Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

On Saturday, my wife had a Pampered Chef party to attend, so my daughter and I took a trip to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge.  The refuge is located east of Smyrna and covers 16,251 acres.  Most of the land is tidal salt-marsh with the remainder being upland area.  There is a 12-mile auto tour with 5 hiking trails.  This would be a great spot to bring the bikes and bike around, since there are bike racks located at the head of each hiking trail.  It was a cold, windy day in February, but we still saw quite a few birds.  What did we see?  A whole bunch of different birds.  I'm not a birder.  We did see snow geese, coots, a heron, vultures, some sort of hawk, and maybe a bald eagle (the sun was a really bad position for a positive ID).  Here are some pictures.

 

Is that a beaver lodge in the picture above?  Certainly looks like it to me, but I'm not an animal expert.  These were all over the marshlands in the refuge.