Each spring, thousands of migratory shorebirds from around the world stop to feed for two weeks in the Delaware Bay on horseshoe crab eggs to help fuel their journey from South America to their Arctic breeding grounds. The Delaware Bay is home to the largest population of horseshoe crabs on the Atlantic coast.
The DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor reserve is marking the occasion with its 6th annual Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crab Festival on Saturday.
Dawn Cox, of the DuPont Nature Center for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control helped launched the free Festival.
“It's a prime time for folks to come in and see that phenomenon happening right here on the shorelines around the center," she says. "So we decided we needed to try to celebrate this in a special way."
The event features environmental eco-stations for kids, birders can view the migratory phenomenon from the deck, and there will also be live music and food.
More than 130 species of birds, fish, shellfish, and other animals can be found in the surrounding estuary habitat of the reserve.
