Unusual duck, turbine activity jumping, missing osprey nest

Chico called a couple of weeks ago. He had been down the shore a ways - Assateague, Chincoteague - fishing for red drum and whatever else he could find. He stays after them. Them meaning whatever’s in season. Staying after them means he keeps a sharp eye out. His lifeguard experiences in Rehoboth through the years taught him a lot about keeping out a sharp eye.

“Hey - I was coming by Silver Lake - looking to see what was on the water. I saw something floating around I hadn’t seen before. A duck - but a different duck. Turns out it was a fulvous tree duck. A fulvous tree duck!”

First off, you might not expect to see something called a tree duck on a lake.

But it was a day for unusual sightings on Silver Lake for Chico. “I also saw three or four snow geese floating around in the middle of the lake. And then there was a bald eagle flying over, heading toward the ocean. They’re not unusual around Silver Lake - lots of food for them there - but it’s always nice to see them, especially when you add the fulvous tree duck and the snow geese to the mix.”

The fall migration feels slow this year so far. No wonder, given the warm weather. It’s keeping the Canada geese north and the snow geese too, which usually arrive later. I’m thinking we won’t see the big numbers of them until after Christmas. Still, seeing snow geese on Silver Lake in mid-October is remarkable. Must have been scouts.

Offshore wind farm action

A few weeks ago, Ron MacArthur made a photograph of a 200-foot lift boat which took refuge in the Breakwater Harbor of Lewes. Hurricane Michael was threatening.

Capt. Stuart Griffin, a river pilot, told me the vessel - distinctive for the tall spuds it uses to anchor itself above the seas in rough weather - is associated with Deepwater Wind turbine projects in play off the coast of the Northeast including Delaware and Maryland.

“They’re doing a variety of different samplings for Deepwater,” he told me.

I’m thinking the offshore turbine project will bring an increased amount of industrial-strength vessel activity inside the capes of Delaware over the next few decades.

The Danish offshore wind powerhouse Ørsted recently acquired Deepwater Wind for $510 million. It wants to tap into the Rhode Island firm’s expertise in acquiring permits for, locating and building offshore wind farms along the East Coast of the United States. Ørsted is the largest offshore wind farm developer and operator in the world.

Deepwater has leased offshore tracts about 15 miles off the coast of Delaware and Maryland for its Skipjack Wind Project. The survey work being done by the vessel that showed up off Lewes involves geotechnical surveying to determine characteristics of the sea bottom where Ørsted and Deepwater will set foundations for the wind turbines they’re planning. Those turbines, when operational within the next seven years or so, would feed electricity to seven states along the East Coast including Delaware.

Osprey nest removal

So many people in our area, like Chico, keep an eye on natural happenings and call us from time to time. A lady named Cindy called in early October wondering what had happened to the active osprey nest high atop a communication tower on the northwest side of the Route 1 bridge over the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. She called on Oct. 10. “I saw it up there yesterday and today it’s gone,” she said.

Krys Johnson, communications director for Rehoboth Beach, did some sleuthing for me. The tower sits on property owned by Rehoboth Beach, which leases it to the company that operates the tower. “Apparently the nest was removed by a vendor that the company hired to do that kind of work,” said Johnson. “The birds had left the nest by that point. They can’t have nests like that on those towers because they could interfere with the operations.” 

It’s against the law to remove active nests - meaning with birds nesting on them or raising their young. But once they’ve left for the year, it’s OK to dismantle them.

That solves that mystery. The ospreys that lived there this year will have to find a new perch when they return in the spring. Smart money says the family that left this year will be be back next spring to try to rebuild on the tower.