I earned my next pin for Virginia’s Trail Quest project, so there’s that.
- A couple-three visits to Walker Nature Center, Reston, Va. (and)
- Great Backyard Bird Count at The Glade, Reston, Va.
- Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Prince George’s County, Md., led by Jeanninne Dorothy
- Blandy Experimental Farm/State Arboretum of Virginia, Clarke County; Red Rock Wilderness Overlook Regional Park, Loudoun County; Fraser Preserve, Fairfax County (roundup)
- Odonates count (led by Larry Meade) and a few other walks and work days at the Clifton Institute, Fauquier County, Va.
- Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve; Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve, Floyd County; Fairy Stone State Park, Patrick County; and Smith Mountain Lake State Park; all Virginia (roundup)
- Crescent Rock and Limberlost Trails, Shenandoah National Park
- Neabsco Boardwalk, Prince William County, Va., led by Barbara Saffir
- Meadow View Trail (again!), Mason Neck State Park, Fairfax County, Va.
- Suitland Bog, Prince George’s County, Md., led by Lynn Rust
- I worked on my skills leading trips with the Seneca Maryland-Virginia CBC, scouting and leading sector 14.
We did get in a full season of nest box monitoring at Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Va.
For another year, the Mason and Bailey Club did not meet, alas. I scouted Potomac Overlook Regional Park, Arlington County, Va.; Turkey Run Park, Fairfax County, Va.; Carderock, C&O Canal National Historic Park, Montgomery County, Md.; the Boundary Bridge area of Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C. Maybe next year we can do Boundary Bridge, and I really want to show off Huntley Meadows.
I followed the phenology of a patch of Aralia spinosa near my house, down by the Ridge Heights Pool; we liberated a Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) from an overgrowth of non-native invasives at Idylwood Park; and all of us chased cicadas.