Delaware Shorebird Project

Found on the Northeast side of the United States, Delaware Bay is bordered inland by the States of New Jersey and Delaware and is the estuary of the Delaware River. The bay covers approximately 782 square miles  and the freshwater from the river mixes with the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean. 
Smaller rivers feed into the bay, with marsh wetlands, salt marshes and mudflats to be found here.  In 1992 the Delaware Bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and was the first site classified in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

(Delaware Bay 2015).

The Delaware shorebird Project was set up in 1997 to conduct research and monitoring of the health and status of shorebird populations including Red Knot, Turnstone, Sanderling, and Dunlin.The project is currently managed by the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Programme. The main goals are to identify and protect the resources critical to the successful migration of shorebirds and to reduce threats to those resources (New Jersey’s Delaware Bay Shorebird Project - Celebrate Delaware Bay, no date).

I have been following the Delaware Shorebird Project on Facebook since the beginning of my current SDA, to keep abreast of the migration of wading birds across the globe.

On 15th May, the project recorded the first  'catch of the season' where they managed to catch an early season sample of two of their target species, Red Knot and Ruddy Turnstones, they also sampled Dowitchers, and Dunlins and a single Sanderling. All the bird where checked and then releases back  to continue feeding before they head off for the arctic (Delaware Bay Connection, n.d.).

All images taken from the Delaware Shorebird Project