Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Here’s a great chance for children in Loudoun County to connect with children in Michoacan, Mexico and learn about Monarch butterflies, their habitat needs and their lifecycles. 

The links below provide classroom materials and exercises as well as everything you need to send a Monarch to Mexico….and then get a Monarch back during the Spring migration.

How to Participate
To send your symbolic monarchs to Mexico, you will print, make and mail these 6 pieces:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/symbolic/Make.html

Timeline (print and keep)
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sm/Timeline.html

WHAT’S NEW?

* This year, your class will make, personalize, and send a booklet as a gift for the child in Mexico who will care for your butterflies.
Information in Spanish about the monarch’s famous migration is not readily available to children there. The 14-page booklet, called “The Life and Migration of the Magnificent Monarch Butterfly,” tells the story of the monarch’s migration and the Symbolic Migration.
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/symbolic/Make_Booklet.html

* All of the butterflies from your class will travel together in a “cluster packet.” A student in Mexico will receive and display your colorful cluster packet in their classroom this winter.
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/symbolic/Make_Cluster.html

DON’T FORGET:
All participants must add their classroom to the map. Show others where you are. Students like to see their location and all others on the map in the fall.
Map of Symbolic Monarchs Sent to Mexico Fall 2008 http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/symbolic_fall2008.html

** IMPORTANT: POSTMARK DEADLINE: October 14, 2008 **

Any Questions?
Please submit any questions about the project after you review the new plans via this form:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/contact/help_contact.html

This project is available on the Journey North Web Site:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sm/index.html

On foggy mornings, Charlotte’s web was truly a thing of beauty. This morning each thin strand was decorated with dozens of tiny beads of water. The web glistened in the light and made a pattern of loveliness and mystery like a delicate veil.

- E.B.White

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In this episode we talk about vultures and their lifecycles by sharing a reading from one of John Trott’s articles from The Virginia Naturalist.

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”).

For more information about vultures, check out these additional resources:

Vulture Fact Sheet

Habitat Herald Article, Turkey Vultures

Loudoun’s Vultures: Middleburg and Hamilton (with links to the newspaper articles)

Crossword Puzzle: Vultures

Learn about how communities across the country celebrate the annual migration and return of the vultures:

Wenohah, NJ: East Coast Vulture Festival – Look Alive!

Hinckley, OH: Annual Return of the Buzzard

Kern, CA: Autumn Nature and Vulture Festival

Superior, AZ: Bye, Bye, Buzzards

Around 18 novice and experienced birders joined leaders Mary Ann Good and Laura Weidner for the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s monthly birdwalk at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve on Saturday morning (Aug 9).  Although the group saw 47 species, the lovely weather didn’t translate into increased bird activity.  It was a fairly quiet morning, with flycatchers providing most of the interest.  Pewees were continually heard and frequently seen, as were several Phoebes, Willow Flycatchers in two different locations (uncommon on the preserve itself until this year-although regular nesters at the nearby Dulles Wetlands), at least one Acadian Flycatcher, a family pair of Great Crested Flycatchers, and an Eastern Kingbird.

Mary Ann stopped for an hour’s survey of shorebirds and others at the Dulles Wetlands before the walk and found a large congregation of herons:  12 Great Blue Herons, 10 Great Egrets, and 9 Green Herons, together in the shrinking main pond.  Shorebirds included 20+ Killdeer, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 or 3 Solitary SP, 4 Spotted SP, and 2 Semipalmated SP.  Also present were families of juv. Wood Duck and Mallard and 2 adult Bald Eagles. 

Birds seen by the group at Banshee follow: Black Vulture(1), Turkey Vulture(3), Canada Goose(30), Accipiter sp(1), Red-tailed Hawk(2), Pigeon(1), Mourning Dove(10), Yellow-billed Cuckoo(3), Chimney Swift(3), Red-bellied Woodpecker(2), Downy Woodpecker(4), No. Flicker(1), Pileated Woodpecker(2), E. Wood-Pewee(15), Acadian Flycatcher(1), Willow Flycatcher(2), E. Phoebe(3), Great Crested Flycatcher(2), E. Kingbird(1), Red-eyed Vireo(1), Blue Jay(3), Am. Crow(6), Tree Swallow(2), Barn Swallow(6), Car. Chickadee(6), Tufted Titmouse(4), White-breasted Nuthatch(1), Carolina Wren(6), E. Bluebird(20), Am. Robin(15), Gray Catbird(6), No. Mockingbird(12), Brown Thrasher(4), Starling(2), Am. Redstart(1), Yellow-breasted Chat(1), Scarlet Tanager(1), E. Towhee(3), Chipping Sparrow(2), Field Sparrow(30), Song Sparrow(2), No. Cardinal(8), Indigo Bunting(8), Baltimore Oriole(1), Orchard Oriole(3), House Finch(2), Am. Goldfinch(20), House Sparrow(1)

