Phil Daley & I, with permission from the Dulles Greenway management, took a
Girl Scout troop on to the Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation Project late
this afternoon. We were able to show them a BALD EAGLE and at least one very
young & small nestling almost immediately. After that, at about 5:30 pm we
were explaining to them the many reasons why wetlands are so imp. to the
environment and what wonderfully diverse wildlife nurseries they are. At one
point we were standing in the mud on the edge of a thick stand of cattails &
explaining to the girls and their parents how easy it would be for a bird or
mammal to find shelter in the them and showed them drawings of rails as well as
actual tracks of several dif. mammals that use the wetlands. Not expecting any
kind of response at that time of day I briefly played about 20 seconds of a
Virginia Rail tape . As soon as I turned the tape off two different VIRGINIA
RAILS responded.
A little later while walking to the far side of the wetlands Phil spotted a
bird which both of us, at first, took for granted as a Great Blue Heron flying
into the wetlands, though it did fly and landed differently than Great Blues
do. After it landed on the far side of the wetlands across from us and
thinking we might be able to show the girls a Great Blue in breeding plumage we
put it in the scope and immediately realized it was a solitary SANDHILL CRANE.
While it was pretty active and kept disappearing in the high vegetation on the
edge of the wetlands, we were able to show it to most of the girl scouts and
their parents though it did rapidly disappear from sight. We were unable to
find it again before we left.
All in all a great couple of hours of birding ...
Joe Coleman
Loudoun Co
