Wild Delmarva

It has been dark, stormy and rainy for too long here on the Delmarva Peninsula and I’m anxious for better light to photograph wildlife. Here is a flock of Canada Geese taking off this week.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

There seems to be lots of Double-crested Cormorants around this year and increasingly this bird that fishes by diving and swimming underwater is being blamed for declines in sport fisheries. Sometimes they gather in flocks and fly with a “V” formation that be mistaken for geese.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Dawn was spectacular yesterday over the Atlantic Ocean. These towers were built on the Delaware coast during World War II to watch for Nazi U-boat activity near the Delaware Bay entrance. They are still standing tall more than six decades later.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A mature Bald Eagle takes off from a perch in a dead tree yesterday morning just after sunrise.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A female White-tailed Deer stands shoulder deep in tall vegetation yesterday near sunset.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Last July I spent some time photographing this Belted Kingfisher coming and going from its nest which is actually in a hole in the ground. These interesting birds like to burrow into dirt banks near water. Their tunnels rise upward from the entrance and may be anywhere from one to eight feet deep.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A Great Egret steps off its perch and takes flight this morning just after sunrise. These large white herons are warm-weather visitors to Delmarva breeding here in the summer then they spend the winter in the south.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

The last rays of sunset catch in the unusual gray eyes of this White-tailed deer doe.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A Great Egret has a precarious perch on a bush.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Many of Delmarva’s salt marshes are ablaze with colorful Salicornia – commonly called Saltwort – now that autumn is here. This species grows about a foot tall and is green in the summer with their foliage turning red in the fall.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming