Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Loundoun Wildlife Conservancy’s walk at Algonkian Park on Wednesday morning drew eight people, who were treated to good looks at Palm Warblers and a Red-headed Woodpecker, among other birds.  Many thanks to Bill Brown for leading this walk! The complete list of species seen includes:

Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Mallard, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, Fish Crow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch

Susan Buckley, Loudoun County Supervisor for the Sugarland Run District, sent information about this cleanup event that’s been planned for next weekend (April 10) and we wanted to help get the word out. 

Algonkian Park is a terrific home to all sorts of wildlife – from salamanders, skinks and frogs to butterflies, birds and mammals of all sorts. I love going there for nature walks and being delighted by the wilds of nature — but have to say, I often find myself carrying a trash bag to pick up litter along the trails. Not sure why people litter but this is a great event to help clean it up (and teach our kids to respect nature and not litter).

Here’s the information from Susan:

The Rotary Club of Sterling, Algonkian Regional Park, the  Potomac Heritage Trail Association and my Office are sponsoring a Cleanup Day at Algonkian Regional Park, where we plan to clean up the shoreline of the Potomac River in addition to the shores of the Sugarland Run stream, a mile of which flows through the park.

I would like to invite you to join us. We will be working all morning, so feel free to come and go as suits your schedule. You are welcome to distribute the attached flyer to your friends.

As you know, sooner or later, the trash and debris flow downstream via the Sugarland Run through Algonkian Regional Park, into the Potomac and into the Chesapeake Bay. This is our chance to do a little something to help the environment in our own backyard.

This past Sunday we had our first amphibian foray of the year and headed over to Algonkian Park to explore the amazing network of seasonal waters and swampland that is over there.

The good news about all that snow that we had this year is that the swamp area and the vernal pools that run through Algonkian were full! We compared photos from last year at some of the same points along the trail and the comparison was dramatic. A vernal pool last year that was no bigger than a bathtub spanned over 100′ this year. It was great to see the water levels back up and the ground properly saturated.

Along our walk, Mike Hayslett, our field trip leader and director of The Virginia Vernal Pools Program, talked about soils, seasonal wetland habitats, lifecycles of the amphibian life found in these habitats, and other cool nature facts.

We did a bit of netting to try to find evidence of Marbled Salamanders as well.  Marbled salamanders lay their eggs in the fall in the dry leaf litter. The female then waits and protects the eggs until the fall rain comes and fills the pools. The eggs then hatch and develop through the winter. At one of the pools we did find a Marbled salamander tadpole. It was not alive but we could still make out the markings to identify it. Salamander tadpoles are easier to find at night because they are nighttime predators….moving through the water column in search of tasty insects.

Other critters that showed up in our netting were various freshwater insects – isopods, coepods – as well as clams. It was really fun to explore these swampy waters and learn about the lifecycles of the animals that use them. 

As soon as we have our first “Big Night” rainfall of the spring, the swamp will be crazy with activity from Wood Frogs, peepers, and other salamanders. Looking forward to that rain, hopefully this week!

I posted a few photos from our walk on our Facebook page – feel free to check them out.

Bill Brown, Joanne Bradbury, and Debbie Harrison enjoyed the mid-week bird walk at Algonkian Park today – and did our bit to improve international relations in the process.  Just as we were starting our walk, a group of four visitors from Sweden drove into the parking lot.  Seeing that they carried binoculars, we invited them to join us and they eagerly accepted.  This gave us the opportunity to impress them with some of our local birds, including the Northern Cardinal and the White-Breasted Nuthatch.  Perhaps the highlight of today’s walk was being able to track down an Eastern Phoebe at the request of the matriarch of the group, who beamed and advised us that it was a life-bird for her.  They left us after an hour, with smiles and thank-you’s all around, and one member of the group, who actually lives in Sterling, asked for LWC’s web address so that he can participate in future activities.

