Cox Hall Creek WMA - May 5 & 6

Thursday, I spent the day out birding checking out both Reed's and Kimmel's Beaches looking for any signs of the start of the horseshoe crab mating and looking for early arrivals of Red Knots even though last year it was mid May before they arrived. I walked the CM WMA which is along Kimmel's Beach Road but it was pretty dead. I heard a few birds and saw one Eastern Kingbird but it was good as it's a new life bird for me.

I finished up at Cox Hall Creek WMA, formerly known as Villas WMA. I arrived mid afternoon and decided to walk the perimeter but also to try and walk along the Cox Hall Creek area that I had walked a year ago. It is behind the main areas and off the beaten path but last year it was easy to traverse. Well, a year has made a difference in the (over)growth of the bushes and grasses causing me to remove many ticks - both deer and dog- before I found the path for which I was searching. The path is a car width's wide and not as overgrown.

Earlier in the week I was told that there were Prothonary Warbler's nesting in the area.
As I walked the first part of the path I startled 6 Green Herons into taking flight. I managed to get a picture of one on the second part of the path. Right where I should have gone into the woods I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a pair of Carolina Wrens hollowing out a hole in a tree for their nesting area. It was fascinating to watch them bring out the wood dust and drop it out of their becks.


While hiking back to my car I saw a pair of Osprey in one of the meadows. Both had fish in their claws. I didn't know there was a nesting pair there but when I went back in the morning someone mentioned they have a nest in the tree by the lake.

The next morning I went back to see the Carolina Wrens again where they were still busy working on their cavity home. I also saw quite a number of Eastern Kingbirds, Great Crested Flycatchers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Eastern Bluebirds, several Red-bellied Woodpeckers, crows chasing hawks, and lots of other birds I see often. The Red-bellied Woodpecker had a really full bright red head so it was a male and I guess I usually see females.