Rock Creek Park Bioblitz on the Blogs

Here is some coverage of last weekend's bioblitz at Rock Creek Park.

Cyndy at FieldMarking reports on the findings of her herp survey team. Her post includes photographs of a spotted salamander and a lovely slime mold. See also her post on the identification challenges posed by many of the specimens and the technology used to record them.

Flickr user Odephoto has photos from the bioblitz here and here.

NWF's Arctic Promise blog describes hunting for insects along the creek.

Eastern Screech Owl
Photo by Mark Christmas / ©2007 National Geographic

The organizers of the bioblitz were liveblogging during the event. If you did not catch the posts, you can find them all here. A special highlight is a photograph of an eastern screech owl that we found on the second shift. The photo is reproduced above. As of the last post, the species count was at 666.

I wrote my own post on the search for nocturnal birds and my warbler watching the next morning. I also have a second post specifically about the owl prowl published on the DC Audubon website.

See also the coverage in the Washington Post. That article focuses on the educational aspects of the event.

Rock Creek Park Bioblitz

For the first shift, the fifteen volunteers who registered multiplied into between forty and fifty participants when the shift started. For that shift we checked four locations, and confirmed barred owl at two, screech owl at one, woodcock at one, and nighthawk at one. In the second shift, we found 2-3 additional barred owls and one additional screech owl. In neither shift were we successful in rousing a great horned owl, despite efforts at several stops.

The basic method for finding owls involves playing recordings of the species being sought and waiting for a response. For great horned owls, the recordings include a distressed rabbit, which has a disturbing sound. Barred owls make the most varied set of responses, which include screams, barks, cackling laughter, and other weird noises. The barred owl at the last stop started its response with a wail. (Under most circumstances, searching for owls by night in Rock Creek Park requires special permission from the Park Service, which is only available to people or groups conducting legitimate research.)

After napping for a couple hours at the Nature Center, I woke up to the sound of birds singing. Red-eyed vireos, wood thrushes, robins, and some blackpoll warblers were all in full song when I headed out for some early morning birding. As I walked down to the Maintenance Yard, I saw a veery and heard many Swainson's thrushes, which seemed to be almost as common as robins last night and this morning.

According to radar maps there was barely any migration along the east coast last night. The overcast skies in the early night must have discouraged migrants. Despite the lack of movement overnight, it was one of the best warbler mornings I have ever had. The only comparable morning that comes to mind is a walk along Cockpit Point Road in Virginia last spring. I saw and heard about eighteen species of warblers in and around the Maintenance Yard in the course of about three hours.

When I first arrived at the Yard, I was alone with the birds. I quickly saw a scarlet tanager near the entrance, heard a Baltimore oriole, and then saw yellow, chestnut-sided, hooded, ovenbird, and redstart near the ravine. A female Cape May warbler foraged for a few minutes in one of the locust trees. As other birders slowly trickled into the Yard, more warblers appeared - magnolia, Canada, blackburnian, black-throated blue, black-throated green, bay-breasted, and northern parula. About an hour after I saw the female Cape May, a male appeared in the same tree and gave great looks to all of the assembled birders. A Louisiana waterthrush sang a few times from the bottom of the ravine, and a prairie warbler perched and sang in the meadow behind us. Of all those birds, the chestnut-sided, magnolia, and black-throated blue warblers seemed to be present in the greatest numbers, and the female blackburnian kept reappearing at the edge of the vines.

Once the warbler action slowed, I made my way back to the Nature Center so that I could catch the bus to go home. The last bird was a gray-cheeked thrush on the trail leading back to the horse center. It stood out from the numerous Swainson's thrushes because of its gray face with no eye-ring. It was a great way to close out the morning.

BIRD SPECIES: 58

Red-shouldered Hawk
American Woodcock
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Screech-Owl
Barred Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Rock Creek Park BioBlitz Next Weekend

Next weekend, May 18-19, Rock Creek Park will host a bioblitz. The National Geographic Society and the National Park Service are organizing the event. The Rock Creek Park BioBlitz is the first of ten bioblitzes that will be conducted at National Parks over the next decade in honor of the service's upcoming centennial.

A bioblitz aims to record as many living species as possible within a 24-hour period. The Rock Creek Park BioBlitz will run from noon on Friday to noon on Saturday to include both diurnal and nocturnal species. Teams of scientists and volunteers will spread out through the park to find and identify organisms. All specialties are needed; the bioblitz aims to document vertebrate and invertebrate animals, plants, fungi, and microbes.

