Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

The results from our Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count, conducted last Sunday, are still being tallied but here’s a preliminary report from Joe Coleman who organizes this amazing event for us each year:

The Twelfth Annual Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count

The 12th annual Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, December 28.  While the number of participants, 110, was much higher than ever, the number of bird species seen, about 95 including the count week, was average. 

While all the reports aren’t in yet, there were some especially nice count week birds on Saturday including a GLAUCOUS GULL that Bob Abrams found at the county landfill and a dozen REDHEADS at Beaverdam Reservoir. A SHORT-EARED OWL was hunting at dusk at Mountain View Elementary School near Purcellville. 

The Glaucous Gull is especially rare as they do not normally come this far south and only one or two are reported annually in Virginia. A photo of this rare bird sighting is provided here, thanks to Bob Abrams.

During the count, itself, there were surprisingly few waterfowl and not many blackbirds, and this always impacts the overall count numbers

On the day of the count a MERLIN was found between Aldie and Philomont, a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE was on private land off of rte 15 a little south of the Goose Creek, and HORNED LARKS were seen in several sectors.  A surprising first for the count because it hasn’t been found before were DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS which were found in two different sectors.  Also unusual were the high numbers of PINE SISKINS.  Most years we don’t find any Pine Siskins; this year there are a tremendous number of them around.

In spite of the extensive coverage of the circle the unseasonably warm weather is probably one of the more important reasons for the average nature of the count.  As many of us observe at our feeders, birds are both more active and visible when it is colder.

Thanks to all the birders for making the count another great success and to Rhonda Chocha and her team for coordinating the Tally Rally.  And a special thanks to the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and to the Bird Feeder in Reston for underwriting the Tally Rally.

When the leaves are gone and brown and a chill is in the air like today, Cardinals certainly do brighten our spirits.  They’re a wonderful year-round resident that readily comes to feeders across our Loudoun landscape. You’ve no doubt heard them too with their familiar calls which…according to field guides, and indeed I agree in this case… sound kind of like “pichew, pichew” or “woit woit woit”.

Try your knowledge of their behaviors in our Colorful Cardinal crossword and get some hints and tips for the answers by reading our article on Cardinals from the Habitat Herald.

More puzzles on Loudoun wildlife and nature can be found on our Educational Resources page. Coming soon….wordsearch puzzles.

Here’s something fun to do (for adults, kids, and everyone in between) ….. as you kick off 2009 create a journal for keeping track of the birds you see over the course of the year. Whether birding through your backyard, going on a nature walk or coming on one of our bird walks, this can be a fun way to not only keep your bird list for the year but also record other wildlife and nature encounters and fun facts you learn along the way.

Materials you need:
- small notebook
- photos (either your own or cut from a magazine) or stickers or other materials to decorate the front cover
- a Birds of Loudoun checklist 
- markers or colored pencils
- tape
- glue

1) Start by customizing your front cover. There are so many options here.  My drawing skills leave a bit to be desired so I glued a photo to the front cover and used a metallic gold pen to write “Birding Journal 2009″.

2) Prepare your Data Pages.  Data pages are the pages that you fill in after a nature walk or a birding walk (or sitting inside on a really cold day, watching your feeders) to record all the species you saw. I like to prepare these as I go since I often need more or less pages depending on the excursion. So, I generally start with the first data page to make sure I have the fields written down. Here are the key fields of information that you’ll want to include: Date, Time, Temperature, Weather, Location, Who you were with, # of Species, # of Individuals, and Comments. Below this I leave room to list all the species I saw during that day. It’s also fun to leave room for a photo or other memento that you can glue in as a reminder of the day.

3) Prepare your Species-specific Pages. Species-specific pages are pages that I’m adding this year. I’m leaving room for them in the back of my journal and I plan to use these as summary pages for observations that I’ve made about the bird, such as locations where I saw the bird as well as any special notes for identification.

4) Prepare your Location Pages. Towards the back of the notebook, I’m also leaving a few pages for locations.  It’s nice to have a summary of places you visited during the year all at a glance as well as any special information for places that you visit less frequently. 

5) Include the full Birds of Loudoun checklist. In the back of your journal (or in the front), tape in a copy of the Birds of Loudoun checklist.  You can get printed copies on any of our bird walks or download it through the link provided here. Throughout the year, check off species you’ve seen and then at the end of the year you can see at a glance all the species you encountered.

Here in Loudoun, we have well over 200 species of birds that winter, summer or migrate through. They’re fast as a hummingbird, thin as a rail, silly as a bittern, loud as a flock of big honkin’ geese, quiet as a mouse…oops, wrong species. Anyway, we have a great diversity of birds here in Loudoun of all colors and sizes. Every bird walk we do is an adventure as we never know what mother nature will show us. Keeping a journal is a fun way to keep track of the stories that nature shows us as well as a reminder of our great outdoor explorations.

Now here’s one incredible local Loudoun backyard birding adventure!  All from the comfort of Betty and Bill’s home in Leesburg….not one, but TWO Bald Eagles came right in to their deck to fight over a bone!  Here’s Bill’s amazing story.  It happened Sunday (Dec 28th). Pretty cool!  Thanks so much to Betty and Bill for sharing this!

From Bill:

We were sitting in the solarium watching the bird action on our deck as we do every morning AND being entertained by a couple of Turkey Vultures playing with the wind as they looked for breakfast.  Betty says something like, “You know, how do we know we’re not thinking these are vultures but they are actually eagles.  I reply, “Well, we can usually see the red faces on the Turkey Vultures but you might be right about the Black Vultures.  They could be Golden Eagles, but neither of us has ever actually seen a Golden Eagle.  Why don’t you look it up in our book.” 

