater Landing Marina, located at 3908 Bayside Rd, Snow Hill, MD 21863. GPS coordinates: 38.132476, -75.299204

Please note: Cost includes six shucked local oysters from Baywater Seafood. You may purchase additional oysters if you wish. We’ll also have complimentary tastings of Dogfish Head craft ales!

Photo from June 2024. We’ll be dressed warmer in March!

The coastal bays of Maryland provide habitat for winter waterfowl and briny bivalves! We’ll watch the ducks and eat the oysters during this morning adventure along the landings of Chincoteague Bay. This field trip involves driving between locations and short, easy walks. Total driving distance between sites is less than 8 miles.

We’ll meet at the Baywater Landing Marina east of Snow Hill, MD, before departing on a two-stop caravan tour for birding along the landings. At Baywater Landing, we’ll scan the skies and salt marsh for gulls, herons and raptors. We’ll then drive to Figgs Landing, where we will scope the shallow ponds for waterfowl and shorebirds. From Figgs Landing, we will drive a short distance to Truitt’s Landing, where we will explore the marshes for sparrows and shorebirds. For a sample of the birds currently being observed at Truitt’s Landing, check out the eBird hotspot.

We’ll return to Baywater Landing around 11:15 am, where our friends at Baywater Seafood will introduce us to their operation. We’ll enjoy our oyster tasting and samples of Dogfish Head craft ales while they explain the connection to their business and clean coastal water. We’ll plan to depart Baywater Landing around noon.

AFTERNOON BOAT TRIP

Scoters & Seals (LEWES BOAT TOUR)
Time: 2:30 – 5:00 pm
Cost: $72/person (includes tip for First Mate)
Meeting Location: Fisherman’s Wharf 107 Anglers Rd, Lewes, DE 19958. GPS Coordinates: 38.776829, -75.137510

Registration for this cruise opened at 3:30 pm on Monday, March 3.

Join us for a 2.5-hour cruise of the waters around the mouth of the Delaware Bay aboard the Thelma Dale V. The boat features a heated cabin, benches along the lower deck rail, and a top deck for open-air viewing. We will visit the two stone breakwaters and the ice breakers in search of common and rare waterfowl and seabirds including gulls, cormorants, gannets, loons, scoters, eiders and with luck a Harlequin Duck or Razorbill. We also have a good chance of seeing Harbor and Gray Seals that regularly haul out on the rocks. Restrooms are available on board, and coolers (with off-centered ales from Dogfish Head) are welcome!

We are coordinating the boat trip with low tide, which will offer better views of the seals hauled out on the lower breakwater rocks. Low tide for Lewes on March 16 is 4:46 pm. Sunset is 7:08 pm.

Harbor and Gray Seal photos courtesy of Sherry Abbott.

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!

Avian Influenza Alert:

Recently, H5 avian influenza has been detected in sick and dead Snow Geese on Delmarva. We will be hosting field trips in areas where avian influenza may be present. If you maintain a backyard flock of chickens or work in the poultry industry, you may want to take precautions to minimize the spread of avian influenza. For more information about protecting yourself and your birds from avian influenza, please visit the CDC website.

If you encounter a sick or dead bird, please call these numbers and visit these websites for reporting information:

Please note:

  • No cancellations are accepted after February 28, 2025. 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.