This is the third recent bioblitz in the DC area. One bioblitz occurred last June in the Potomac Gorge and another was held in 1996 in Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Results are available at those links. In an urban park, such as Rock Creek or Kenilworth, a bioblitz highlights the tremendous diversity of life within our cities.

To participate in this year's count, please register here: http://www.ngbioblitz.org/. Participants may register on-site, but pre-registration helps the coordinators with event planning.

News and Notes

These are a few stories that showed up after my last Loose Feathers post.

Alewives and blueback herring are able to spawn in the upper reaches of Rock Creek again. Habitat mitigation money from the Beltway bridge project made it possible to design and build ways for fish to swim around artificial obstacles blocking the stream. The most serious obstacle was the dam at Peirce Mill, which is now bypassed by a fish ladder. Biologists from DC Fisheries and Wildlife have found some alewives upstream from the Peirce Mill dam already, but most fish have not caught on yet.

Last Saturday, there was a cleanup along the Anacostia River watershed. The cleanup was sponsored by several organizations, including the National Wildlife Federation and the Earth Conservation Corps. It removed 20,000 pounds of garbage from the river banks and tributaries. Volunteers uprooted many invasive plants as well.

The X Prize Foundation is offering a $10 million prize for someone who can build a car that gets 100 miles per gallon. Given that American vehicles currently average about 20 miles per gallon, and even the best top out at about twice that, such an improvement would be remarkable. One of the requirements of the competition is that the winning vehicle be commericially viable since the goal is to produce designs that will lead to more efficient vehicles being sold.

A California condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since the 1930s. The egg is about 45-50 days old, meaning that a chick should hatch soon. The nest is located on the Baja peninsula.

On Sunday, someone reported a goosprey from Huntley Meadows.

Butterfly Lifecycle

The Nature Center at Rock Creek Park has a small plot planted with milkweed in front of the building. Milkweed is now past its prime and is going to seed. On Sunday, during the DC Audubon field trip, these milkweed plants held monarch butterflies in all stages of their life cycle.

Several caterpillars munched on the leaves.

Underneath at least one leaf was a chrysalis, a cocoon-like structure that holds the pupa as it grows into an adult.

One adult sat still on a leaf, despite the close attention of several observers with cameras.

Finally, here is one ex-monarch. I am not sure how it met its demise, but something has already eaten most of this insect's body.

Monarch butterflies, like many of the birds we saw, are making their annual migration south. Migrating monarchs can be seen high in the sky over the tree canopy. Sometimes they will appear as tiny fluttering specks to the naked eye. At some coastal concentration points, like Point Lookout, migrating monarchs may gather in the hundreds or thousands.

Tags:

• Monarch
• Butterfly
• Rock Creek Park

Rock Creek Still A Mess

People planning to visit Rock Creek Park (or drive through it), should probably focus on the western ridge rather than the valley. Rock Creek Parkway is still a mess.

"It was worse than Isabel, and that was significant damage for us," said Cynthia Cox, assistant superintendent of the 1,800-acre Rock Creek Park, referring to the 2003 hurricane. She said creek waters have not receded enough for officials to know the extent of the damage....

Cleanup has been an immense job. In the worst-hit area of Rock Creek Park, from Virginia Avenue NW nearly to Military Road NW, crews hauled 18 trees off the parkway. An 82-foot section of pavement was eroded on Beach Drive, and parts of the bicycle path were blocked. Picnic tables were dumped downstream. Flooding damaged Peirce Mill, the park's Nature Center and its police station....

North of Broad Branch Road, Beach Drive remains closed to drivers. There, rain-powered creek waters scoured away chunks of earth that supported the pavement. Near the police station, the road has a ragged edge, bordered by a trench cut by rainwater, with gravel and sand strewn about. Road crews planned to remove, shore up and replace 82 feet of the road's southbound lane. It could take several days.

The loss of trees is probably not that big of a problem for the habitats since new ones will grow to take their place. The damage will make it difficult to visit the lower sections of the park for a while. One interesting thing from the article was that the flood gave hikers and bikers a taste of what the park could be like without the busy thoroughfares through the valley. The floods do make one wonder about the wisdom of building the roads there in the first place.

Rock Creek Parkway Open

After almost a week of being shut down, most of Rock Creek Parkway and Beach Drive are now open.

