Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

I stopped by the viewing spot along Loudoun County Parkway last weekend to check on the Great Blue Herons. 

This is a great time to view the roost because the trees have not leafed out yet and you can see the birds finely silhouetted against the sky.

Along the different tree clusters, I counted around 50 nests – some looking smaller than in the past, possibly due to storm damage from the snows and others perhaps just being built.  The greatest thing to see though is the pairs as they stand together on the nests, nuzzling each other, bringing in sticks to add to the nests, and other courtship activities.

In coming weeks they’ll lay their eggs and then they’ll be busy through the spring raising their chicks. We’ll continue to pop by to watch them, staying far back from the rookery and using the spotting scope so not to disturb their important activities of the season.

For those interested in Amphibians this will be an exciting week!  I was just checking the weather and there’s a chance of rain Wednesday through Friday and the temps are supposed to be around 50 degrees!!  PERFECT!!

We still have room in our Amphibians Afoot Class and Field Trip so if anyone is interested please sign up soon. If it rains those nights we’ll definitely be doing a night excursion and perhaps a road crossing assist.

So what’s the big deal about the first spring rains in March? Man, if the typed word could only show my excitement! I’m about to jump out of my seat on this and can barely catch all my typos!

The first warm rain in March is when Wood Frogs, Spring Peepers, toads, Jefferson Salamanders and others make their move! Imagine them in their forest homes, under logs, in burrows, nestled in the cushion of fallen leaves….the winter slumber is over and it’s time to breed!  They can’t leave their havens without some rain because their skin will dry out and they can’t move during a daytime rain because predators are out. So they wait……then it happens! Nighttime falls, the rains come and they migrate in force! 

They’ll migrate from as far away as 1/4 mile to get to the vernal pools and other wetlands where they were born in order to meet up with their fellow species to mate, stay a few days and then return to the forest. Wow – it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! Here’s an interview I did with Mike Hayslett when he was here with us last year: Spring Wetlands Interview

This special spring rain sets the season off and is also why we get our amphibian monitoring program going this time of year.  We have these big events and the amphibians are most visible from March through about June/July. Oh it is just so much fun!

So, watch the weather and if you’re out at night when it’s raining, watch the road – what you may think are leaves blowing across the road may actually be frogs, toads and salamanders trying to cross!  Let us know what you encounter!

And please do check out the Amphibians Afoot Class mentioned above – there’s a small fee for this one to help cover some of our costs but it’s well worth it!

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.

I watched an excellent NOVA program last night called The Lord of Ants.  It’s about the life of E.O.Wilson, one of my personal heroes and sources of inspiration. It’s called The Lord of Ants because of the research on ants that Wilson focused on but Wilson did more than just study ants, he made the linkage from ants to biosystems and teaches us about how life connects to life on our planet and the habitats that we have to protect. 

It’s recognized that we are currently going through a mass extinction and in this program he describes the impact (no, it’s not the end of the world, but the species and diversity of the world will change). With science, rather than emotion, E.O. Wilson makes a call for action in the hopes of saving diversity.

In addition to being really informative and inspiring, there are a couple of things that I especially liked about this program. First, it’s told by him in the present day so it’s current and real. The second is that the program weaves together not only stories that he tells about past research but also present day research that links the past with the present.  He then takes that to the next dimension: turning data into action, turning information into a discussion around the need to protect and preserve habitats. This is something that we strive to do through Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy so I especially grooved on that.

Another part of the program that I really loved was where he points out how you and I can get involved here at the local level. Environmental monitoring programs and activities like a BioBlitz that we do here locally are shown to connect into this big picture tying education and monitoring to conservation. He also talks about the Encyclopedia of Life, which I did a blog post on a week or so ago, and his vision for that.

E.O. Wilson is certainly one of the greatest naturalists of our modern days. I encourage you to check out this NOVA program next time it’s on or watch it online through the link above (it’s just an hour and is not dry at all) and pick up a book or two of his – they are both fascinating and often poetic.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up this weekend (February 12-15). It’s a great way to be part of a great citizen science effort that has been going on since 1997 and… you can do it from the comfort of your home!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is easy to participate in and over the four days, you can spend as much or as little time as you like. Some people spend 15 minutes, others spend a few hours – whatever time you want to spend counts and adds to the great data that is collected. This is also a great activity to share with kids!

Watch a video about the Great Backyard Bird Count here. This video explains more about how to participate in the count and talks about how small bits of data on birds from our backyards can really help us understand the bigger picture of bird populations.

This is a really fun event to be a part of so we encourage everyone to participate!  If you do participate, we’d also love to have your data to use it in our Loudoun County Bird Atlas!  After you do your GBBC, just email your tally results over to our Bird Atlas Coordinator, Spring Ligi, at sligi@loudounwildlife.org and she’ll get your data entered into our Atlas database. 

