Prime Hook NWR and the Delaware Shore 1/6/07

I headed out Saturday morning to try to photograph the Northern Shrike that has been frequenting Prime Hook NWR. The unseasonably warm weather caused a few surprises. Two species of snakes were observed. A pair of Black Rat Snakes that were so bedraggled and ugly that I'm only going to post their photos if I do not end up with any other Black Rat Snake pics for the rest of the year. A beautiful small Eastern Ribbon Snake was extremely photogenic as it soaked up rays on one of the refuge trails. Spring Peepers were singing in the flooded woodlands while Green Frogs jumped from the banks of the dike trail. A fat Fowler's Toad was seen sitting on a small dirt patch out in one of the refuges meadows. I saw two Clouded Sulphers flying in the same meadow. Unfortunately the Eastern Ribbon Snake yielded the only usuable non-avian photo for the day. White-crowned Sparrows, a bird that can be a nuisance to find in Maryland's Eastern Shore counties, seemed to be quite prevalent at Prime Hook and one healthy looking male posed for some great pics. The Northern Shrike was not as accommodating. I walked around the meadows where the Shrike had been seen earlier in the morning but I never found the bird. The marshes surrounding the road to Broadkill Beach at the southern end of the refuge held a massive Snow Goose flock and here is where I got my Pintail photo. I searched the Snow Goose flock for a Ross' Goose but came up empty. I then made my way to Indian River Inlet where I was successful in photographing both Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones at the end of the north jetty. An obliging Common Loon swam close to the jetty and allowed me to take nice photos. Bonapartes Gulls were working the changing tides inside the inlet but I was never able to get the flock into good light. When I was stashing my gear in my car getting ready to leave the inlet I was lucky enough to look up and see a Peregrine Falcon land on the top of one of the power line poles near the parking lot. The falcon was really too far away for a great picture but in the photo the bird is definently identifiable. I waited in the parking lot for close to half an hour waiting for the falcon to fly off that pole thinking that I could get a flight shot but the bird never moved so I headed home.