by Tom Barnes
For those that love history as well as the outdoors, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, located along the Delaware coast, is a birder’s paradise. The refuge also features a pre-revolutionary war farmhouse on the National Register of Historic Places. Saltwater marshes at the refuge are first-rate habitats for many migratory birds that stop in Delaware Bay on their journey along the Atlantic Flyway. Various species of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl can be spotted at the refuge including semipalmated sandpipers, yellowlegs, American black ducks, green-winged teal and northern pintail, so all of you bird enthusiasts, don’t forget your binoculars! Look for the birds feeding in the refuge’s expanses of salt marsh mudflats or freshwater impoundments.
If you’re lucky, you might be able to monitor an osprey nest (find out how!) Purchased from local landowners using funds from the Federal Duck Stamp in 1937, the refuge’s nearly 16,000 acres make for an excellent side-by-side comparison of the diversity of habitat in nature.
Ready to visit? Click here for upcoming events at the refuge.
This post originally appeared on Conserving the Nature of the Northeast.
Photo: Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Tim Williams
