VA BIRDers,
With the advent of June, we are now into the breeding season for many of our
species. Rich Rieger and I visited Lake Accotink Park, Lake Braddock and
Lake Royal, all just outside the beltway in Fairfax Co and all deeply
immersed into suburbia. We were mainly interested in finding night-herons,
on which part we failed. We were surprised at the diversity encountered (69
species today in about 6 hrs of birding), albeit some species had only one
representative. Highlights follow:
Our first stop was Lake Accotink, coming in from the north on Inverchapel
Rd, then checking the power line cut near Danbury Forest Dr, then the
entrance road near the power line cut near Morrissette and finally the trail
below the dam for about a mile; about 5 miles were traversed on foot in 3.25
hrs. Top species was Louisiana Waterthrush adults doing distraction display
on stream below the dam due to a nearby Blue Jay. One bird landed on a rock,
dropped its wings and walked sort of in a circle as the mate chipped loudly
nearby. Also noted was a Spotted Sandpiper in the lake area on a mudbar
near some islands. 59 species were recorded including Wood Duck with 5
ducklings, DC Cormorant, Green Heron, Bald Eagle (adult), Red-shouldered and
Red-tailed Hawks, Belted Kingfisher, an amazing 16 Acadian Flycatchers, E.
Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling Vireo,
Red-eyed Vireo (13), No. Rough-winged Swallows, House Wrens (6), Blue-gray
Gnatcatchers (7), Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, LA Waterthrush (4), Common
Yellowthroat (2), Northern Parula (5), Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting (5),
and Orchard Oriole.
Lake Braddock was not too productive but yielded up Green Herons, E. Phoebe,
Great Crested Flycatcher, E. Kingbird, Warbling Vireos, and Orchard Oriole.
Lake Royal was better yielding Mute Swan, DC Cormorant, Great Blue Herons,
Great Egret, Green Heron, Osprey, Acadian Flycatcher, E. Kingbirds, Warbling
Vireos, Purple Martins, House Wrens, and Orchard and Baltimore Orioles.
Finally, we visited the Lake Braddock HS twice as its viewing vista is
pretty good - the last time yielded up the already reported Mississippi
Kite.
Kurt Gaskill
