Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same. She casts the same thoughts into troops of forms, as a poet makes twenty fables with one moral. Beautifully shines a spirit through the bruteness and toughness of matter.

- Emerson

There’s a really neat Bald Eagle project going on right now in Fauquier and Loudoun Counties and it’s just too cool not to tell you about! Furthermore, our own Liam McGranaghan and Laura Weidner will be involved in this as they help monitor sites, 3 of which are located in Loudoun.

Basically what they do is identify areas that are likely to attract eagles and then ask landowners if they’d mind having a dead deer carcass in their yard to attract the birds. So far they’ve had a lot of support from people they’ve approached – hey, it’s just another form of bird feeding, right ?

The property owners keep a journal of the eagles that show up throughout the day and email it in to the project lead. With the data in hand, the project team, trained in handling eagles, returns to the property, traps the birds, collects the data needed and immediately releases the birds.

The goal of this Eagle Project is to develop a better understanding of the Bald Eagle population in the area as well as migratory patterns, health of the birds and information on the age distribution of the birds.

The project is led through the Virginia Inland Eagle Project under the auspices of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and is planned to go on for 10 years to gather the trend data needed to draw strong conclusions about the population.

For more information and an excellent story told from the perspective of one of the property owners, you can read the article online here or download our clipping from the paper here.

Nature lovers entering grades three through seven will not want to miss our Natural History Day Camps (June 28-July 2 and July 12-16) taking place at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve again this summer. 

Campers will explore the woods, fields, and water of the preserve and learn about the plants and animals that live there.  The camps will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. 

Banshee Reeks is located five miles south of Leesburg off Route 15.   The cost will be only $130 per week, and space is limited.  For a quick look at last year’s camp, here’s the link from Nature Camp 2009.

Staff leading the camp are Phil Daley as Director/Naturalist; Paul Miller as Assistant Director, and Ellie Daley as Special Activities coordinator. Our summer intern will again support the camp as well.

These two fun-filled weeks in the outdoors is sponsored by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Piedmont Environmental Council, Loudoun County Parks and Recreation, and Friends of Banshee Reeks.

For more information contact LWC’s Phil Daley at 540-338-6528 or pedaley@verizon.net.  More details will be provided in the next issue of the Habitat Herald and on our website on the Natural History Day Camp page.