Delaware to add rest stop for red knots
New habitat will provide migrating birds a place to roost
One missing link in Delaware’s effort to provide habitat for red knot shorebirds during their spring migration has been a place for the birds to rest and digest their food.
That will be changing.
State environmental officials – with help from the Delmarva Ornithological Society – purchased 52 acres of marshland adjacent to the 239-acre Mispillion Harbor Reserve and the 5,459-acre Milford Neck State Wildlife Area.
They plan to create mudflats and shallow pools on the marsh to provide habitat where the birds can roost after feeding. That type of habitat, once common along the Delaware Bay shoreline, has all but disappeared because of rising sea level and environmental degradation.
“The Mispillion Harbor area is globally known for its vital role each spring as habitat for spawning horseshoe crabs and as a stopover for migrating shorebirds that depend on horseshoe crab eggs to help fuel their 9,000-mile journey,” state environmental Secretary Collin O’Mara said.
There is concern about declines in many shorebird populations, and red knots are considered among the most vulnerable of the species that pass through Delaware Bay en route to Arctic breeding grounds each spring.
The birds feed on horseshoe crab eggs at Mispillion Harbor each day and then at night, they migrate across Delaware Bay to roost in New Jersey. The next morning, they repeat the journey back to Mispillion Harbor.
State wildlife biologists believe that with the new habitat near the feeding area, the birds might avoid the twice-daily trip across Delaware Bay.
“Purchasing this property to expand and protect this important habitat is a great example of what we can accomplish by working together in public-private partnership.”
Red knots are designated a species of greatest conservation need in Delaware and under consideration by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a possible candidate for federal endangered listing.
“One of the limiting factors for red knots stopping to refuel in Mispillion Harbor may be that there is no suitable habitat for roosting overnight in the area,”
said Wildlife Biologist Rob Hossler. “We’re going to try to create suitable roosting habitat, as well as restore other wetland habitats and functions on this site. This work will be designed to benefit the red knot and our other migratory shorebirds.”
The state purchased the 52 acres for $130,000. Of that, $30,000 was raised by the Ornithological Society through its annual Bird-A-Thon, and the state received $100,000 in federal funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State Wildlife Grant Program to help with the purchase.
“I am thrilled,” said William Stewart, Conservation Chair for the Ornithological Society.
The Bird-A-Thon was started to raise money for shorebird habitat conservation, Stewart said. In this case, the organization helped purchase 17 acres along the Delaware bayfront at Fowler Beach and helped with the Mispillion purchase as well, he said. The good thing is that birders can visit both places and see their contributions at work, he said.
Stewart said he is especially happy with the Mispillion purchase because the area is so critical to migrating shorebirds.
“I love the fact that it is for roosting habitat,” he said.
State Division of Fish & Wildlife officials are designing and planning how they will restore mudflats and shallow pools. In addition, they plan to diversify the habitat, work to control invasive phragmites and close old mosquito control ditches that were dug in the early 20th century.