Most of Beach Drive and Rock Creek Parkway through Rock Creek Parkre-opened Friday after being closed for several days because of fallentrees and mud from the recent storms, according to U.S. Park Police.

Approximatelyone mile of Beach Drive between Joyce and Broad Branch roads willremain closed for some time because of "serious structural damage tothe roadway", said Sgt. Scott Fear, a spokesman for the Park Police."It doesn't affect traffic too much," Fear said. "You can go up GloverDrive and go around it."

Here are more photographs of the flooding along Rock Creek. (Via Metroblogging DC.)

technorati tags:Flood

Storm Aftereffects

Today the rains cleared and the sun came out again. I walked over to the Indian Museum to see what was going on in the wetlands. One of the red-winged blackbirds was again foraging by walking on the lilypads. It is amazing that it does not slip and fall into the water.

On a more serious note, the extra water is causing problems along the waterways, most seriously in the Rock Creek watershed.

In Montgomery County, emergency crews had knocked on the doors of 700 houses and 500 apartments by 5:45 a.m. today. They told those who answered to grab any necessary medications and other essentials and evacuate, because the dam holding back the waters of nearby Lake Needwood was leaking and could fail.

County Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Romer said 2,233 people were evacuated and 99 people refused to leave their homes. At 178 of the residences, no one answered the door....

County officials received the first reports of leaks in the earthen dam about 7 p.m., Romer said. The water level for the 75-acre lake was more than 25 feet above normal. Officials said engineers began working at daylight to determine if the leaks could be repaired or the dam otherwise shored up. They said waters appeared to have stopped rising for now.

Lake Needwood is in the Montgomery County portion of Rock Creek Park, along the creek's western branch.

Tags:

• Weather

Rock Creek Park In the Police Blotter

There was an attempted assault in Rock Creek Park on Wednesday night:

In the Rock Creek Park incident, the woman was attacked from behind as she jogged in the densely wooded area just north of P Street. Fear said nothing similar had happened in more than two years.

The assailant tried to drag the woman into the woods, but she bit his finger, jumped into the creek and reached the parkway.

Police said the man was described as a thin, round-faced black man, about 35, between 5 foot 10 and 6 feet tall. He wore blue jeans and a long-sleeved pullover shirt with horizontal blue and black stripes.

Police asked those with information to call 202-610-8737.

P Street is pretty far south, where the park is just wide enough on both sides of the stream to accomodate a bicycle trail and roadway. This is not a real birding area, but it is a reminder to birders to be aware of their surroundings.

Tags:

• Rock Creek Park

Warblers at the Maintenance Yard

This morning I spent a couple hours in Rock Creek Park in the hope of catching some late spring migration action. I had hoped to see the mourning warbler and olive-sided flycatcher that had been seen around the maintenance yard for the past few days. Unfortunately, neither made an appearance while I was there. The mourning warbler was seen today, but before I arrived. I did see plenty of birds, though.

The vine tangle in back of the maintenance yard had its share of warblers this morning. When I arrived I was greeted by a singing chestnut-sided warbler while I heard a yellow-throated vireo. After some looking I found a male blackburnian warbler - the first I have actually seen rather than heard this spring; two females were also in the yard. Northern parulas and black-throated blue warblers sang somewhere in the trees, while magnolia warblers popped in and out of the foliage. A female Canada warbler appeared just before I left the yard. Blackpolls, of course, have become ubiquitous.

The "best" bird in the yard that I saw was a Lincoln's sparrow. I got very good looks at it several times. It is a handsome bird, with crisp dark streaking on its buffy breast, clean gray eyebrow, and narrow bill. Unlike its nervous cousin, the song sparrow, Lincoln's sparrows will calmly sit out in the open. This one sat on top of the rusting beam of an abandoned cart.

Before I left, I checked back behind the nature center to see if any other birds were there. I saw a wood thrush, and heard black-throated geen and hooded warblers. There were yet more Swainson's thrushes in that area - after I had already seen a lot of them in the maintenance yard. I do not think I have ever seen that many on a single day before. Overall, there seemed to be less singing than on previous visits, but there are still many birds around.

SPECIES SEEN: 52

Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Rock Pigeon
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Barn Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Tags:

• Birding
• Rock Creek Park
• Warblers

Sedge Wren Without the Sedge

Rock Creek Park was alive with birdsong when I arrived this morning. I had not originally intended to visit this morning, but when I saw the major migration that occurred last night, I decided to take my chances there. As I walked over towards the horse center, I met two birders who alerted me to the presence of a sedge wren in the maintenance yard.