Other highlights of today’s outing included two Barred Owls enthusiastically vocalizing with each other for several seconds and our first of season Eastern Kingbird.  Double-crested Cormorants and Yellow-rumped Warblers were plentiful, a few Palm Warblers showed themselves, and a couple of Osprey flew over.  We had great views of several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a lone Brown Thrasher.   We found about eight Blue-winged Teals remaining in an ephemeral pool between the river and the soccer field.  Bill saw his first of season Orchard Oriole before the rest of the group arrived and a Spotted Sandpiper after they had left. 

Altogether we saw 45 species, including:  Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning Dove, Barred Owl, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird¸ American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Orchard Oriole, House Finch, American Goldfinch.

A fellow nature lover, Cheryl, just over the mountain in West Virginia, wrote this lovely piece on going for a walk in the woods. With spring at our heels, I thought it would be nice to share her writing and thoughts:

This year I have begun to think about what I want to do on my walks in the woods, what is the goal? After writing down a bunch of goals and tasks I still didn’t have the answer I was looking for. The question was all wrong. So then I asked why do I go and what do I experience. The answer wasn’t what I thought it would be. The answer was that WOW moment that I cherish, that always draws me back.

I love that sense of wow and wonder that I get when I am truly in the moment and I discover something that has been there all along. It is brand new to me and suddenly I see it everywhere. My eyes have been opened and I marvel at the new discovery and beauty of this new object. I look around for someone to tell and want to shout from the mountain tops, “Look at this…..it is sooooo cool.” These moments are addicting like a drug that opens up my consciousness. I guess John Denver would call it a Rocky Mountain High.

The challenge is to continually find that new wonder, the new discovery on the same trail year after year. But the challenge is always met. Something always pops out. Even one small thing is enough to experience that wonder. Mother Nature never fails to deliver.

Sometimes just seeing old friends like spring ephemerals is wonder enough. I can delight in the fact that they are back and I recognize them. Seeing them only once a year keeps them fresh to my eyes. But there is always the fear that they won’t return signaling the end of the world as I know it. I just can’t conceive of spring without Dutchman’s breeches along the Shenandoah River. It would be too much to bear.

So my goal this year is to just be there in the moment and notice what is right in front of me. And to say hello to old friends and see what they have to offer I didn’t notice before.

How about you?

Cheryl

Note: The photo included here is from Algonkian Park – as I went there this past weekend, hundreds of Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers filled one of the vernal pools that runs through the property. Their chorus was so loud, people stopped their cars in wonder. It was fabulous.

Andy Rabin led a Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy bird walk at Algonkian Regional Park in eastern Loudoun Co, VA on Saturday morning.  The highlight of the walk, two SURF SCOTERS,  were in the Potomac River (Montgomery Co, MD waters) off of Algonkian’s boat ramp & a little ways downstream.  After studying them for some time in our various scopes and debating what they were we decided on SURF SCOTER.  We got a few photos but they turned out a bit blurry as the birds were far off and we had to hand hold the camera on the scope - I’ll include one here that Ray Smith sent over.

The waterfowl also included four COMMON GOLDENEYES, one male and three females, a flock of nine CANVASBACKS which flew up the river, and several other ducks.  We were also pleased to see a BALD EAGLE, perched above a couple of geese hunters and to find a WINTER WREN.

Andy’s complete list follows:

Canada Goose, Mallard, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, SURF SCOTER, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Great Blue heron,Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Ring-billed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Eastern Towhee, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal

 This is a great time to head over to Algonkian Park. There’s a great walking trail that runs along the river (park near the boat ramp) but there’s also this amazing field of flowers in bloom right now as well. 

You’ll see a variety of flowers (bergamot, rudbeckia, milkweed, cardinal flower, thistle, mullein) as well as some grasses mixed in.  When I was there this morning, the goldfinches, song sparrows and tree swallows were darting all through it, perching on stems and hunting insects.  Dragonflies, butterflies and a variety of bees were enjoying all the vibrance.

It’s definitely worth a look. It’s a great example of what we can do in our yards to covert lawns into wildlife habitat.

If you haven’t been to Algonkian before, you can check out our google map for location, directions and more information about Algonkian Park.  Enjoy!