At Great Falls National Park this morning our group of seven tallied 34
species. Ring-billed gulls in steady numbers continue flying north and the
number of vultures has greatly increased. With the deeper nest, we cannot see
the nesting eagles on a regular basis. Highlights of the day were a hermit
thrush in the holding basin woods,a field sparrow near the clay pond and a pair
of wood ducks on the clay pond. There is some hope of spring with a turtle
"sunning", a spring peeper and lots of skunk cabbage.
I wanted to mention an omission from last week's report: one of our group
members, Bryan Peters, scoped a long-tailed duck, but unfortunately the rest of
the groupmissed seeing it. It's a duck infrequently seen in the park.
All are welcome to join this weekly Sunday walk that meets at 8:00am in the
visitors center parking lot at 8:00 am. -- Marshall Rawson, McLean VA
Canada Goose 10
Wood Duck 2
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 2
Ring-necked Duck 15
Bufflehead 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Black Vulture 20
Turkey Vulture 20
Red-tailed Hawk 3
American Coot 6
Ring-billed Gull 80
Herring Gull 1
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 18
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 3
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 25
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 2
American Goldfinch 4