When I got to the yard, I located the group of birders who were looking at the sedge wren. It flew up and perched on a small branch just above the grassy area. The wren bounced up and down in a typical wren-like fashion, as if it were wondering why several pairs of binoculars were focused on it. Sedge wren is a grassland species that breeds in the Midwest and central Canada; very few breed in Maryland or Virginia, and none in DC. It can be distinguished from house wrens by its overall buffy coloration and from Carolina wrens by the very noticeable barring on its wings and lack of strong rufous coloration (except on the rump). This morning's sedge wren was a life bird for me.

Warbler numbers overall seemed to be a little down from yesterday, though I saw and heard more species than I had yesterday. The maintenance yard had a lot of the same birds from yesterday: black-throated green, black-and-white, northern parula, nashville, chestnut-sided, and yellow warblers. Some black-throated blues were singing on the bridle trail outside the yard. The trail behind the nature center turned up a hooded warbler, singing from high in a tree, as well as a few blackpoll warblers, also heard rather than seen. The last warbler I saw was a Canada warbler, which was singing quite close to the nature center. This beautiful bird was sitting cooperatively in a tangle of vines where I could get a good, long look at it.

A surprise in the maintenance yard was a solitary solitary sandpiper walking in the pond. I believe this was the first shorebird species I have seen up there. The yard also turned up a Lincoln's sparrow in the back, at the treeline beyond the grassy area. Unfortunately it was not very productive. My last bird for the day was a Baltimore oriole, which flew across Military Road as I waited for the bus.

It was a very good morning of birding. I have a feeling that the woods would have been a bit more active early on if the sky had been clear instead of overcast. When the sun came out briefly before I left, there did seem to be an increase in activity around the nature center. But I cannot really complain after such a wonderful morning.

SPECIES SEEN: 56

Great Blue Heron
Solitary Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Tree Swallow
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole

Tags:

• Birding
• Rock Creek Park

Hits and Misses at Rock Creek Park

Early this morning I headed over to Rock Creek Park for some birding. Apparently yesterday was a great day over there, with 23 species of warbler recorded. Today it was down to 18 species, with some gone and others moving in. The best bird that anyone saw was a golden-winged warbler in the maintenance yard. Unfortunately only a few saw it, and I was not one of the lucky ones. (Maybe I will catch up with one another time.)

Even though I used some bad strategy in not heading to the maintenance yard right away, I still managed to see a dozen of the warblers recorded today. The picnic areas were mostly unproductive for me. (Unless you arrive at the park before seven, it is probably not worth visiting them.) I did hear and see a few warblers along the way - ovenbirds and black-throated blue warblers along the trail - plus some black-and-white and black-throated green warblers at the picnic areas themselves.

The maintenance yard was much more productive for me. As I arrived, there was a blue-winged warbler singing by the pond; with the help of other birders I got a quick look at it. In the back corner I saw a few first-of-the-year warblers for me: Nashville, chestnut-sided, and magnolias. All three were singing as I watched them, so I got to get the aural lesson enhanced by a visual experience. (It really is much different listening to birds in their habitats as opposed to a recording.)

As I made my way out of the yard, I saw a Swainson's thrush on the bridle path; this was my first glimpse of this thrush for 2006. Catharus thrushes can be difficult to separate, but each is distinctive in its own way (aside from the gray-cheeked / Bicknell's mess). The key for Swainson's is the face. It has distinctive buffy eye rings that meet in the middle to appear like "spectacles," plus buffy coloration on the throat and breast; most eastern Swainson's thrushes will have a dull olive-brown back with little rufous coloration.

My last sighting for the morning was a nice look at a blackpoll warbler near the Nature Center.

Even on a day with little movement overnight, Rock Creek Park managed to produce a nice group of migrant songbirds. Many were probably hanging around overnight. By the way, if the current forecast holds, we should have southwest winds overnight, shifting around to northwest winds by morning. Tomorrow will be a good day to bird, if only for an hour or two early on.

