Wild Delmarva

Two young White-tailed Deer bucks watch twilight from atop a ridge.

It is deer season now and the big bucks like this one I photographed last night at Winterthur near Wilmington seem a little nervous.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Feeding along the edge of the Delaware Bay can be a challenging situation sometimes if you are a Willet. When you are only about 16 inches long even a small wave breaking on the shore can be a big problem.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A Royal Tern carries a soft shell Blue Crab over Sinepuxent Bay, Maryland. Usually you find these handsome birds with a fish but sometimes they do catch crabs.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

With a name like Prairie Warbler you might think this colorful yellow bird would make its home on the nation’s prairies of the west. But no, his warbler is common in the scrubby fields and forests of Delmarva and the eastern United States, not on the prairies.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

This Roseate Spoonbill made Delaware history this summer when it touched down near Fenwick Island. Bird history, that is, as the first ever reported Roseate Spoonbill in the First State. A colorful pink bird – whose range normally would be along the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida – spent time feeding with Snowy and Great Egrets.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

It is unofficially the last day of summer today and between seasons now on the Delmarva Peninsula. Photographing wildlife has been challenging lately with some summer visitors leaving and autumn migrants just arriving. But with as many as 10,000 species of insects it is a great time to take a close look at part of our natural world we often overlook.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

At sunrise this morning the incoming tide washed across the beach leaving sea foam bubbles on the sand and shells. Here, an Atlantic Bay Scallop is surrounded for just a moment with hundreds of tiny bubbles.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Keeping its compound eye on the camera, a grasshopper rests on a dew-covered blade of grass this morning.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

The best light today was definitely well before sunrise. Knowing there would be no chance to photograph wildlife again this morning I headed for the jetty at Herring Point in Cape Henlopen State Park. About a half hour before sunrise the sky was very dramatic and a 30 second exposure painted the jetty with the blur of breaking waves.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming