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Prime Hook Beach

7/3/2013

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Get Ready For Great Photographs of Prime Hook Beach & Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

This Sunday, Delaware's The News Journal will feature beautiful photographs of a hidden wonder along the Delaware Bay--Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and Prime Hook Beach. Breathtaking photos of wildlife and the open access areas for public enjoyment will be featured. The article is entitled, "Prime Hook: Photographs of the Off-the-Beaten Path Beach." 

A few miles east of Milton, Delaware, and 22 miles southeast of Dover, the quiet shores of Prime Hook Beach can be reached via Prime Hook Road, a left turn off of Delaware Route 1 South. 

Directly behind the community of homes lining the beach is the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was created in 1963 by the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act as a sanctuary expressly for migrating birds. It encompasses nearly 10,000 diverse acres of freshwater and saltwater marshes, woodlands, grasslands, bottomland forested habitats, scrub brush zones, farming lands, ponds, and a seven mile long creek. Naturally occurring tidal salt marshes make up 2300 acres of the refuge, and man-made freshwater ponds cover 4000 acres. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the freshwater impoundment systems were built in the 1980's to provide refuge officials the means to raise and lower water levels in the ponds to accommodate the needs of migratory birds during different seasons of the year. The ponds provided habitat for wintering waterfowl, places to feed for spring and fall migratory shorebirds, and nesting areas for wading birds in the summer.  

And therein lies the rub. Having provided beautiful habitat for bird watching and wildlife viewing, the refuge created the perfect conditions for housing development along the bay coast: water views both east and west of established residences and newly built homes. But since 2006, multiple hurricanes have caused sea water to breach the dunes, causing an influx of sediment and saltwater into the freshwater ponds, killing most of the vegetation and limiting the use of the ponds by migrating and local birds, as well as by local wildlife populations. 



The beauty of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge will be preserved in the beautiful photo layout in The News Journal on Sunday, but all of Delaware and the nation needs to rally behind permanently preserving our national wildlife refuges.
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Egrets Resting in Trees at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
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Prime Hook Beach and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

6/2/2012

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Prime Hook Beach, A Delaware Bay Beach Near Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge, Is Now Threatened by Rising Water Levels, Salt Water Intrusion & Inaction

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Entrance to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
A few miles east of Milton, Delaware, and 22 miles southeast of Dover, the quiet shores of Prime Hook Beach can be reached via Prime Hook Road, a left turn off of Delaware Route 1 South. The beach area is not easily accessible to the public, but there are a few unmarked entrances over dunes that can be traversed. Parking is a problem because of the frequent posting of No Parking signs, and there is no parking lot available for visitors. 

Directly behind the community of homes lining the beach is the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was created in 1963 by the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act as a sanctuary expressly for migrating birds. It encompasses nearly 10,000 diverse acres of freshwater and saltwater marshes, woodlands, grasslands, bottomland forested habitats, scrub brush zones, farming lands, ponds, and a seven mile long creek. Naturally occurring tidal salt marshes make up 2300 acres of the refuge, and man-made freshwater ponds cover 4000 acres. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the freshwater impoundment systems were built in the 1980's to provide refuge officials the means to raise and lower water levels in the ponds to accommodate the needs of migratory birds during different seasons of the year. The ponds provided habitat for wintering waterfowl, places to feed for spring and fall migratory shorebirds, and nesting areas for wading birds in the summer.  

And therein lies the rub. Having provided beautiful habitat for bird watching and wildlife viewing, the refuge created the perfect conditions for housing development along the bay coast: water views both east and west of established residences and newly built homes. But in 2006, Hurricane Ernesto breached the dunes and caused an influx of sediment and saltwater behind some homes. Viewed as a natural process, the breach was not repaired. In 2009 and 2010 the dune line was again overwashed, pouring more saltwater into the freshwater ponds, killing most of the vegetation, and again flooding the area. In 2011 the dunes were rebuilt, but destroyed within a week by another storm. Valuable time for action has been delayed by lawsuits and agencies debating how to resolve the issues, one of which is how to protect the homes already in the community.  


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Prime Hook Road entrance to Prime Hook Beach
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Prime Hook Road Surrounded By Saltwater Infused Ponds
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has developed three proposals to resolve this problem, but homeowners are concerned about the outcomes:  

1. Option 1: Take no action.
2. Option 2: Actively manage the refuge to mimic natural processes (FWS' preference). 
3. Option 3: Reinstate cooperative farming in the refuge, manage both saltwater and freshwater habitats, and rebuild infrastructure and the dunes along the Delaware Bayshore.

