The BRCES monthly walk is held on the 4th Saturday of the month (meeting
rain! or shine at 8am at the Visitor's Center parking lot) and is sponsored
by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy - more LWC events can be found at
https://loudounwildlife.org/events/
On a cold and rainy morning, 4 of us (a big thank you to our dedicated walk
leaders!) ventured about the area by the visitor's center while trying to
stay somewhat dry and keep out of the way of the Boy Scout leader training
that was taking place. We found a few birds in the poor visibility, but
only 18 species total. We only tolerated the rain for about 30 minutes
before mutually disbanding. The complete list can be found at
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49486317 . No species were found outside
the normal complement of wintering and year round species.
After the walk, Allison and I proceeded to Arnold Rd. Upon arrival we
found, by car, a generous flock of sparrows and a pair of American
Kestrels. Over the course of the next hour and half, we waited patiently
for the rain to subside and the sparrows to come out and make themselves
visible. One by one, we ticked off White-throated, Chipping, Field, Song,
White-crowned, Lincoln's, Swamp Sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco. A decent
sized (40+) flock of Robins and an even larger flock of Cedar Waxwings also
amused us. As we were about to wrap up our drive, a late Tennessee Warbler
flew out of the shrubs giving us a few seconds of pleasing yellow-green
warbler excitement. The full list of Arnold Rd can be found here:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S49488133
Allison and I also took a few side trips to various decent rainy day
birding by car spots - Ash George Rd (nothing of note), Lucketts, White's
Ford Regional Park (almost nothing at all), and Morven Park (not much). In
Lucketts, we spied our FOS Northern Harrier and at Hibler Rd, we found a
couple Wilson's Snipes at the infamous mud pile and the return of
White-crowned Sparrows to our favorite bramble pile.
Happy rainy day birding,
Bryan Henson
Loudoun County
