Young Birders Josh and Chelsea Mosteller Share Their Story

A Week at One of America’s “Birding Camps” for Teens

by Josh Mosteller

This summer, my sister Chelsea and I spent a week at a summer camp in Delaware—even though we live all the way in Missouri. So why did we decide to stay with some random teens halfway across the country? Because this was not a typical summer camp.

One of the many things that the American Birding Association does with its budget is organize annual “Young Birder Camps” every summer. The ABA hosts participants aged 13-18 for a week in the Rocky Mountains at “Camp Colorado” as well as in Delaware at “Camp Avocet”, where Chelsea  and I toured the best birding places in the Mid-Atlantic with ten other teenage bird nerds and three experienced instructors determined to maximize our week in the region.

Not an outdoor camping trip, the camp is based at a retreat center in the town of Lewes (pronounced like Lewis/Louis) in the south side of the state. Between July 26^th and August 3^rd, the group visited three National Wildlife Refuges, birded all three counties in the tiny state, and also travelled to Virginia and New Jersey. We met some other “fanatics” and learned about watching, illustrating, and identifying birds. It was an unforgettable trip.

Our first birding destination was an evening visit to a sandy peninsula called “The Point” at Cape Henlopen State Park. The Point itself was officially off-limits to protect nesting habitat for threatened species, so we set up spotting scopes behind the barrier to watch distant shorebirds on the untouched beach in the remaining daylight. We had a brief glimpse of a Least Tern, and I finally found the Piping Plover that the others had been watching before it got too dark. Fortunately, we were able to get much better looks at these new species later in the week.

Piping Plover. Photo by Chelsea.

Our first full day, mainly spent in northernmost New Castle County, was a good time to get to know the other campers. We ate lunch and watched an art presentation at the ABA headquarters in Delaware City, pulled over to observe Marsh Wrens and Clapper Rails from a pedestrian-friendly road bridge on the way back to camp, and ended the day with a search for owls at dusk back in Sussex County.

The next day we were overwhelmed with shorebirds and waders at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Semipalmated Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Snowy Egrets, and gorgeous American Avocets numbered in the hundreds in the refuge’s wetlands. It was unlike any shorebird experience we had ever had before. We then explored Big Stone Beach Road, where we saw our first Seaside Sparrow and were teased by a Virginia Rail.

Avocets at Bombay Hook. Photo by Chelsea.

Monday gave us good looks at Saltmarsh Sparrows near Slaughter Beach and a Dickcissel well east of its typical range at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. On Tuesday, we made the two-hour journey to Chincoteague NWR in Virginia. The refuge is located on Assateague Island, famous for the many feral horses that roam across it. The tide may have minimized the birding potential, but it was a scenic place in a new state for me. We did eventually see a distant Sandwich Tern before we left—the only place where we had a good chance to see one.

Cape May Meadows. Photo by Josh.

The next destination was Cape May—the world-renowned place in New Jersey for viewing “fall” migration along the East Coast. Instead of waiting later for the first ferry ride from Lewes, we drove a few hours around Delaware Bay and rode the ferry on the way back to Delaware. First, we took a walk around the scenic Cape May Meadows and Cape May Wetlands, where there was a colony of Least Terns in the air and a small observation deck occupied by several Common and Forster’s Terns, giving us the opportunity to study the two similar species up close. After lunch, we headed further up the coast to Stone Harbor Point. That was a fantastic place for beach birding—we got close looks at Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a couple of Piping Plovers, a flock of Red Knots, and a nesting colony of hundreds of Black Skimmers with their young.

Black Skimmers, adults (left) and immatures (right). Photo by Josh.

Our last full day was comparatively less comprehensive. In the morning, we visited The Point again for a “Big Green Hour”, a competition in which three teams of four campers—each accompanied by one instructor—tried to find the most species in the same 60-minute period. In the afternoon, we finally took a trip outdoors that wasn’t focused on birding—just a casual time for recreation on the beach—although it was officially cut short by the lifeguards who evacuated the area due to thunder heard from across the bay. Back at the camp later that afternoon, I walked with a couple of other guys to a little road bridge with a sidewalk over the marsh adjacent to the retreat center property before the storms reached our corner of the state.

Red Knots. Photo by Josh.

On our last morning of camp, I managed to get up at the crack of dawn to revisit a spot where a few of us had spotted over a dozen Clapper Rail chicks the previous night. After enticing others to join us, we saw a few juvenile Clapper Rails once again. Although the chicks were out of view, we were treated by one adult that was by far the closest and most cooperative rail we had seen that week. The final bird highlight of Camp Avocet 2019 was an enormous flock of White Ibises flying above just before we left. Our count of the species had already exceeded 100 when over 200 more passed overhead at once; the total count was the all-time highest count of White Ibises on eBird for the entire state of Delaware.

Clapper Rail on the last morning. Photo by Chelsea.

Our “life list” of bird species shot up well past the 300 mark during this special week, as we added around a dozen “lifers”. There were actually a few would-be lifers noticed only by others in the group which Chelsea and I missed. Black-bellied Plover, a Black-billed Cuckoo, and Parasitic Jaeger were identified by others in our group. There was simply so much to see.

This outstanding opportunity was made affordable in large part due to very generous sponsorship by the Columbia Audubon Society. It has only been about a year since we were first introduced to the birding community, and we are constantly met with encouragement, inspiration, and a willingness to support our passion. It is an honor to share what I have taken from this experience in return. Thank you all.