Dr. Norene Moskalski
Keyword
  • Home
  • Contact Norene
  • Ecology Blog
  • Links
  • Media Room
  • Nocturne Reviews
  • Nocturne Excerpts
  • CATS

Migratory Birds Feast on Horseshoe Crab Eggs

5/19/2012

2 Comments

 


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

Picture
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. 


2 Comments

Bowers Beach and South Bowers Beach, Delaware

4/28/2012

22 Comments

 

Bowers Beach, and Right Across a Narrow Inlet, South Bowers Beach: Two Beautiful Beaches Accessible to Each Other By a Quick Trip Over Water or a Longer Inland Drive

PictureBowers Beach and South Bowers Beach

Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay has a lovely stretch of white sand, scattered shells, colorful rocks and minerals, and gentle waves. What a great combination for family fun or solitary beachcombing! 

Bowers Beach is located 13.6 miles south of Dover, Delaware, with easy access from Delaware State Route 1S. Quaint summer vacation homes and modern multi-story homes on high pilings intermix along the beach and inland, as well. 

Bowers Beach is often confused with South Bowers Beach which is just an inlet away. Access to the southern beach front is by boat across a narrow inlet that is lined with boat launching sites, charter deep sea fishing services, charter dining tours, and local seafood restaurants. An alternate and much longer route to South Bowers Beach involves returning to Route 1 S and driving seven miles south to a left turn onto Milford Neck Road. From Milford Neck Road, veer left onto Mosley Road which becomes South Bowers Road. Follow South Bowers Road until it ends at the Delaware Bay. 

Both beaches have beautiful white sandy beaches with plenty of rocks and colorful stones to collect, but South Bowers Beach has been recently replenished with an abundance of clean, white sand that stretches seamlessly along the open bay beach, surrounded by lush dune grasses and shrubs. On the day I visited to take pictures for this column, I was the only person on the wide beach for most of the sunny afternoon. It is a rock collectors' paradise as areas of the white sand are overlaid with an amazing variety of minerals and stones. This section of South Bowers Beach is reached by simply following South Bowers Road until it runs into the sand, but if you veer to the left before the sand-covered road, you will drive past a group of bay houses and end up at the marina opposite the marina at Bowers Beach, just across the inlet described above. 

Bowers Beach and South Bowers Beach are two Delaware Bay Beaches worth visiting. By the way, did I tell you that you have to travel past the village of Little Heaven as you travel north or south on Route 1 to get to these beaches?

Picture
Looking South Along Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Sandy Entrance Road to South Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
View of the Delaware Bay at Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Looking South Along South Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Looking North Along Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Looking North Along South Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Rocks and Minerals at Bowers Beach, Delaware
Picture
Rocks and Minerals at South Bowers Beach, Delaware
22 Comments

    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?

    SPECIAL SALE PRICE:  $2.99 KINDLE, NOOK, 
    AND KOBO
    Picture
    BUY NOW




    Archives

    August 2022
    March 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    1 + 1 = 3
    1962
    2014
    27th Annual Delaware Coastal Clean-up
    Abandoned Cats
    Activist
    And Environment
    A New Beginning
    Antibiotics
    Australia
    Bacteria
    Bay
    Bay Glass
    Beach
    Beachcomb
    Beachcombing
    Beaches
    Beach Grass
    Beach Water Quality
    Big Stone Beach
    Bird Watching
    Boating
    Book Signing
    Bowers Beach
    Cacti
    Charter Fishing Boats
    Citizen Scientists
    Coast
    Coastal Change
    Coastal Flooding
    Coast Day 2013
    College Of Earth
    College Park; And The Nature Conservancy.
    Companion Animals
    Crabbing
    Croakers
    Crowdsourced Data
    De
    Delaware
    Delaware Atlantic Seacoast
    Delaware Bay
    Delaware Legislators
    Dnrec
    Dnrec Beach Water Testing
    Dover
    Dunes
    Dunes Grass Planting
    Earth Day 2013
    Ecologist
    Ecology
    Environmental Movement
    Estuary
    Feral Cats
    Fishing
    Fishing Piers
    Flocks
    Flora And Fauna
    Fracking
    Genre
    Global Warming
    Green
    Happy New Year
    Healers
    Honey
    Horseshoe Crabs
    Hurricanes
    Hurricane Sandy
    ICoast
    I Love To Write Day
    Innovation
    John Riddle
    Kitts Hummock
    Kitts Hummock Beach
    Legislators
    Lewes
    Lewes Beach
    Lewes Historical Society
    Lewes-Rehoboth Canal
    Lost Cats
    Love
    Mahon Beach
    Map
    Marsh Birds
    Maryland
    Medicine
    Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival
    Migratory Birdss
    Minerals
    Misty & Snowy
    Mud Flats
    Nasa
    National Recreational Water Quality Reports
    Native Plants
    Nature
    Noaa
    Nocturne
    Nor'easters
    Norene Moskalski
    Ocean
    Ocean Conservancy
    Oceans Day
    Oil Companies
    Opus 1: Sea Foam
    Partnership For The Delaware Estuary
    Peace
    Pennsylvania
    Persian Cats
    Pesticides
    Photographs
    Photography
    Physicians
    Pickering Beach
    Prime Hook Beach
    Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
    Read
    Rehoboth
    Rehoboth Bay
    Rehoboth Beach
    Relax
    Resort
    Rest
    Robert A Nagle
    Rock Collecting
    Rockhounding
    Roosevelt Beach
    Sand Replenishment
    Sea Foam
    Sea Glass
    Shore
    Shore Birds
    Silent Spring
    Silver Spring
    S. Laughter Beach
    South Bowers Beach
    Springdale
    Storms
    Stray Cats
    Superflocks
    Surf
    Surfriderfoundation
    Surfriders' Foundation
    Surges
    Swimming
    Synergy
    Ted Harvey
    Testing The Waters
    TheFussyLibrarian.com
    The Nature Conservancy
    Top Water Quality Beaches
    University Of Delaware
    University Of Delaware; NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center--Greenbelt Campus
    USGS
    Video
    Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research Program; University Of Maryland
    Volunteer
    Wallops Flight Facility And The Goddard Institute Of Space Science; US Fish And Wildlife Service; US Geologic Survey; Chincoteague Bay Field Station Of The Marine Science Consortium; College Of William And Mary; Virginia Institute Of Marine Science; Unive
    Water
    Wilmington
    Woodland Beach
    World Earth Day
    World Water Day
    Yucca Plants
    Zebra Blue Butterrfly

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn
Photos used under Creative Commons from Allie_Caulfield, dno1967b, lincoln-log, Anna Oates, spisharam, Mr.TinDC, kanegen, Podknox, faungg's photo, lincoln-log, mayastone, Ajith (അജിത്ത്), bixentro, { pranav }, { pranav }, faungg, Allie_Caulfield, seeveeaar, razvan.orendovici, milesgehm, mnapoleon, corsi photo, faungg's photo