Greeting and salutations from the fair state of Delaware. So called the First State because Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. We came back east for a quick trip to do a little birding and relaxing.
We came by way of a stop in Jonestown PA to spend Saturday night with some family. Sunday morning we went on to Hawk Mountain, near Eckville PA. Hawk Mountain is on a major north-south raptor migration corridor. At one time “sportsmen” would blast the hawks out of the sky as the hawks flew by. Hundreds of hawks were killed each day. In the early 1930s a lady named Rosalie Edge was tired of the carnage and bought the mountain to stop the slaughter. She kicked the so-called sportsmen off the mountain and established a first of its kind raptor sanctuary. Mrs. Edge turned the mountain over to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association. From those beginnings has come a major research station focused on raptors and raptor migration. Thousands of people come during the annual fall migration counts. Similar counts have sprung up along migration corridors all around the world. The moral is that one person can make a difference. But it does help to be able to buy a mountain.
The north lookout.
The river of rocks view to the northeast.
The official counters.
We did a couple breezy hours watching hawks migrate past us on the North Lookout. The day we were there a total of 305 raptors were counted migrating through. Of those, 191 were sharp-shinned hawks. It was a slow day. For perspective this year’s single daily high count for sharp-shinned hawks has been 545. On a single day 2,537 broad-winged hawks were counted.
From Hawk Mountain we headed down to our trailer in Lewes Delaware. We’ve been here a couple days, just playing around, enjoying the ocean environment, and having fun.
The point at Cape Henlopen. This is the point where the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet.
This evening’s sunset, looking from the Cape Henlopen fishing pier towards Lewes.
A couple of yellow-rumped warblers. The only birds that would pose so far this trip.
On the home front, the groundhog war is in a state of detente right now. At least I think it is since I’m not at home. In the couple weeks since I last wrote, the varmints have become brazen as they fatten up for hibernation. They’re looking like rugby balls with eyes and ears. We had some back and forth battles over the back entrance to the tunnel network under my shop. I would fill it in and they would wait until they knew I left for a couple hours to dig it out again. I finally decided to use chemical warfare. Neither party in this war has signed the Geneva Convention so I figured chemical weapons were fair game.
I filled in the entrance, and dumped a full half gallon of ammonia on it. Totally saturated the fill dirt. Numerous references stated groundhogs can’t tolerate the ammonia smell and will abandon their dens because of it. Apparently these groundhogs didn’t read the same articles I did. They didn’t even wait for me to leave. While I was working in the shop they re-excavated the entrance, using the ammonia tainted dirt to build a nice berm around the entrance. After losing that little skirmish I think the war may have paused until Spring. Before we left I hadn’t seen them feeding in the yard for several days. I’m concerned that they may have gone into hibernation mode and they’re sleeping under the shop until next Spring. I resealed the back entrance yet again and then we headed back east. If the entrance is still filled when we return there are two possibilities; either they left the area, which I doubt, or they are in hibernation. In which case I have to wait for the Spring offensive to start.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 