Photo Study Of A Lark Bunting And Some Other Birds At Bombay Hook NWR, September 19th, 2010

    Karen and Chris Bennett found and reported a Lark Bunting (a really rare bird anywhere east of the Mississippi River) at Bombay Hook near Raymond's on Sunday morning.
    Mike DeBonis and I just happened to be there at the right time.  Apparently, this is the first confirmed sighting of a Lark Bunting in Delaware and Mike got the confirmation
    photograph.  I managed to get some just ok photos of the Bunting later in the day (due to the poor light and distance!)  

Hatch Year Male Lark Bunting

    The Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) is a common sparrow of the Great Plains although there has been a population decline in recent years due to habitat loss.
    These birds have a grayish bill and a white wing patch. Adult males in breeding plumage are black except for their white wing patch. In non-breeding plumage, they
    are more sparrow-like in appearance; they have dark brown upperparts and white underparts, with streaking on the back, breast and flanks. The wings are dark with
    brown edges. Their breeding habitat is the prairie of central Canada and the mid-western United States. These birds migrate in flocks to southern Texas and Mexico.
    (Wikipedia; Cornell BNA)

    In addition, we saw four Marbled and two Hudsonian Godwits. A Little Blue Heron was hanging out in one of the Swimming Holes near Finis. There were over 400 American
    Avocets in Raymond's plus lots of Great and Snowy Egrets. All in all, it was a very nice day for picture taking.

Hudsonian Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Juvenile Little Blue Heron
 

    To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!

 Howard B. Eskin 2010     Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com       Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index