Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
Auto Tour Rte - Raymond Pool Loop, Smyrna, DE
Smyrna, DE
One of the great coastal marshes of the Atlantic seaboard, where tens of thousands of migrating birds gather on the tidal flats each season.
Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge protects thousands of acres of tidal salt marsh, freshwater pools, and upland along the western shore of Delaware Bay. It is one of the largest remaining stretches of unbroken coastal marsh on the mid-Atlantic seaboard, and it sits squarely on the Atlantic Flyway, the great aerial highway that migrating birds follow along the coast.
That location makes it one of the finest bird-watching sites in the region. In spring and fall the pools and flats fill with tens of thousands of geese, ducks, shorebirds, and wading birds pausing to rest and feed. A driving loop, walking trails, and observation towers let visitors take it all in, from the comfort of a car or out on foot in the open marsh.
What Guests Love
- Driving the auto tour loop past pools alive with wading birds and waterfowl
- Enormous flocks of geese and ducks during the spring and fall migrations
- Observation towers that let you look out over the marsh and mudflats
- The wide, quiet horizon of tidal grass meeting Delaware Bay
Worth Knowing
- The refuge welcomes visitors year-round; migration seasons bring the largest bird numbers
- Bring binoculars or a spotting scope; the birds are often out across the flats
- Insect repellent is wise in the warmer months, when biting flies and mosquitoes are active in the marsh
- The auto tour lets you watch from your vehicle, which doubles as a good bird blind
Details
Smyrna, DE
Learn about Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
A marsh on the great flyway
The Atlantic Flyway is the migratory route that runs along the eastern edge of North America, and refuges like Bombay Hook are the rest stops that make the journey possible. Twice a year, birds travel enormous distances between their northern breeding grounds and their southern wintering areas, and they need places to land, feed, and gather strength along the way.
Bombay Hook was set aside in the 1930s as part of a national effort to protect exactly these kinds of stopover habitats. Its combination of tidal salt marsh, managed freshwater pools, and surrounding fields offers food and shelter to a remarkable range of species, and the result is the spectacle that draws birders here: the sky and the flats filling with wings during the peak of migration.
The auto tour and the trails
The classic way to experience Bombay Hook is the auto tour, a driving loop that threads past a series of impoundments and pools where waterfowl and wading birds concentrate. A slow-moving car makes an excellent bird blind, letting you pull over and watch without flushing the flocks, and the route passes close enough to the water for good, unhurried looks.
For those who want to get out, short walking trails and boardwalks lead into different corners of the refuge, and several observation towers rise above the marsh to give a sweeping view across the flats to Delaware Bay. From these heights the scale of the marsh becomes clear: a vast, level plain of tidal grass stretching to the water's edge.
The life of the marsh
Beyond the headline flocks of geese and ducks, the refuge teems with life. Great blue herons, egrets, and other wading birds stalk the shallows; shorebirds probe the mudflats at low tide; and birds of prey, including bald eagles and northern harriers, hunt over the open ground. In the water and the reeds live muskrats, fish, crabs, turtles, and the small creatures that feed the larger ones.
The salt marsh itself is a nursery for the bay's fisheries and a buffer that absorbs storm tides. What can look at first like empty grass is in fact one of the most productive habitats on earth, and Bombay Hook preserves it on a scale rare along the developed Atlantic coast.
Season by season
Fall is the marquee season, when great flocks of snow geese and other waterfowl arrive from the north and the pools fill with birds, drawing photographers and birders from across the region. Spring migration brings its own surge, with shorebirds passing through and songbirds moving along the edges.
Summer is quieter and hotter, the marsh green and busy with nesting and biting insects, while winter can be stark and beautiful, with wintering waterfowl on the open water and eagles perched in the bare trees. Whatever the season, the refuge rewards patience and a good pair of binoculars.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Smyrna
Smyrna
About 10 miles west
A small central Delaware town with a historic main street, the nearest base for a visit to the refuge.
Dover
About 15 miles south
The state capital, with the colonial Green, state museums, and the Biggs Museum of American Art.
Air Mobility Command Museum
About 20 miles south
A hangar of cargo and refueling aircraft at Dover Air Force Base, telling the story of American airlift.