Wild Delmarva

These young Red Fox kits are just too cute not to have another look…

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A Willet has a tiny island to itself yesterday on the Delaware Bay. The Willet’s kyah-yah call is a common sound on peninsula salt marshes from March through September. Willets migrate to South America in the fall.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

I picked a spot at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge that I knew was popular with Great Blue Herons and I waited for one of the big birds to arrive. I didn’t have to wait long as our largest wading bird – with a six-foot wingspan – dropped its flaps and came in for a landing.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

This morning dawned clear with a touch of haze hovering low on the horizon. Before sunrise, Greater yellowlegs and Black-necked stilts were already in place feeding in shallow water near the Delaware Bay.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

It is that season now when young fox kits are emerging from dens for a look at the world. Jay and I photographed these kits in Sussex County, Delaware but the breed has the widest range of any terrestrial carnivore from most American states to Canada, Europe, North Africa and almost all of Asia.

Snapping turtles are the largest fresh water turtles in the United States and this is one very large turtle. I found this big one this morning swimming in a fresh water impoundment near the Delaware Bay. Sinister looking, snapping turtles this size are the terror of fish and aquatic creatures especially young waterfowl like geese and ducks that are stalked and captured from underwater.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Since it is both springtime and mating season the Greater Yellowlegs are darting even more frantically in every direction as they chase both prey and other yellowlegs around the wetlands.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Much of the Eastern Bluebird’s nesting habitat had been lost to agriculture and development by the mid-1900s but this vibrant blue and chestnut bird has made a remarkable comeback thanks to man-made nesting boxes. Leading the way in Delaware is Winterthur Museum & Country Estate near Wilmington where many bluebird boxes dot the thousand-acre landscape. Competition is tough between species as bluebirds, tree swallows and starlings all try to claim the perfect nesting spots.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Black-necked Stilt

Great Egret

Great Egret leading a Snowy Egret

I’m happy to report that wildlife has returned to the wetlands along the Delaware Bay that were damaged by salt water intrusion during last year’s Mother’s Day storm. This time last year these wetlands north of Lewes were teeming fish and birds but the wildlife was all but wiped out by record tides that flooded the coast last May. It has taken almost a year for these wetlands to recover.

I’m also very happy to report that I’m back from a two-week assignment in Europe and I’m looking forward to photographing wildlife here on the peninsula.

Photographs by Kevin Fleming

Today is Earth Day and while the sunrise stayed hidden behind clouds there was some warm light filtering down on the marsh where this Black-necked Stilt was feeding this morning in Sussex County, Delaware.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming