Category: In the Field

Last weekend, I did a spot check of the last two nest boxes, and was gratified that both were successful. Box #2 (at left) hatched out eight Hooded Merganser eggs, and box #68 (at right) hatched eight Wood Duck eggs, with one unhatched. For the season, our totals are down a little bit from last year, which had seen a big spike in Wood Duck activity. In 2009, we had four Hooded Merganser nests, three of which hatched out: 39 eggs laid, 29 hatched. We had five Wood Duck nests, all of which hatched out: 61 eggs laid, 59 hatched. Park staffer Dave Lawlor reports one successful nest in the boxes he is monitoring, with nine baby mergs.

The park is a green blast of primary production. Bird activity is subsiding, with only one lazy egret to accent the landscape. I saw a family of Mallards; a Red-shouldered Hawk was screaming an important message to someone. Chris IDs the large-leaved plants in the right image as Spatterdock (Nuphar lutea).

Set off by the green is the bright orange of a drift of Dodder (Cuscuta spp.), a parasitic vine that I find absolutely fascinating.

For the holiday, I took a run up I-95 to Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, northwest of Baltimore, for a nature stroll.

Stepping on to the trail at the visitors center, in a trice I lost the trail and wandered on to an interpretive trail still under development. The downed trees across the trail and the ticks that tried to hitch a ride on my legs should have been a clue. I had to double back and walk back on the verge of Deer Park Road, and I was caught in a passing rain shower, for my sins.

I had better luck following the trails on the east side of Deer Park Road. Nevertheless, had I brought my hiking boots instead of my birding shoes, I would have been glad of the added support. Birdlife included lots of Field Sparrows and Eastern Towhees and a plus-sized Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; best sighting for the trip was a small group of Cedar Waxings (Bombycilla cedrorum). Heard a possible chat and Pine Warbler.

Soldiers Delight is underlaid by serpentine rock, which yields thin soils short on nutrients and long on toxic metals like chromium, so the plant communities are distinctive, as well as the animals that depend on them. Most of the wildflowers will have to wait until my ID skills improve, but here I’m pretty sure that we are looking at Serpentine Chickweed, a subspecies of Cerastium arvense, found in one of the grassland areas.

In the woods, I found a Little Wood-Satyr (Megisto cymela), described as abundant in my field guides but nevertheless new for me.

I had intended to show Dirk the nest box with Tufted Titmouse eggs in it, but we were surprised to find that the eggs had already hatched and the nest comprised six gaping, blind mouths.

As for the intended residents, Box #13 hatched out 13 Wood Duck eggs. A merganser family of hen and three ducklings, practicing diving, was spotted this morning; possibly this is the same family of thirteen that hatched on 17 April.

Four boxes in a row along lower Barnyard Run are due to hatch out soon, probably this week. We then have two remaining boxes to hatch in June: #2 at the head of the main pond (Hooded Merganser) and #68 at the far end (Wood Duck).

New bird arrivals detected over the past couple weeks: Chimney Swift, all three swallows, Wood Thrush, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Acadian Flycatcher, and a Brown-headed Cowbird chasing insects in the parking lot as bold as any urban Rock Dove.

The subject of my term paper for the Introduction to Ecology class that I recently completed is Huntley Meadows Park. The paper is a little long on data and short on analysis, but I’m happy with it. From the introduction:

Huntley Meadows Park comprises approximately 1,425 acres (577ha) of freshwater wetland and surrounding forest in southern Fairfax County, Virginia. Managed by the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA), it is the County’s largest park, and features the largest (70+ acres, 28+ ha) non-tidal marsh in the area. Bounded by housing subdivisions to the north, east, and south, and government installations to the west and southwest, the Park is an island of blue and green prized by casual strollers and scientific specialists alike. It is particularly valued by naturalists for the unique diversityof the habitat to be found there, especially considering its urban/suburban surroundings. Guidebook writers and editors like Scott Weidensaul [Weidensaul92] and David W. Johnston [Johnston97] have singled out the Park for special attention, noting that its mix of woods and water makes it a popular spot for Big Day birders; Weidensaul calls the Park’s very existence “utterly improbable,” encroached on as it is by the busy traffic corridors of U.S. 1 and Interstates 95 and 495. The main entrance to Huntley Meadows Park is only three miles from the Huntington terminus of Metro’s Yellow Line, and hence the Park is a short trip from anywhere in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Maples are leafing out, offering some shade in the unseasonal midsummer heat. Frogs are everywhere, including a pair of Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) resting inside our one plastic nest box. At least something is getting some value from it. New arrivals seen/heard/reported: Yellowlegs sp., Solitary Sandpiper, Great Crested Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler (a singing male and a no-bins look at a foraging female), Ovenbird. A Tufted Titmouse is squatting in box #5 again.

New cattail growth is ankle-high, and the understory in the forest is starting to green up. We had our first box hatch out on Friday (according to reports from a photographer), and the hen and thirteen ducklings put on a show skittering about the main pond this morning. Unfortunately, we’ve also had our first nest failure, as box #3 has been predated and the remaining two eggs abandoned. Common Yellowthroats and American Coots made their first appearance this week; Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers were numerous. Myra found a Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) feeding by the boardwalk.

In past weeks, at least one Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) has been audible and fleetingly visible, and a passing-through Sora (Pozana carolina) was reported the week of March 29. Jennifer spotted a Beaver on that trip, too. Common Snipe and Great Egrets have also arrived.

Amy Gardner gives a brief update on plans for the water control structure at Huntley Meadows Park, and visits with Harry Glasgow of the Friends group. She misrepresents a bit when she writes “King rail, hooded merganser and pied-billed grebes no longer breed…” The Hooded Mergansers are doing just fine.

When I was a kid, attending Saturday morning training to be confirmed in the faith as a Lutheran, we would take a break at mid-morning. The second year of this training was led by the pastor of this brassbound Missouri Synod congregation (someone else took the first year), and it was held on the site of the new church that was being built, farther out in the suburbs. (The new church building, which dwarfed the old building on Peach Orchard Avenue in Oakwood, was Orwellistically known as “the chapel.”) So pastor’s idea of taking a break was for us kids to scour the fields around the building site looking for small stones that would get in the way of groundskeeping. This was known, without euphemism, as “picking rock.”

I never finished confirmation, but how much this exercise had to do with my decision is hard to say.

Anyway, now I am an adult, and what do I do with my Sunday mornings, “for fun”? Pick trash out of the stream floodplain, and maybe look at some birds along the way.

We had a full team this morning, so I sent Myra and Jennifer on up to boxes #6 and #84 while I scrubbed the western bank of Barnyard Run as it opens up into the wetland. I pulled a small shopping bag of stuff out, mostly bottles and cans and broken bits of styrofoam, but also a very weary basketball. A lot of this is litter by thoughtless people, but much of it also is just escaped rubbish—an animal tears open a trash bag, for instance—from the housing subdivisions along South Kings Highway that finds its way downstream.

Not much new happening in the boxes yet: just #7, which is now incubating. Myra found a couple of Brown Thrashers and the first Tree Swallows of the season.

We took the first of two field trips that are part of Gary Evans’ Introduction to Ecology at the Graduate School, USDA. We visited two sites in Prince William Forest Park, the first a farmed-out agricultural area that is undergoing old field succession on its way to becoming deciduous forest, and the second an area that was apparently never farmed intensively.

The site of the old Taylor Farm homestead is mowed regularly, so the veg is largely panic grass and broom sedge, but nothing seems to be a match for this humungous eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana).

We spent a lot of time with the soil profiles of the two sites. This soil pit is from our second study site, in the drainage of the South Fork of Quantico Creek. Laid out in the spade, left to right, you can see the samples from the O horizon (organic material), the mineral-leached A horizon (cocoa brown), and the iron-enriched B horizon (ruddy orange). A Munsell color chart is visible in the right of the picture. The green sprigs of princess pine (Lycopodium clavatum) bespeak a sandier soil than at the farm site. Mountain laurel also appears here.

I also appreciate that Dr. Evans discusses some of the economic aspects of the study of nature, for instance, pointing out that the tighter growth rings for oaks and chestnuts are what make these hardwoods valuable to furniture makers and handcraftsmen. He also noted that much of the public lands acquired in the Roosevelt New Deal era were the result of forced relocation of starving farmers who had nothing left but their patches of knackered land.

Just in case anyone is listening, the marker post for the Fairfax Cross County Trail on the south side of Silverbook Road at White Spruce Way is down. It’s especially hard for someone coming from the north side of Silverbook to pick up the trail, which continues unpaved and otherwise unmarked along the south side of the road. This trouble spot is about 100 yards from the place where the trail is informally rerouted around a closure of the trail for about 10 yards, right at the corner of the old prison facility.

Immediately behind me, as I made this image, is a rather birdy spot, considering the time and season. It’s waste ground in a little hollow, filled with tangled veg (and at least some rubbish). Flycatchers like the vantage point of the top of the old fence, at least where there is a rail for perching.

Only a light frosting of snow this morning on the still-sleeping woods (the bigger dump is expected this evening). We welcomed three new volunteers to the nest box program, and those of us working the main pond got instant satisfaction, as old reliable box #7 already showed a clutch of six Hooded Merganser eggs. Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail are lingering in the wetland. Paul reported a big flock of White-throated Sparrows.

I walked the southernmost two miles of the Fairfax Cross County Trail, from the marina on the Occoquan River to just beyond the Furnace Road underpass. The trail begins across the river from the picturesque marina and arts town of Occoquan, Virginia, then makes a long and steady climb of 250 feet, coming out of the valley to traverse less appetizing venues.

At present, the trail passes the landfill on the right, then swings around the remains of the prison complex at Lorton, currently under redevelopment. After a stretch on the verge of Va. 123, passing the new Workhouse Arts Center, the trail follows Lorton Road, crossing broken pavement, before skirting more government property and diving into another patch of land under redevelopment. Where there is a patch of green to be found, bluebirds like the edgy habitat. Fortunately, the trail is well-posted in this stretch.

Just before mile marker 39, the trail passes under Furnace Road via a brick barrel-vaulted bridge.

I did a short bird walk this morning with NVBC. Nothing too special, a quick look at a Field Sparrow. The venue was Fort C.F. Smith Park in Arlington, which turns out to be a charming little pocket park overlooking the river to the north from a slip of land between North 24th Street and the George Washington Parkway. Acquired by the county in 1994 from the Hendry family, the park provides a mix of civilized amenities (it’s popular for weddings) and bird-friendly features (see the area managed for meadow in the right part of this image). We walked for a short time with David Farner, park manager, who pointed out activity to control invasive English Ivy.

The property is prized by historians, as ruins of the earthworks that comprised Ft. Smith are still visible. Built in 1863, he fort was part of the perimeter protecting Washington from Confederate attack from the south and west.

I did the northernmost 2.5 miles of the Potomac Heritage Trail with a loosely-organized Meetup group. One of the objectives of the event was to assemble as many hikers as possible for a relatively short 4-mile round trip from Turkey Run Park to the northern trailhead, with spur hikes to the south for the more ambitious. And I’d say the goal was reached, with nearly 100 hikers assembled in the parking area.

The weather was nearly perfect, with sun breaking out of the clouds and temperatures rising into the 60s. The trail itself is not particularly difficult; one ill-planned scootch over some rocks left me with a wet butt. However, the footing at this time of year was a bit treacherous: it alternated among residual snowpack, refrozen snowpack, and mud—mud chewed up by 100 pairs of boots and sneakers. The switchbacks that drop steeply down to the river trail from the parking lot could use some T.L.C.

The trail’s northern terminus is in a small subdivision, in sight of the American Legion Bridge that carries I-495 over the river into Maryland.

Along the way, views of the Potomac are quite fine. At many points the trail drops to within a few feet of the river’s edge, so I would expect these sections to be impassable in high water. South of the park, the terrain flattens and dries out, and was more fun walking. The trail climbs a ridge to join the George Washington Parkway right of way. I was a bit weary, and knew that I still had some icy muck to negotiate on my way back, so I called it a day.

(Update: I understand now that this section of trail is just a short unit of a planned 800-mile system.)