Bombay Hook NWR Bombay Hook NWR, located on the western shore of Delaware Bay 8 miles southeast of Smyrna, Delaware, was established in 1937 to provide habitat for migratory waterfowl. Objectives have since broadened to include other migratory birds, a diversity of other native wildlife species and wildlife-oriented public use. Large areas of pristine tidal salt marsh, freshwater impoundments and moist soil units, croplands and woodlands are managed for Canada geese, greater snow geese, a variety of ducks, shorebirds, wading birds and songbirds. A pair of bald eagles nests each year west of Shearness Pool and in recent years has been quite successful in producing young. Over the last 15 years the refuge has supported the largest concentration of wintering greater snow geese in the continental United States. Through active water level management in pools and recently constructed moist soil units, duck populations have increased to peaks in the 50,000- 75,000 range. During May and June, primarily due to the arrival of horseshoe crabs laying eggs along the bay shore and mud flats, thousands of shorebirds (red knots, ruddy turnstones, dowitcher, dunlin, sandpipers etc.) stop to feast before continuing their northward migration. Herons, egrets and ibis congregate on refuge mudflats created by pool drawdowns during the summer months. Bombay Hook is comprised of a mosaic of habitat types. Over 13,000 acres of the 15,978 acre refuge is tidal salt marsh, much of it never having been altered for mosquito control, a rarity in the northeast and middle atlantic region. There are 1155 acres of freshwater pools, 1100 acres of farmland and scattered small blocks of hardwood forest and brushlands.
Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve The Delaware Reserve consists of two components-one on the Blackbird Creek and the other on the St. Jones River. The Blackbird Creek component is dominated by freshwater wetlands, ponds, and forested habitats. The St. Jones component is dominated by saltmarshes and open water habitats of the Delaware Bay. Both components are surrounded by farmlands, meadows, and impending development pressures affording the reserve to examine the controbution and control of non point source pollution into the marsh and bay ecosystems.Key species of the Delaware Reserve include the horseshoe crab, migratory shorebirds, snowy egret, great blue heron, bald eagle, black duck, blue crab, fiddler crab, and American oyster.
Prime Hook NWR Prime Hook NWR is located 22 miles southeast of Dover, Delaware, near the western shore of Delaware Bay. The refuge was established to conserve an important segment of the Delaware Bay marshes, to protect migrating and wintering waterfowl habitat. The refuge is considered to have one of the best existing wetland habitat areas along the Atlantic Coast.The refuge's integrated wetland management approach increases the carrying-capacity of its marshes by annually producing a wide variety of food resources and habitat cover-types to maximize the spectrum of wetland-dependent species that can be accommodated consistently year after year on a relatively small wetland land-base. The intensively managed freshwater impoundments have become important stop-over sites for spring and fall migrating shorebirds and wading birds. Endangered and threatened species management activities provide habitat for the Delmarva fox squirrel, nesting bald eagles and migrating peregrine falcons. Neotropical land birds passing through utilize the refuge's 890 acres of upland forested habitat during the fall and spring.The refuge's over-all diverse landscape of various cover-types which include freshwater and salt marshes, woodlands, grasslands, scrub-brush habitats, ponds, bottomland forested areas connected to a 7-mile long creek and agricultural lands provide habitat for approximately 267 species of birds, 35 species of reptiles and amphibians and 36 different mammals.
