Not Just Another Great Blue Heron Not at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge on the Delaware Bay, near Smyrna, Delaware, United States. This refuge is located on the Atlantic Ocean in eastern United States. Bombay Hook is a premier place to catch Ardea herodias of North America in their beautiful habitat. You will be rewarded with a phenomenal birding experience every year at Bombay Hook NWR. Go in different seasons to encounter the vast variety of migrating birds. The park includes one of the largest tidal salt marshes in the mid-Atlantic region, a magnet for migrating birds.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service manages a system of 568 refuges including over 150,000,000 acres. President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the first refuge, Pelican Island in Florida in 1903. Fishing and hunting are permitted in most of the refuges.
The refuge’s freshwater impoundments provide mudflat habitats for migrating birds in spring, especially herons. The refuge has four impoundments – Raymond Pool, Shearness Pool, Bear Swamp Pool, and Finis Pool. Water levels are managed seasonally, providing spring mudflats for shorebirds, then they are flooded in the fall for dabbling ducks to access seeds
The impoundments attract millions of migratory ducks, and it is a welcome stopover for shorebirds, neo-tropical songbirds, like warblers, and wading birds, like a variety of herons.
The marshes are a critical stop for these migrating birds on their way to their northern breeding grounds. Routinely, you will spot eagles, Hooded Warblers, American Avocets, Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Dowitchers, Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plovers, Saltmarsh Sparrows, Northern Pintail, and Green-winged Teal. There is much variety and abundance of birds at Bombay Hook. You will also see Shoveler Ducks, Snowy Egrets, Osprey at Finis Pool, harriers, and tens of thousands of Snow Geese. What is more exhilarating than 30,000 or more Snow Geese arriving in October at Raymond Pool, all taking flight at once before you? It is magical!
Mammals include red fox and kits, found on the opposite side of the park. Watch for rabbits and groundhogs along the scenic drive, and gray squirrels hopping amongst the trees, all dodging the Barred Owl. Later in the year, Short-eared Owl can be found around Shearness or Bear Swamp Pools, and of course, white tailed deer scamper about in winter too. It truly is a nature lover’s paradise.
But beware in late spring, driving through the 12 mile ride, the car windows will be coated with all sorts of flying, biting bugs. On the left is the freshwater marshes, and on the right is the salt water marshes. Bugs are there too. Each marsh has it own ecological niche for the wildlife that inhabits it. When you enter the Refuge, the Visitors Center is on your left.
Check out the many Purple Martin stations. It is fairly common to see the birds flying in and out. These birds are very good at eating those pesky bugs I mentioned.
The Great Blue Heron is a most commonly found bird. Its adult wingspan ranges 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet. The predation style used by herons is pretty well known. They stand still in shallow water, wait for fish to come near, and then impale prey with a head thrust, called the ‘bill stab’.
They are a large bird which can capture fish larger than those caught by other heron species. Don’t pass over those commonly seen herons at the tidal mudflats. They might just do something interesting besides stand still like a statue.
Donna Brok is an architect by profession. She is an avid traveler and wildlife photographer since the age of fourteen. Donna teaches photography classes, does presentations, and judges throughout camera clubs.