I received an email from Ed Gorski of Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) about a new tool that they’ve developed so we can see where development is planned to occur. This is a great source of information as we keep an eye on critical habitats across our county.

Here’s an excerpt from Ed’s email with the link to their new tool. Enter your address and see what’s happening around you:

As new roads and houses pop up, have you ever wondered what development is proposed near your home? PEC’s new website LocalDecisions.org combines Google Maps with county planning data to answer just that question. Enter a town or zip code, review specifics, talk with neighbors and quickly send an email to elected officials.

Can you help id this bird? I took this photo here in Waterford two days ago and am stumped- could use some help with the identification…..

Any thoughts, please post comments – would be great to know what it is.

Charity Corkey from the Washington Post joined up with one of our count teams last Sunday to see what exactly we do during this great butterfly count.  Her report of the event, with quotes from our participants, can be found here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080503808.html

Charity tells us it will come out in the print version, in the Loudoun Extra section, later this week and they may do a follow-up article as well. We really appreciate the spotlight being shined on this event and the value of citizen science!

All that glitters is not gold.
There are also diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and those living jewels, the hummingbirds.

- Arnette Heidecamp

While we had to postpone our annual butterfly count by a day due to the weather, it was definitely for the better!  48 people came out to help count butterflies on Sunday, August 3rd from 9:00 in the morning to about 4:30 in the afternoon.

We identified 2,903 individual butterflies and 55 species!  This is the highest number of different species that we’ve identified in our 12 years of counting and some of the species were real rarities like the Clouded skipper, which was a first for our count, the Giant Swallowtail, which we only see every few years, the American Snout (shown above) and the high number of Juniper Hairstreaks.  Two species that were noticeably down in numbers include the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and the Red-spotted Purple.  We’ve posted a Full Report for the day as well as a Summary of the Data for all 12 years – click on over to find out more about what we saw. 

Many thanks to everyone who came out to spot and count butterflies and to our leaders (Jon Little, Cliff Fairweather, Mona Miller, Bob Blakney, Larry Meade, Dirck Harris, Phil Daley, and Nicole Hamilton) who made this possible!

You may see them flying over head, often at top speeds, dashing and turning as they chitter away. With their cigar-shaped bodies, these amazing birds are fast agile fliers and really a joy to watch.

As summer draws to a close and the swifts have finished raising their young, these fascinating aerial acrobats begin to congregate in communal roosts prior to their migration in the fall. Some roosts may consist of an extended family group of a half a dozen birds or so, but the larger sites can host hundreds or even thousands of swifts!

Help us locate some of these roosts - keep an eye to the sky and an aware ear for that telltale chittering and let us know where you see them. We’re hoping to find some last great places where large numbers of swifts congregate and fly in formation. We encourage you to involve your local scout groups and neighbors in this exhilarating spectacle.

Here is how it works: Keep your eyes to the skies at dusk and watch for areas where swifts are feeding. Look for a tall shaft, chimney, church steeples or similar structure to locate where Chimney Swifts go to roost in your area. In times gone by, there had been reports of hundreds of swifts flying in tornado-like form as they drop into their chimney or other roost. We don’t expect to see these numbers in this day and age but even seeing 10-20 in this aerobatic display is amazing!

On one night over the weekend of August 8, 9, 10, and / or September 12, 13, 14 observe the roost starting about 30 minutes before dusk and estimate the number of swifts that enter. When you have your number, contact us with your results. That’s all there is to it!

We’ll compile the information we receive and report it to Driftwood Wildlife Association which keeps track of Chimney Swift populations and research nation-wide.  To learn more about these fascinating birds, visit their website at Chimneyswift.org.