For more information about Prime Hook Beach and the Prime Hook National Wildlife Preserve, go to www.fws.gov/northeast/primehook
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Wading Shorebirds' Habitat at the Refuge
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Two Wading Shorebirds Perched on Tree Branches
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Prime Hook Beach
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Migratory Birds Feast on Horseshoe Crab Eggs

5/19/2012

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Every Spring . . .
Migratory Shore Birds Stop to Feast on Horseshoe Crab Eggs Along the Delaware Bay Beaches Before Continuing Their Arduous Flight North

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Red Knots As Seen in Wikipedia May, 2012.

Throughout the year Delaware's ocean and bay beaches provide some of the best birdwatching experiences on the Mid-Atlantic Coast, but spring and fall migratory seasons attract thousands of bird enthusiasts hoping to see birds on the endangered species list. One of the most remarkable of those birds is the Calidris canutus rufa, commonly called the red knot shorebird.   

About the size of a robin, red knot shorebirds travel more than 9300 miles from South America to North America, stopping over for two weeks along the Delaware Bay beaches to feed on the translucent green eggs being laid by the horseshoe crabs (see last week's post below). Then the red knots continue migrating north to the Canadian Arctic to breed. 

Little is known about the juvenile red knots after they leave the Arctic until they return to the Delaware Bay two years later. In 2006, because of declining red knot populations, the species was named a candidate for the endangered species list. A decision should be announced later this year. Scientists believe the health and vitality of the birds is directly related to their refueling stopover on the Delaware Bay. The eggs of the horseshoe crabs provide valuable fat reserves for the birds' long flight north and contributes to the health of the new Arctic hatchlings. One reason their numbers may have dropped before 2006 may have been because of overfishing of the crabs, reducing the numbers of eggs for the shore birds to eat.  New regulations now limit the number of crabs permitted to be taken and the time period in which they may be trapped.  

Adult shorebirds have begun arriving at the Delaware Beaches and the next two weeks will provide great birdwatching, especially at these bay beaches and wildlife reserves: Bombay Hook, Port Mahon Beach, Kitts Hummock, Ted Harvey Wildlife Area, Bowers Beach, South Bowers Beach, Slaughter Beach, Fowlers Beach, and Broadkill Beach. 


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Migratory Birds Flock Along the Delaware Coast Every Winter

2/11/2012

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Wildlife Refuges Along the Delaware Coast 
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Superflocks of Migratory Birds Fly in Synchrony Along the Delaware Coast 

The coastal areas of the Delaware Bay and the Delaware Atlantic Seashore are excellent birding spots. Birdwatchers from around the nation migrate along with the migratory birds to watch the amazing flight patterns of synchronous flocking. It is in these very large groupings of birds that birdwatchers get a chance to spot the unusual species that often elude them at other times of the year. 
 
What are superflocks? According to the Public Broadcasting Service's website (www.pbs.org), superflocks are composed of thousands of birds of one species or several compatible species who fly together in synchronous patterns for the protection of the flock, to search for food, to seek warmth, or because of kinship. The synchronous patterns result from instinctive rules about flight: Stay a precise distance away from the surrounding neighbors and stay aligned with the nearest neighbors during flight. To view a superflock taking off or landing, or performing an amazing oblique turn without a single collision, is an awesome sight. 

Delaware's two national wildlife preserves, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, east of Milton, DE, and Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, east of Smyrna, DE, provide some of the best birding habitat along the East Coast. During January, February, and March, superflocks of Canadian geese, snow geese, tundra swans, blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and starlings converge on the marshes, farm fields, area parks, and residents' yards. 

Watching the synchronous landing of a superflock of blackbirds into a nearby marsh, only to discover that every one of them are suddenly hidden from sight, humbles the best of the veteran East Coast birdwatchers.  
 





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    Author

    Dr. Norene Moskalski can often be found walking the beaches of the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, collecting sea glass, weathered minerals, unusual shells, and artifacts from colonial shipwrecks. A naturalist and environmentalist by nature, and a medical diagnostician by avocation, she has a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and has held administrative and teaching positions at Penn State University and Temple University. She has spent most of her life preparing administrators and teachers to lead and teach ethically with love and respect for everyone. The settings for her novels are authentic vignettes from university campuses and places around the world she has visited. Each novel presents a variation on a theme, using literary techniques and musical innuendos to move the action forward. Her plots revolve around the unexpected: What if the most beautiful things in the world are the most dangerous?

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