We always keep two excellent “birding” books on the couch in the solarium:  the Smithsonian Handbook “Birds of North America, Eastern Region” by F. J. Alsop III and the National Audubon Society, “Field Guide to Birds, Eastern Region” by John Bull and John Farrand, Jr.  So, Betty turned to page 183 of the Smithsonian Handbook (it has better pictures and is a little more user-friendly) and she starts reading to me about Golden Eagles: That they’re pretty rare in the East, the beak is noticeably different . . . “bulkier, more massive” than the vulture’s”

. . . and then she says (this is when it starts getting “spooky”) . . . “but it also says that the juvenile Bald Eagle is similar and, maybe, that’s what I’ve seen, just maybe.”  And it’s almost at exactly that moment that I’m looking about due north out our windows and I see what I think, initially, is two vultures flying side-by-side about 100 yards out heading directly at our windows, just slightly above our eye level. 

My thought was: “That’s a strange flight pattern for vultures.”   Now they are 75 yards out, coming fast and I see their pure white hooded heads and massive yellow beaks and I think: “Oh, my God, those are Bald Eagles!”  Betty is still reading out loud and I’m momentarily SPEECHLESS. 

Finally, I stutter, “Betty, look up, here come two Bald Eagles!”  I’m still in shock as she catches just a quick glance as one flares for a landing on our deck’s overhead trellis–we are now both looking up at his (or her) slightly yellow feet and blackish feathered leggings and that’s all we can see–and the other one had turned very sharply to the right and down toward the ground to scoop-up the rib-eye bone we had put out for the crows about an hour earlier.

Immediately, the one on the trellis took off after his mate(?) and they engaged in aerial combat with each other for possession of the bone while also fending off several not-so-happy crows.  After a few marvelous minutes, the eagles flew off to the south and the crows returned to “Old Abe,” the beautiful sycamore adjacent to the deck.  At that point all of us–the crows and the humans–were wondering, “What a way to start the day!”

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth
find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.

- Rachel Carson

Eastern Screech Owls…they’re one of our smallest owls here in Loudoun yet also one of our most common. In this episode, we talk about their nesting, their habitat needs and setting up an owl house.

The Eastern Screech Owl has taken to suburban and urban landscapes and if we don’t clean up our woods, there’s a good chance that screech owls will take up residence. As we head into January listen for their courtship calls.

The photo shown here is of a screech owl peering out of a nestbox hole. This is the original box that I built which was well used but has now been replaced since after about seven years, the floor rotted out. We’ll see how the store bought box measures up.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

Curious about what a Screech Owl sounds like? Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology has a sound recording that you can listen to….it’s simply trilling (heh heh): http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Screech-Owl.html

The winter issue of the Habitat Herald is hot off the press! We’re assembling our team of labelers and sorters and will be mailing this next issue to all Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy members during the first week of January.

Here’s a quick preview of what’s inside:
- A Update on Citizen Science in Loudoun County
- Part II of our Woodpeckers of Loudoun article
- A great write-up on our Birds of Loudoun Atlas project
- Persimmons - a really interesting native tree
- Upcoming programs and field trips through April
- Adventures of Zoom and Compass….a story of a red bird
- and lots more!

If you’re not yet a member, you can join online. Your membership will be good through December 2009!  ($20 for an individual, $30 for a family) and, it is tax deductible as allowed by the law. 

If you join soon we can get this latest issue of the Habitat Herald out to you in our next mailing - if you join after we have our mailing party then you’ll receive a copy of this issue in your New Member Information packet. The Habitat Herald is a member benefit and is published each quarter.

Just received a great sighting report from Joe Coleman from Saturday, Dec 27:

While scouting my Central Loudoun CBC sector a female SHORT-EARED OWL flew north right over my head about 5:15 pm in the fields to the south of Mountain View Elementary which is a little northwest of Purcellville.  This is where these birds have been found previous winters.

Today on the way home from scouting the CBC sector I’m in tomorrow I saw a probable 1st-year NORTHERN GOSHAWK on Ebenezer Church Rd near its intersection with Yellow Schoolhouse (a couple of miles from Bluemont in western Lo Co).  I didn’t get long looks at it before it flew but it was the size of or a little larger than a Red-shouldered Hawk (several nest in this area) and had a very obvious white supercilious, a Buffy breast with dense streaking, and a specked back with a fair amount of white (a strong highlight) on the wing coverts.  When I first saw it I thought large juvenile Cooper’s Hawk but when it perched changed my mind.  It was not in the Central Loudoun count area but the Calmes Neck CBC area which is on Jan 4.

Joe Coleman, near Bluemont, Loudoun Co

I received some great photos from Betty and Bill Ebert yesterday of the Pine Siskins that are in their yard simply gobbling up the thistle seeds!  The photo included here was taken by Bill and it certainly shows how active they are.

I sat outside for a good while yesterday watching them myself.  They’re a feisty group and they seem to have a lot to say. Watching the thistle feeder, it was easy to tell the difference between the Pine Siskins and the Goldfinches. While they’re about the same size, the Pine Siskins have a lot of streaking on their bodies.  This is a bird that we only have during the winter, as they spend their breeding periods primarily up north through Canada.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great species account on Pine Siskins and you can also listen to their calls.

Are you seeing Pine Siskins in your yard? If so, click on the comment button above and let us know about your sightings.

All good things are wild and free.

- Henry David Thoreau