Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Sorry for my delayed posting of this report but here’s the report from Joe Coleman on the great diversity of birds at the Blue Ridge Center on May 8th:

One of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s International Migratory Bird Day walks on May 8th was at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship. The highlights of the walk, led by Joe Coleman & Larry Meade, included 12 warbler species, 2 Bald Eagles flying over together, American Kestrels, a Barred Owl, numerous Peewees & numerous Acadian Flycatchers 3 vireo species, a single Swamp Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrows, a lingering White-throated Sparrow, numerous Indigo Buntings, and Eastern Meadowlarks.

The 7 participants met & finished at the Visitor Center but spent most of their time walking from the end of Sawmill Rd deep into the forest where we briefly visited Gordon Pond and then down Arnold Rd to Piney Run where we had left a couple of cars.  The most productive areas were the east side of the large field at the end of Sawmill Rd, the marshy area in the power cut, and the Arnold Rd near Piney Run and Arnold Trail around Sweet Run. 

Once the wind kicked up it got a lot quieter and more difficult to find several of the more common species. In addition to the birds, we also saw several different butterfly species. Information on the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship can be found at http://www.blueridgecenter.org.   Information on the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy can be found at www.loudounwildlife.org. 

Number of species:     72
Canada Goose, Mallard, Wild Turkey, Great Blue Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk (Eastern), American Kestrel,Mourning Dove, Barred Owl, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Blue-winged Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Indigo Bunting, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow

How could the drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.

- Antoine de Saint Exupery

Gerry Hawkins and I led one of the 10 bird walks we had going on last Saturday in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day.

For our walk, we went all around Bles Park – from the fields to the wetlands to the river, and we had some wonderful views of different birds.

We then went over to the Great Blue Heron rookery and observed them for awhile as they tended their nests. 

We finished our morning with a great walk through the nature trails around Loudoun Water where we had amazing views of Eastern Kingbirds among others.

We had an excellent day birding these areas, although some common species (year round-ers like woodpeckers as well as summer residents like the chats) were missing. Warblers were down too but we did get a great view of a Northern Parula (shown here).  

In all we had 54 species:

Canada Goose, Mallard, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great egret, Snowy egret, Green heron, Black vulture (poss. Nesting at Loudoun water), Turkey vulture, sharp-shinned hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Amer. Kestrel, Solitary sandpiper, Rock pigeon, Mourning dove, Chimney Swift, Belted kingfisher, Red-bellied woodpecker, Northern flicker, Peewee, Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Amer. Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue0gray gnat-catcher, Eastern bluebird, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, European starling, Cedar waxwing, Northern Parula, Prairie warbler, Blackpoll warbler, Nothern Waterthrush, Common yellowthroat, Chipping sparrow, Song sparrow, Northern cardinal, Indigo bunting, Red-winged blackbird, Common grackle, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, Amer. Goldfinch, House Sparrow

Many thanks to Gerry for such a great walk!  We had fun exploring the trail through Loudoun Water too!

Trees dance – even on the stillest days.

- Kees Wagenvoord

To celebrate Environment for the Americas’ International Migratory Bird Day on May 8, the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (LWC) has scheduled 10 different bird walks, all led by experienced and enthusiastic birders.  Every one of the walks has great habitat that is important to both migrating and nesting birds.  Some of the sites are regularly visited while others are only open to birders a couple of times a year.

If you are interested please join us on one of the following walks.  To get an idea on how many people are planning to attend please let us know if you are planning to attend by registering online on our IMBD signup page.  If you need more info on a site or directions please contact Joe Coleman at jcoleman@loudounwildlife.org  or visit “Loudoun’s Great Places” on the website.

All the walks begin at 8 am unless otherwise noted.  From east to west in Loudoun County:

1) Algonkian Regional Park, led by Bill Brown.  Algonkian is a Northern Virginia Regional Park which includes extensive wetlands and rich forested bottomland along the Potomac.  Bill completed a bird list for the park a couple of years ago.

2) Horsepen Preserve (privately owned), led by Andy Rabin and Linda Sieh.  This heavily forested preserve is immediately upstream from Algonkian and has several wetlands and small streams.

