Wild Delmarva

Yesterday morning was warm and sunny and a great time to watch Cormorants fishing and flying by. Here’s one coming in for a landing on a fresh water lake.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

The rain has finally stopped and the sky has cleared over Delmarva allowing good light at sunrise and sunset. This morning I caught the Cormorant playing catch (previous post) and late today a pair of Bald Eagles. After more than a month of mostly bad weather and light I’m happy to see the sun.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Here’s something you don’t see every day. I was photographing Cormorants fishing, preening and drying their feathers this morning when this one grabbed a pine cone and started playing toss and catch. The game only lasted about a minute but it was interesting watching this unusual playful behavior.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

I was curious about the ancestry of the Wild Turkeys that I photographed recently in Sussex County so I asked an expert, Derek Stoner of the Delaware Nature Society, for his opinion. Here’s his response. “Your turkey photo does show the whitish tips on the tail that may be indicative of a little western heritage, as the Merriam’s subspecies shows more extensive white in the tail feathers. There have been so many stocking programs and re-intorductions of turkeys, it is hard to determine their exact heritage.”

Thanks Derek!

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

With some 46 million turkeys being served for the holiday these Wild Turkeys probably won’t be on the menu as Delaware’s turkey hunting season is in the spring. Delmarva’s turkey population was wiped out by the mid-1800s. In the 1980s Wild Turkeys were reintroduced in Delaware and are thriving with the population estimated at 4,000 birds.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A Bald Eagle is perched in a tree near the Conowingo Dam on Maryland’s Susquehanna River. I was there last Saturday and so were plenty of eagles but didn’t catch any fishing.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

An immature Bald Eagle passes overhead. This one has a leg band and, most likely, was banded as a chick in the nest. First year birds are chocolate brown and getting the white head and tail can take up to five years.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

Nature can be brutal and this Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is a recent victim of perhaps an illness combined with last week’s nor’easter. This little guy was found washed ashore under a cottage in Bethany Beach, Delaware and was rescued by Suzanne Thurman of the MERR Institute in Lewes. On Wednesday the turtle was transported to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland where it will hopefully be nursed back to health and eventually released back into the Atlantic Ocean. Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles are a critically endangered species and they are the smallest and rarest sea turtle. Hopefully I will be able to report a successful ending for story.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

With Thanksgiving just a week away these gobblers might want to lay low for now even though Wild Turkey season in Delaware isn’t until next April.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming

A White-tailed Deer grazes in a field of soy beans near Lewes, Delaware.

Photograph by Kevin Fleming