Even more information about the Great Backyard Bird Count as well as the data form can be found on the website: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Calling all birders and bird enthusiasts!  Have you ever seen a Rusty Blackbird? I haven’t, which is why there’s no photo in this post, but we have them in Loudoun!  When they’re here, we see them in the late fall and later in late winter but it’d sure be great to find some during this winter blitz!  We’re thinking that the most likely areas for them would be around Horsepen Preserve and Algonkian due to the habitat found there.

Anyway, if you can get out and bird during the Blitz, let us know if you find any! The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great identifaction page on Rusty Blackbirds (complete with photos and sounds of their calls).

Following the success of the 2009 Blitz, the 2010 Rusty Blackbird Winter Blitz will take place from January 30th through February 15th across multiple states in the bird’s wintering range.

Coordinated by the International Rusty Blackbird Technical Working Group out of the Smithsonian, the Rusty Blackbird Blitz is a citizen science-based effort to document Rusty Blackbird (RUBL) locations across their wintering range in a centralized database, thus providing groundwork for researchers to conduct their work in the future. This work is indeed vital as the declining Rusty Blackbird is considered Vulnerable by the IUCN and is currently listed by the National Audubon Society as an A1 Species of Conservation Concern at the Global Level.

In Virginia, the Rusty Blackbird Winter Blitz is being brought to you by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Society of Ornithology and the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory. Essentially, we need all available birders to go birding as much as possible during the Blitz period and record their results (including habitat information and the presence or absence of RUBLs) through the Virginia eBird portal at http://ebird.org/content/ebird/va in addition to sending the sightings in to our Bird Atlas Coordinator, Spring Ligi: sligi@loudounwildlife.org.

Important Blitz protocol information and more can be found at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Research/Rusty_Blackbird/protocol.cfm.

Also, please visit http://www.vabci.org/rusty-blackbird.asp to find more information on the Blitz and on the status, distribution and ecology of the Rusty Blackbird in Virginia.

Finally, if you have any questions please feel free to contact Sergio Harding, Virginia’s Blitz Coordinator, at sergio.harding@dgif.virginia.gov.

There’s a terrific new project being started in Loudoun Valley High School through environmental sciences teacher, Liam McGranaghan, and I thought it’d be great to share information on it with you now as well as post updates later as the students get rolling. With the many farms still active throughout Loudoun, we have a great opportunity here to not only learn more about these wonderful birds but also help them survive into the future.

Barn Owls are a species of concern in Virginia and many areas of the United States.  Wildlife biologists believe one of the principle factors for their decline is the lack of adequate nesting places. Barn owls are well adapted to human structures and many use old barns and particularly old silos to nest and raise young. 

Unfortunately, old silos are not always safe structures to raise owlets, especially if the silo allows access by nest predators such as raccoons. By locating silos in Loudoun County that may serve as possible nest sites for barn owls, researchers can visit those silos to determine their potential for breeding owls. 

For silos that have potential, but may be unsafe for nesting owls, it may be possible to modify the silo to make them usable.  This can be done by sealing open doors on the silo and/or placing nest boxes strategically in the silo to deter nest predators.

The goal of LVHS environmental students is three fold.  First, is to locate potential Barn owl nesting silos in Loudoun County using Google Earth.  Secondly, once silos sites have been located, the students will visit these silos to determine their potential for nesting.

Because owl roosting and nesting is very sensitive, the students will be given full instruction on how to approach a silo and care that must be taken in order to not disturb any owls using the structures that they investigate. The greatest concern and priority is for the welfare of the owls and this will be emphasized to the students in their training.

Students will determine the quality of the site by using a rating rubric. Finally, students will bolster barn owl populations through community outreach (Educating local landowners) and by obtaining permission, correct deficiencies in potential barn owl nesting silos that allow access by nest predators. 

All Barn owls chicks born in these silos will be banded with a USFWS band.  Data gathered during the study will also be supplied to the Virginia Department of Game and Fisheries and to Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy for the Loudoun County Bird Atlas.

The results are in!  Here’s our report from Joe:

The 13th Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count, sponsored by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (LWC), took place on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009.

I want to thank all the counters, for helping with this count, one of about 2,000 different Christmas Bird Counts, part of the longest and largest citizen-science effort in the world.  I especially want to thank the sector and subsector leaders for your help as without you these counts would not be possible.  We also appreciate all the private and public landowners who give us permission to visit their properties to survey the birds there – those permissions make an incredible difference in the numbers and diversity of what we find!

For those of us owling, the day started with promise under clear skies, a nearly full moon, and temperatures in the mid-30’s at 4 am.  Unfortunately that quickly changed as the temperature dropped to 25 at 7 am accompanied by a freezing fog.  Roads that had been simply wet an hour before were dangerously slick.  And while the fog was beautiful, it was also cold.  While the temperature ultimately warmed up to the low 50’s later in the day, making it a great day to be outside, most ponds remained totally frozen.

The 92 participants, including many beginner birders and ten under 19, found 87 species, a bit less than average, and 28,353 individual birds, about average.

