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Today I counted birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count at the National Arboretum. One may object that the Arboretum is not my backyard, but the name of the count is not meant to be restrictive. I got a late start, but still managed to cover most of my usual areas.
The snow that fell on Tuesday and Wednesday is still present, but now it is covered with impenetrable ice. The icy conditions made it difficult to venture off the roadways, so I was not able to cover some birdy areas as thoroughly as I would have liked. For example, I did not venture into the Azalea Garden or Fern Valley, and I did not risk the steep trails of the Asian Gardens. Most water was frozen over, except for a few fast-running streams. The frozen water includes the Anacostia River, which was frozen across.
One of my goals today was to find the great horned owls that I had seen there before. Unfortunately, their roost was one of the areas made most inaccessible by ice. After slipping a couple times and then falling flat on my face, I decided to move on and look for other birds. A kestrel, seen near the columns, made up for missing the owls. Other good sightings included a brown thrasher and a yellow-bellied sapsucker near the Asian Gardens, cedar waxwings near Heart Pond, and field sparrows near the columns. Somehow, two belted kingfishers have managed to survive several weeks of freezing temperatures. This was the first visit to the Arboretum this year when I have not seen any eastern phoebes. I hope that they moved south rather than perishing. Robins, of course, were in their usual large winter flocks.
I ended up seeing just a few species short of what we saw on the Christmas Bird Count in the Arboretum. Here is my report from today:
| Mallard | 3 |
| Turkey Vulture | 1 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 |
| American Kestrel | 1 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 20 |
| Rock Pigeon | 50 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 2 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 5 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 |
| Northern Flicker | 3 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 3 |
| Blue Jay | 20 |
| American Crow | 35 |
| Fish Crow | 3 |
| Carolina Chickadee | 4 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 8 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 9 |
| Carolina Wren | 10 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 9 |
| American Robin | 350 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 9 |
| Brown Thrasher | 1 |
| European Starling | 25 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 7 |
| Eastern Towhee | 6 |
| Field Sparrow | 4 |
| Song Sparrow | 2 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 90 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 90 |
| Northern Cardinal | 21 |
| American Goldfinch | 18 |
As of now, D.C. is up to 45 species and 2,598 individuals on 21 checklists for the GBBC. Track updated results here. A map with the distribution of reports is below. It is still rather northwest-heavy.