3) Bles Park and distant viewing of a Great Blue Heron rookery, led by Gerry Hawkins and Nicole Hamilton.  Bles Park is a small jewel of a Loudoun Co park that borders the Potomac & includes meadows, wetlands, and heavy forest.  After Bles the group will drive to a close-by spot where they will view, with scopes, a 55-nest Great Blue Heron rookery along Broad Run and close to Rte 28 that LWC has been working to protect.

4) Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve, led by Dori Rhodes & Del Sargent & co-hosted by the Friends of Banshee Reeks.  Banshee Reeks is a 725-acre nature preserve with a wide diversity of natural habitats rich with wildlife.  LWC was the lead organization in establishing the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve in the late ’90′s.  In addition to the Friends of Banshee Reeks, there is also a VA Master Naturalist Chapter at the preserve.

5) Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation Project, 6 am, led by Bruce Hill and Cheri Schneck.  LWC has partnered with the Dulles Greenway who created these wetlands to mitigate the wetlands lost in the building of the Dulles Greenway.  For years LWC has monitored bird populations on the wetlands and more recently established a bluebird trail here and begun monitoring other wildlife as well.  With special permission from the Dulles Greenway, LWC periodically lead walks on this 200-acre wetlands.

6) Ball’s Bluff and Red Rock, led by Robert and Cathey Daugherty.  Ball’s Bluff and Red Rock are two heavily forested Northern Virginia Regional Parks in Leesburg that border the Potomac.  While well-known for their many spring wildflowers, these parks are also nice spots to find a wide variety of migrant and nesting birds.

7) Rust Nature Sanctuary, led by Phil Daley and Paul Miller.  Owned by the Audubon Naturalist Society this 68 acre preserve has a wide variety of different habitats on the edge of Leesburg including a meadow, a mature deciduous forest, a pine plantation, a pond, and a rare perched upland wetlands, all of which attract migrants and are also home to several interesting nesting birds as well.

 Morven Park, 8:30 am, led by Bruce Hill and Cheri Schneck.  Morven Park is a private large historic house and estate that encompasses over a 1,000 acres of gardens, fields, lawns, and extensive forest along the Catoctin Ridge right outside Leesburg.  The trails in the forest are rarely open to the public and are a good spot to find a nice variety of nesting & migrant birds.

9) Phillips Farm, led by Dale Ball and Mimi Westervelt.  Waterford, a well-preserved Quaker village dating to the 1730′s, saved the 144-acre Phillips Farm from development a few years ago.  In the last three years LWC has partnered with the Waterford Foundation, who owns the farm, to plant over 1,200 trees and shrubs along Catoctin Creek, a State Scenic River that is home to a wide variety of birds and other wildlife.

10) Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship (privately owned), led by Joe Coleman and Larry Meade.  This 900-acre property in the northwestern corner of Loudoun Co borders the Harper’s Ferry National Park and is only a couple of miles from the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.  It includes heavily-forested mountain slopes, numerous vernal pools, and two different stream valleys along with large meadows, a lightly-managed power-cut, and several ponds and is home to numerous birds, mammals, and other wildlife.

The Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is also sponsoring a Birdathon from May 1 through May 15. 

Hope you can join us on one of our May 8 walks!  You can sign up for any of these on our website: http://www.loudounwildlife.org/IMBD_Signup_Form.htm

Over the next 15 days, teams of nature enthusiasts, young and old (hopefully you!), will get together, plan some time to get outside, and count birds – all for a good cause! There’s still time for you to jump into this if you’d like to form a team.  You don’t need to be an expert birder and in fact, this is a great way to start learning about birds!

To participate in the bird-a-thon, simply find a friend or two, set a day that you’d like to go birding (you can do it for just a few hours or more if you like), download the bird count form, and pick a place to bird. You can do your bird count in your backyard, neighborhood or local park at any time between May 1-15, or join us on one of our bird walks on May 8 and get some help with your bird identification.

Prior to doing your bird count, talk to friends, family and colleagues at work and let them know what you’re doing (they may give you a funny look but that’s part of the fun) and see if they’d be willing to sponsor you in your count. Many people pledge a flat amount of anywhere from $10 on up while others pledge a per species amount like 10 cents a species (so if you see 30 species, they’d donate $3.) Donations are tax deductible and we have thank you gifts for donors giving $100 or more as well as prizes for bird-a-thon participants.

I hope you’ll join us in this annual event!  More information can be found on our Bird-a-thon page.