SPECIES SEEN: 51

Turkey Vulture
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
European Starling
House Sparrow
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

Tags:

• Birding
• Rock Creek Park

Rock Creek Park

I covered the ridge and maintenance yard areas at Rock Creek Park this morning. The park was not quite in full-migration mode, but there were still a number of good birds to be seen. Yellow-rumped warblers were dripping from the canopies in places, or at least it seemed that way. Their songs could be heard everywhere I walked. Ruby-crowned kinglets were singing in many areas as well. A few black-and-white warblers and a northern parula were working the trees on the bridle path near the horse center. Further down the bridle path towards picnic areas 17/18 were a veery and hermit thrush, with wood thrushes and ovenbirds singing in the distance. Black-throated green warblers sang near the picnic areas, but none showed themselves. A few palm warblers, a red-eyed vireo, and a great-crested flycatcher sat in a tree near the equitation field.

The maintenance yard was full of goldfinches. There must have been several dozen gathered in one big flock in the trees above the marble blocks. All of them were chattering noisily. At least one blue-winged warbler sang from the shrubs in the back corner, but it did not come out for a viewing. Oddly enough, two swamp sparrows were working the slope below the porcelainberry vines; usually I would expect them in a wetter habitat.

Nature notes: One red fox was visible in the woods between the equitation field and picnic areas 17/18. ... Horsechestnut trees seem to be very popular with songbirds of all types right now. I guess they must be producing a fruit that attracts either birds or insects for birds to eat right now. ... The woods and meadows are covered with garlic mustard.

The place names given above refer to the names given to sites in Rock Creek Park by park staff and birders. To see the locations of most, refer to the park map (pdf).

SPECIES SEEN: 49

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Blue-winged Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

Tags:

• Birding
• Rock Creek Park

Ducks at the National Zoo

This afternoon I took the Metro over to the National Zoo to see what kind of waterfowl was hanging around in the ponds and stream. As it turned out, the ponds at the bird house were nearly deserted, with only seven mallards staying there. Not a single wood duck or black duck was to be seen up there.

Mallards and Wood Ducks in Rock Creek

So I walked on down to Rock Creek. As I reached the stream there was a burst of activity above my head. Robin after robin flew from one tree to the next. It appeared that a very large flock was moving down the path ahead of me. Mixed in with this crowd were a few ruby-crowned kinglets, downy woodpeckers, and cardinals.

There were plenty of mallards and wood ducks in the stream, but the numbers were still far below what I am used to at the zoo. (I think that the prolonged warm spells must be keeping them somewhere else.) I tried taking photographs of the ducks but with limited success. The mallard shots turned out a little better than the wood ducks. For some reason the camera had a hard time focus on the wood ducks. Whether this was because they are smaller or because they blend in against the bank better, I do not know. (To the right is the best of my wood duck shots from this afternoon.) I love watching wood ducks because their feathers have a silky sheen to them - more so than other birds of their family. Wood ducks are also one of the more exotic-looking birds in this region. Their appearance makes it unsurprising that they are more closely related to Asian mandarin ducks than to other waterfowl in North America.


The path along the creek exits the zoo at Rock Creek Parkway and then follows the creek under two major bridges, the Duke Ellington Bridge (Calvert Street) and the Taft Bridge (Connecticut Avenue). Below is a picture of the latter.


SPECIES SEEN: 13

Wood Duck

Mallard

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Downy Woodpecker

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Cedar Waxwing

American Robin

White-breasted Nuthatch

Blue Jay

European Starling

House Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

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First DC Birds for 2006

Yesterday I returned to Washington after spending two weeks out of town. So this afternoon I took some time to start off my DC birding for the new year with trips to some local waterfowl spots.

I started at the National Zoo. The ponds near the bird house held dozens of mallards, as well as a few American black ducks and wood ducks. Nothing beats an up-close look at breeding-plumaged wood ducks! I have been assured by a zoo staffer that the birds in those ponds are currently all wild; the zoo's waterfowl have been moved to other locations for the time being due to renovations. Even so, the zoo has maintained the heated ponds, and continues to leave feed at the regular feeding stations. Wintering at the zoo has to be a pretty good deal for local ducks; it offers a steady food supply, reliably unfrozen water, and no predation or hunting.

Rock Creek below the zoo had more of the same waterfowl. There was a patch of activity near the stone bridge that leads from the zoo to the bicycle path. Most of these turned out to be tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, and white-throated sparrows. The activity went on despite the foreboding presence of a red-tailed hawk watching from a snag high above the creek.

