Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

This coming Wednesday,  August 20, at 9:00 am, LWC plans to again remove mile-a-minute from around the stream buffer shrubs that were planted on March 1 at the Phillips Farm in Waterford.  We’ve been able to control the invasives from around the shrubs but think we need to remove them at least one more time as the plantings take hold. This will be the third time we have done so this summer.  If you’re interested in participating, we’ll meet at the Mill in Waterford at 9 a.m. and you will need work gloves and might find it more comfortable to wear long sleeves and long pants due to the thorns.  Questions, please contact Joe Coleman at jcoleman@loudounwildslife.org

Andy Rabin led our walk at Banshee on Saturday.  Here is his report from the field:

The walk yesterday went very well. We had 9 people show up, including 2 families (3 kids). We managed to catch a few damselflies and a dragonfly and examine them closely, found a recently emerged Calico Pennant on some emergent vegetation just below it’s exuvium (shed skin), as well as some mating damselflies. It was windy, but we still manged to find 14 species, all near the pond and visitor center.

DRAGONFLIES: Common Green Darner, Calico Pennant, Common Pondhawk, Slaty Skimmer, Widow Skimmer, Common Whitetail, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Blue Dasher, Eastern Amberwing

DAMSELFLIES: Blue-fronted Dancer, Variable Dancer, Familiar Bluet, Fragile Forktail, Eastern Forktail

I was out working with Meg Findley, Otto Gutenson and David Ward filming a surprise for you all so I missed this walk but did receive a report from Joe Coleman (below). Definitely sounds like we’re starting our transition of the seasons:

Except for one very surprising highlight, a flyover dark morph SNOW GOOSE, Saturday morning’s walk, led by Mary Ann Good & Joe Coleman, was a bit slower than expected but was still a great deal of fun.  The effects of last year’s drought and the lack of recent rain in this area can be clearly seen in the rapidly drying out wetlands.  While still not bone dry and somewhat muddy, it is drying out quickly.  It was fun to also see several waders including several GREAT EGRETS, GREAT BLUE HERONS, GREEN HERONS, 2 adult BALD EAGLES, a WILSON’S SNIPE, and a few more shorebirds.