7 miles SE of Smyrna (302) 653-9345
Managed by: United States Fish & Wildlife Service
Unquestionably Delaware's single best-known birding site, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge justifies its fame with exceptional bird and wildlife viewing throughout the year. Centered around an Auto Tour loop road that traverses a cornucopia of habitats, including fresh and salt marshes, ponds, mudflats, woodlands, and fields. You should plan an absolute minimum of two hours for a visit here; four is much better, and you could easily make multiple trips over several days before really
getting a feel for the varying diurnal and tidal rhythms.
Open fields and plantings attractive to native wildlife surround the Visitor Center. Pick up a copy of the Auto Tour pamphlet, which includes a detailed map, and much useful information. The numbers in the following paragraphs refer to the tour stops in the brochure.
The best birding at Raymond Pool is usually to be found along the long, straight stretch of dike road (Tour Stop #3) that borders the northeast edge of the pool, beginning about 1 mile from the visitor center. Note that along Raymond Pool, as in most of the refuge, the dike road divides the freshwater impoundment from tidal saltmarsh.
Raymond Pool is the single most reliable spot in Delaware to find American Avocets and is often loaded with other shorebirds and waterfowl in season. Lighting here is most favorable in the morning. The number of shorebirds can vary dramatically over the course of the day so a revisit four to six hours later may yield different species and numbers . . .
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Other Birding Sites in the Delaware Bay Coast Region:
- Woodland Beach Wildlife Area
- Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
- Little Creek Wildlife Area
- Ted Harvey Cons. Area - Logan Lane Tract
- Milford Neck
- Slaughter Beach
- Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