Once I finished my walk through the zoo, I headed over to the Potomac since there was still plenty of light left. I walked the normal circuit, down the Washington Channel side and back along the river. Several large flocks of scaup were on both the channel and the river; most of these turned out to be lesser scaup. A few greater scaup were near the seawall on the far side of the channel. One American coot hugged the channel's boat docks.

When a passing helicopter flushed many birds from the trees, three merlins appeared. Eventually they settled on three snags along the road, perched about ten yards from each other. While all had the dark breast streaking characteristic of merlins, one of the three seemed to have have darker and colder brown streaking than the other two, which had a more reddish tone. I had two more merlin sightings on the walk, but I think these may have been some of the same birds.

As I walked back from the tip of the peninsula, I spotted a brown creeper clinging to the trunk of a tree.

SPECIES SEEN: 32

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin
American Coot
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
American Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Blue Jay
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal

National Zoo Birding

This morning was bitterly cold; in fact it was the coldest of the winter so far here in Washington. When I woke up, the temperature at National Airport was reported to be 19°F. The high was about 24° or 25°. Naturally it seemed like a good morning for birding. During sustained cold spells like what we experienced over the past two days, local ponds freeze over, leaving waterfowl to seek other open waterways. One place where open water is guaranteed is the National Zoo. Most ponds are heated, and the stretch of Rock Creek below the zoo rarely freezes. So the zoo's waterfowl population will rise considerably during cold snaps.

The best place for birding at the zoo, in my opinion, is the bicycle trail along the creek. I have seen up to 30-40 wood ducks gathered there at times. This morning there were about a dozen. Males in the full breeding plumage were giving their whistling "zipper" calls, while females clucked. Up at the bird house, about fifty mallards and a few wood ducks and American black ducks had gathered in the wetland ponds vacated by the zoo's own birds. (Apparently all the birds in the birdhouse ponds are wild at the moment; a fire caused most of the zoo's birds to be removed temporarily.)

Waterfowl were not all there was to see. Many sparrows - house, song, and white-throated - competed for rights around the feeders in the various animal pens. No unusual ones, though. Woodpeckers also were plentiful. One very good bird was a red-breasted nuthatch. The Washington area seems to have unusually high numbers of this species this year.

SPECIES SEEN: 26

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
European Starling
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal

New Plan for Rock Creek Park

The Washington Post has a report on a new plan by the National Park Service for Rock Creek Park. The article focuses on the Beach Drive closure issues. Some residents had tried to get a few segments of Beach Drive closed to traffic on weekdays as well as weekends; it will remain closed on weekends but open on weekdays, so there is really not much change there except for a reduction in the speed limit.

Some parts of the plan would rehabilitate trails and streams. Rock Creek itself would be altered to allow certain fish to spawn upstream in their historical breeding grounds. Some trails would be moved to keep them off slopes. While the purpose would be to slow erosion, I think this would be appreciated by hikers and walkers who have to balance carefully and fight gravity as they follow the trails.

The plan also calls for renovations to visitor centers and existing administrative buildings. One point of possible concern comes from the map of proposed changes. The maintenance yard near the nature center appears to be slated as the location for an "administrative facility" if a site outside the park cannot be found. Construction there could degrade necessary habitat for bird migration, as that is one of the "hot spots" while warblers are moving in the spring and fall.

Our powerless delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, complains that the park is underappreciated:

"We have trivialized this park, residents make too little use of it, and tourists don't know where it is," Norton said. "Neither the city or the federal government has bothered to make maximum use of it. The problem is that it had no plan and it's in a state of great deterioration."

As I see it, the main problem is that the park is difficult to access without a car, unless one lives nearby. Several bus lines cross the park, but the only Metro stations near the park are at Silver Spring, Cleveland Park, and Woodley Park. At none of these locations is there a pleasant entrance to the park, and the best areas - from Broad Branch Road up to where Rock Creek crosses into Maryland - can be hard to reach.

Zoo Birds

Late this afternoon I took a short stroll through the National Zoo and the part of Rock Creek that flows through its lower portions. Despite the stiff wind, it was a beautiful afternoon: plenty of sun with the foliage near its peak. I was a little underdressed for the wind. Once I started birding, though, the chill went away.

There may have been birds out other than the ones I have listed here, but I was primarily interested in checking the waterfowl numbers along the creek. The upper zoo was mostly quiet except for the flocks of starlings and robins that gather in the tree tops at night. The creek held mallards and wood ducks. The close range between the path and the creek allows the best looks at wood ducks that one could hope to see. The males are particularly spectacular at this time of year when their breeding plumage is fresh. Further along the creek there were several robins bathing themselves in the shallows.

