Delaware Bay

Shorebirds and Seafood

White-rumped Sandpiper by Alan Lenk

September 5-12, 2022

Ruddy Turnstone by Martina Nordstrand

Your place on this Venture is reserved when your completed registration form and deposit of $300 per person has been received. Deposit may be made via the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer, cash, check, or money order (payable to ‘VENTURES BIRDING’) sent to PO Box 1095, Skyland, NC 28776. This Venture is limited to 8 participants.

Cost of Delaware Bay Venture: $3,300 per person from Philadelphia, based on double occupancy. Single supplement - $850 Includes: All ground transportation, boat tours, all accommodation, meals, entrance fees, information packet & bird checklist, guide/leader service throughout. Not included: Airfare to Philadelphia, alcoholic beverages, tips/gratuities, laundry, and other items of a personal nature.

A new addition to our “Birds and Food” The Mid-Atlantic States around the Chesapeake Bay are famous for their seafood. They are also very good birding spots, especially for shorebirds in the late summer and early fall. This tour along the Delaware coast will be easy with no hills to climb, plenty of shorebirds to enjoy and study followed by dinners at some of the best seafood restaurants in the state.

We start conveniently in Philadelphia where we plan to cut our teeth on shorebirds at the wonderful John Heinz NWR at Tinicum. As well as shorebirds, we should get a great selection of resident and early migrants in the surrounding woodlands. We then meander our way down the coast of Delaware birding at some of the finest refuges along the way, including Bombay Hook, Augustine and Little Creek WMA, Prime Hook, Ted Harvey Conservation Area, Mispilion Reserve, Cape Henlopen State Park and many more. Of course this is a shorebirds and Seafood trip, so we have picked out some of the finest seafood restaurants in the state. From local crabs and fresh fish to calamari and lobster pasta, we hope that our selection will whet your appetite for our newest "Birds & Food" tour.

Some of the Birds We Hope to See

Birds we hope to see: Many shorebirds including: Stilt, Western, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Red Knot, Dunlin, Short and Long-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied, Piping, Semipalmated and American Golden-Plovers, Willet, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet – and hopefully a few unusual species as well. Also we should see Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrows, Mute Swan, American Black Duck, Ring-necked Pheasant, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Clapper and Virginia Rails, Caspian, Least and Gull-billed Terns, Least Bitterm, Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, and many more.