Hello birders,
Today Lynn and I observed a Great Blue Heron persevering in this challenging
weather. The air temp had risen to around 20 deg F, and a light breeze had
started up, at 3 PM today.
The scene picture here shows the challenge for this bird - find fish in a side
stream near the Potomac in Arlington, essentially completely frozen over. It
was standing in a narrow open section, probably from a runoff pipe.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41725905
The Potomac itself was also completely covered with ice. Earlier today I
visited 3 of the larger lakes in Reston (Fairfax County). They were also
mostly covered, just two of them with small remaining open sections. The
greatest waterfowl diversity was at Lake Thoreau, with 4 normal duck spp and
Coot.
Stay warm folks!!
-- -- Steve Johnson and Lynn Rafferty
Fairfax, Virginia