SPECIES SEEN: 10

Wood Duck
Mallard
Rock Pigeon
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
American Robin
European Starling
House Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal

Trip Report: Rock Creek Park

All this week we have had much better weather than has been typical for the last two months in Washington. The same weather pattern that brought us cooler temperatures has also made possible a wave of fall migration. With winds out of the northwest this week I have been trying to get out and do some birding when I can. Yesterday there was a very good report from Rock Creek Park on the local birding listserve, so I headed over there this morning. Yesterday birders there had seen a golden-winged warbler and a yellow-bellied flycatcher.

Well, this morning the birding was much slower. Neither of the reported species was there, or at least if they were I did not see them. I went to the Maintenance Yard first. I was greeted immediately by a series of ruby-throated hummingbirds, all of which appeared to be immatures since they lacked the distinctive red throat of the adults. I searched around the public areas of the yard and turned up some gray catbirds and American goldfinches, as well as quite a lot of blue-gray gnatcatchers. It was not until I was about to leave that I finally saw a chestnut-sided warbler, the best bird for today.

I walked over to the picnic areas on the other side of the ridge, but I did not turn up much more. On the way there and back the local pileated woodpeckers were calling in the woods. When I returned to the Nature Center parking lot, I found what was probably the most active area this morning. Even this was mostly common species, but it included a Baltimore oriole. This week I have had small taste of this year's fall migration, but in a couple weeks the trickle will turn into a flood.

SPECIES SEEN AND HEARD: 28

Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
House Sparrow
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole

A few notes on Rock Creek Park: During migration the best area for finding migrants is the ridge south of the Nature Center. There are two main hotspots: picnic areas 17/18 and the Maintenance Yard. I generally find the latter location best because the birds are closer to eye level. (The yard also has piles of marble left over from the old façade of the Capitol.) The picnic areas have a large walnut tree that serves as the center of bird activity; one local birder referred to it as a 7-Eleven. To reach this area without a car, one can take the Red Line to either Fort Totten or Friendship Heights, and then transfer to either the E2 or E4, getting off at the intersection of Military Road and Glover Road.

Birding at the National Zoo

Among the many options available for birdwatching in Washington, D.C., Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Rock Creek Park, and the National Arboretum have proven the most consistently satisfying, with East Potomac Park and Roosevelt Island not far behind. However, the District contains a number of other places to watch birds. One such place is the National Zoo. That is where I took a short walk early this morning.

A zoo is not the first place that comes to mind when one wants to go birding. Certainly the captive waterfowl, cranes, pelicans, and eagles with shorn primaries are not "countable." But because of the heavy vegetation and easily available food sources, quite a lot of wild birds can be found among the cages in all seasons.

In summer, the main draw for birders at the National Zoo is a colony of black-crowned night herons that nest around the bird house. Some nests are placed on top of the old flight cage for captive eagles, while others can be found in the trees. The night-herons that roost here are quite tame. Juveniles will sometimes come down and stand in the ponds not five feet from the path; today I had a close look through my binoculars at two youngsters sitting on top of the flight cage as they peered down at me. Further along the trail, adult night-herons foraged in the crane enclosures. The adults, too, showed little fear of me. One flew out of the enclosure into a tree almost above my head, so that I got a close look at its red eye and the long white plumes that trail from the back of its head. This bird kept an eye on me as I took in the details of its plumage through binoculars. About a dozen more adults could be seen in the trees around the bird house.

The second reason to bird at the zoo is for a section of Rock Creek that passes along one side of the zoo. Because the road that parallels the creek for most of its length goes into a tunnel, the path here is much quieter than it is beyond the zoo in either direction. This section of the creek tends to be better for birding during the winter than during the summer. In the winter the creek remains open while other bodies of water in the area freeze, so that large numbers of mallards and wood ducks, joined by smaller numbers of other waterfowl, concentrate here. Today those crowds were not present, but I did see one wood duck family - a male and female with eight ducklings. Along the path I also encountered tufted titmice, an eastern wood-pewee, and an acadian flycatcher. The latter was detectable only by its wee-seet! call, which I imagine as a sort of sung checkmark. It was a pleasant birding session on a cool morning.

Good birding.