Bombay Hook

 

   We went to Bombay Hook on the last day of our trip. Once we left there we had a long painful drive home. Like almost everything else we did on this trip, going to Bombay Hook had been on my bucket list for years. Bombay Hook is a National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. From Assateague Island it is a two hour drive. Once off of the main highway, it is pretty drive through farms and rural areas to get there. There is an admission fee. I think it was five dollars. Like most wildlife refuges, there is a wildlife drive. It is a loop road with one or two stems that branch off. The road has many pull offs along the route to get out and enjoy the wildlife. 

    There are a couple of hiking trails. We had planned on going down them, but the flies were so bad that it was impossible to walk. There were multiple species of horseflies, deerflies, and others that made it impossible to enjoy most of the refuge. Some of the flies would fly around your head, while others would bite you. So as you can imagine, we did most of the birding from the car. The flies were really bad at some parts of the refuge, while at others there were only a few. Unfortunately, most of the places we stopped the flies were unbearable. But fortunately, the place that we saw Black Necked Stilts was one of the few spots where we were left alone. 

   The main goal of going to Bombay Hook was to see Black Necked Stilts that nest there. I knew there were many other fun birds to see such as Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Carolina Chickadees which live there. I would have been happy to see them, but if I didn't see any Stilts, I would have considered the trip to Bombay Hook a disappointment. Luckily, we saw many Black Necked Stilts and as I mentioned above, they were in places we could get out of the car. 

   We did the wildlife drive four times taking about an hour each time. It was only 12:30 pm when we decided to head home which put us in Connecticut suburbs of NYC at 5 pm, not our smartest decision. While at Bombay Hook, we did get to enjoy  some other good birds. As I said, we saw Skimmers and Royal Terns. We saw many Eastern Kingbirds and an Orchard Oriole. The best way to describe our experience was- I got great looks at Black Necked Stilts and we made the best of the day while being limited by flies.