Monthly Archives: April 2021

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Chesapeake Bay in Maryland

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The best known sea creatures in the Chesapeake Bay are the famous blue crabs. The bay provides food water, cover, and nesting for over 3,000 migratory and resident wildlife species.

The blue crab needs a variety of aquatic habitats from the mouth of the bay to fresher rivers and creeks to complete its life cycle. Adult crabs feed on thin skinned bivalves, fish, and plants. Female crabs lay up to eight million eggs in one season.
The oyster is a keystone species and very important to the Chesapeake ecosystem. Oysters purify the bay straining algae from the water for food. They provide habitat and food for many marine plants and animals.

Waterfowl
Waterfowl and other kinds of birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway make stopovers in Chesapeake Bay to find food and shelter in the coves and marshes. The migration of the common loon and tundra swan are definite signs of the winter season here.
The Chesapeake provides a winter haven for tundra swans, Canada geese, and a variety of ducks including canvasbacks, pintails, scoters, eiders, and ruddy ducks.

It is also a major nesting area for the threatened bald eagle, the brown pelican, and double-created cormorants.
The Chesapeake is home to the world’s largest population of the osprey which is the harbinger of spring.

Fish

The tidal freshwater tributaries of the Chesapeake provide spawning and nursery sites for such fish as white and yellow perch, striped bass (also known as ‘rockfish, herring, American shad, and hickory shad.
Other species here include bluefish, weakfish, sturgeon, Atlantic menhaden, flounder and spot, and larger fish such as as sandbar sharks and cownose rays. Making their home here year round are the Bay anchovy, silver perch, and lined seahorse.

Mammals

Among the mammals found in the Chesapeake area at bottle nose dolphins. There are also land mammals like the river otters, the white-tailed and sika deer, bobcats, marsh rabbits, muskrat, and red fox.


Reptiles and Amphibians

Most common reptiles are turtles and snakes in the bay watershed among them diamondback terrapin, loggerhead turtles, and more than 40 types of snakes. There are also many varieties of frogs including the northern green frog, toads, salamanders, and newts,

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Wildlife of Delaware

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You can see and enjoy seeing many different animals in the Upper Delaware Region. The park is home to both terrestrial and aquatic species that otherwise might face a threat from the activity of humans, The Delaware River ensures that the species can find a peaceful habitat and thrive in the river valley.

There are over 50 fish species that live in the river and its tributaries. Some of the species migrate between the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean like the American Eel and the American Shad. Others make their permanent home here such as the Blue-Spotted Sunfish.
Visitors can enjoy seeing the Great Blue Heron wadding in shallow water seeking fish, frogs, or small crustaceans. Now and then you might spot a River Otter either gliding on the water or sliding on the riverbank.
It is important to remember to watch carefully at dawn and dusk when White-tailed Deer might make their way across the roadways.
The Delaware Rive is an important part of the Atlantic Flyway which is the route birds use to migrate between their breeding grounds and their wintering grounds. An important and constant winter resident of the Upper Delaware River is the Bald Eagle, The watershed is home to one of the largest populations of wintering Bald Eagles in the northeast.
Other bird species include waterfowl, warblers, sparrows, hawks, and shorebirds making their way along the river corridor.

The Pennsylvania Audubon Society designated the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River as an important Bird Area in 1998.