11000 Snow Geese and more: A trip with my bird club to the Delaware shore

On the 16th, I went to the Delaware shore with my bird club. It was really fantastic! We went to some different parks and saw some incredible birds.

The first cool bird we saw was an adult male Cooper's Hawk on the side of the road.

Cooper's Hawk

When we got to our first destination, all that seemed to be there was a Herring Gull and some Bald Eagles.

Herring Gull

But then something else showed up. It was a beautiful Bufflehead! He came very close.

Bufflehead

Eventually, we arrived at the second destination. As we were driving along the road, a Long-tailed Duck appeared! He was totaly bizzare.

Long-tailed Duck

Nearby, we saw some other birds, including Ruddy Turnstones, Boat-tailed Grackles, a Gannet, and a few others.

Boat-tailed Grackle

Dunlins and Ruddy Turnstones

Black Scoter

Surf Scoter

Red-throated Loon

Common Loon

Bonaparte's Gull

At the third destination, we saw Great and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a huge raft of Snow Geese. But we would be seeing a lot more geese very soon!

Great black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

We headed to the fourth destination. Along the way we saw a vast flock of Snow Geese, and we were about to find out where they were heading. When we arrived at destination #4, we saw 20-30 American Avocets fly in!

American Avocets with Northern Shoveler. Picture is blurry due to magnification length.

A little later, something incredible happened. Hundreds and thousands of Snow Geese were flying and landing in the fields in front of us! So that was where all the Snow Geese flocks were headed. We later decided there were 11000 Snow Geese (or so).

Snow Geese flying overhead

Snow Geese grazing. Several morphs are visible, including the blue morph.

We spent the rest of the day searching for other birds (like Short-eared Owls) and although we didn't see anything we had planned on, there were some exciting things. One was an American Bittern that flew right past us!

This was a great birding trip, and I saw 14 new species! I've found it's best to go with a bird club, because there are more eyes to spot the birds.