The highlights of the count included
- a Loggerhead Shrike found by Gerco Hoogeweg’s team
- a single Long-eared Owl found by Bob Abrams, and four Barn Owls, the most we’ve found since our very first year
- 2 Gray Catbirds
- 3 Brown Thrashers, a high count
- 5 Red-breasted Nuthatches in two different old pine plantations
- 38 Hermit Thrushes, a high count
- the raptors included 30 Bald Eagles, our second highest count, and 18 Cooper’s Hawks, our highest count
- interesting sparrows included 15 Trees (low), 29 White-crowned (low), and 7 Chipping (a high count)
- a single Pine Siskin and 6 Purple Finches, both way down from last year, an irruption year.

Two teams had seven woodpecker-days with one team finding all seven woodpecker species in 40 minutes on the same farm and then finding all seven woodpecker species again later in the day.  A total of 20 Red-headed Woodpeckers, a high for this count, were found throughout the county.

With most of the count’s ponds frozen and the streams and Potomac in flood, it was hard to find a lot of waterfowl. 

To make it more challenging several of the larger bodies of water, which do not totally freeze, were totally fogged in when visited early in the morning.  Nonetheless the team led by Dori Rhodes did see a flock of Snow Geese flying overhead while Gerco Hoogeweg’s team located two Red-breasted Mergansers, surprisingly the first found on this count.

Afterwards about half the participants met at the Red, Hot, & Blue for the Tally Rally, coordinated by Mike Friedman, to share tales of their day.   They not only ate a lot of tasty meat choices but vegetarian fare as well.

We hope you will join us on one of our future bird walks, or even better, one of our counts or help with the Loudoun County Bird Atlas. 

To find out about our upcoming events or to see a comparison of this year’s count to previous years check out our Christmas Bird Count page.  At the bottom of that page we have reports from past years as well as a summary of our data since we began the count 13 years ago. To compare the Central Loudoun CBC to others check out www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc/.

Joe Coleman, Count Compiler
540-554-2542 or jcoleman@loudounwildlife.org

Many thanks to Constance Chatfield Taylor and Peter Kaestner for sending over photos from their birding adventures! Additional photos can be seen on our Loudoun Wildlife Facebook page.

Here are our January News and Tips from our Bird Atlas Coordinator, Spring Ligi:

As we head into 2010, I can’t help but wonder what interesting sightings the new year will bring.  The atlas highlights from December include a Long-eared Owl (private property, Leesburg 5 block) as well as a Ruddy Duck and Common Merganser on the Potomac River (Seneca 3 block).  Keep up the great work!
 
Reminders to Current Bird Atlas Participants
1.  Our atlas is a year-round project.  Be sure to atlas your block at least once each month and enter your fall/winter data in the online atlas database.
2.  Familiarize yourself with parts of your block you haven’t had time to atlas yet.  Determine who you need to get permissions from. 
3.  If you feel your block has been adequately covered, consider identifying a new block to atlas.
 
Species of the Month – Great Horned Owl
• The Great Horned Owl is now within safe dates (12/15- 8/31).  This owl loves old Red-tail’s nests so be on the lookout for old hawk nests, but be careful not to disturb a nesting owl – this is a critical time for them.
• This owl will take large prey, even other raptorial birds. It regularly kills and eats other owls, and is an important predator on nestling Ospreys.
• Even though the female Great Horned Owl is larger than her mate, the male has a deeper voice. Pairs often call together, with audible differences in pitch.

Information taken from Jay Sheppard of the Maryland/DC Breeding Bird Atlas and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-winged_Teal/lifehistory).
 
Atlas Progress
36 enthusiastic atlasers have spent 1,107 hours in the field documenting 12,070 sightings. You have recorded 185 species, with 91 of these species having a confirmed nesting status. Field cards have been reported for 28 blocks.
 
Upcoming Events
We definitely need more Atlas volunteers!  An atlas training session will be held in late February/early March for all new atlasers and people interested in helping with the project. 

If you’re interested in participating in the Bird Atlas contact me at sligi@loudounwildlife.org . More information on the Loudoun County Bird Atlas can also be found on our website.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!
 
Happy Atlasing,
Spring

The 13th Annual Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count is coming up!  Sunday, December 27.

Everyone is welcome, both beginners and expert birders (new birders are teamed with experienced birders and will no doubt get hooked!).

If you are interested in participating for the whole day or just part of the day, Sign Up Online or contact Joe Coleman at 540-554-2542 or jcoleman@loudounwildlife.org. Following the count we’ll have a Tally Rally to hear stories from the day and see what birds we saw around Loudoun. Lots of fun!

 Started in 1899, these surveys are held all over the country, with the results used to better understand bird populations and dynamics.

The count-circle has a 15-mile diameter and covers 177 square miles of Loudoun’s countryside: north to Waterford, south to Aldie, east to Ashburn, and west to Purcellville. This part of Loudoun County includes areas that not only have beautiful scenery but also are full of birds.

You can also learn more about our count, see the count circle and view our past data on our Christmas Bird Count pages.