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  Category: Wetland Animals

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Exploring Low Marsh Ecology: The Three Contenders

Written on: March 14th, 2022 in Education and OutreachWetland Animals

By Kayla Clauson, DNREC’s Watershed Assessment and Management Section If you’ve followed the WMAP blog for some time, there is no lack of evidence how important salt marshes and other wetlands are. Here, I will dive deeper on salt marsh ecology with a focus on the low marsh zone. First, here are some important fast […]


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Senses in the Salt Marsh

Written on: September 8th, 2021 in Education and OutreachWetland Animals

By Kayla Clauson, DNREC’s Watershed Assessment and Management Section If you’re anything like me and always looking for an adventure, maybe you should check out a tidal salt marsh! I’ll admit – I am slightly biased towards salt marshes due to my professional background, but I’ve exposed many individuals to the wonders of a salt […]


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Off the Rails: Studies on Delaware Clapper Rail

Written on: May 18th, 2020 in Wetland Animals

Colloquially known as marsh hens, the Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) is a vocal inhabitant of saltmarshes across the eastern coast of the United States and down into the Caribbean. Many of the first in-depth observations of Clapper Rail occurred in the mid-Atlantic, and in Delaware, Brooke Meanley documented much of their ecology. The northern Clapper Rail populations, including Delaware, have been declining based on extensive survey work conducted by the Saltmarsh Habitat Avian Research Program (SHARP).


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Delaware’s Freshwater Mussels

Written on: May 14th, 2019 in Wetland Animals

By Clare Sevcik, DNREC’s Nonpoint Source Program There are so many charismatic animals that make Delaware waterways their home. Most people living in Delaware can easily recognize a few of the most popular species: bald eagles, osprey, blue crabs, horseshoe crabs, beavers, river otters, and many more. But there are many more animals living below […]


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Birding in Delaware’s Wetlands

Written on: May 8th, 2019 in Wetland Animals

By Erin Dorset, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Birding is always exciting in Delaware. While some bird species are year-round residents, many others are migrants traveling along the Atlantic Flyway. This keeps things interesting, as it allows birders to see a very wide variety of species throughout the year. A lot of these awesome […]


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Hunting Your Way Through Wetlands

Written on: December 1st, 2018 in Wetland Animals

By Kenny Smith, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Wetlands provide many services to us, like purifying our water, flood protection, and wildlife habitat. The animals that live in our wetlands can provide ample opportunities for outdoor activities like bird watching, fishing, and hunting. Delaware’s typical hunting and trapping seasons start in September and concludes […]


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Delaware’s Most Famous Freshwater Bryozoan

Written on: December 1st, 2018 in Wetland Animals

By William Koth, DNREC’s Delaware State Parks Bryozoans may be one of our most overlooked and underappreciated animals. Known as “Moss Animals,”  bryozoans are small, simple animals rarely growing more than 1/25th of an inch in length.  However, most bryozoans form colonies that can vary greatly in number, form, and size. Bryozoan Biology Each individual […]


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Just How Shellfish Are Freshwater Mussels?

Written on: September 11th, 2018 in Wetland Animals

By Kurt Cheng, The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Upon hearing the term “freshwater mussel”, what do you think of? Is it that tasty seafood restaurant that serves them in white wine or steamed with garlic and parsley? If so, you’re probably not alone. But what if I told you we don’t eat freshwater mussels? […]


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Delaware’s Crayfish

Written on: September 19th, 2017 in Wetland Animals

By Brittany Haywood, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program Did you know that Delaware has multiple species of crayfish? While crayfish may look like small lobsters, they are actually distant cousins. The most differentiating feature is that lobsters live in saltwater, and crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, or whatever you would like to call them, live in […]


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The Bog Turtle: A Sun-Loving Harbinger of Spring

Written on: March 15th, 2017 in Wetland Animals

By Amy Nazdrowicz, Landmark Science & Engineering As residents of the Delmarva Peninsula, we are blessed with a high diversity of herpetofauna, (reptiles and amphibians), in part because of our landscape position which transitions between two physiographic regions: the coastal plain in its southern and central portions to the piedmont in the north. And no […]


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