[va-bird] Fwd: Re: Spring afternoon at Riverbend Park
- From: Scott Baron <brnpelican@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: va-bird <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 19:39:11 -0700 (PDT)
It indeed was a beautiful day at Riverbend. A visit
to Riverbend at this time each year produces migrant
birds, early butterflies and spring wildflowers.
All
were plentiful today. The carpet of Virginia
Bluebells along the Potomac is gorgeous right now as
the blooms are at their peek. And the warm weather
was wonderful. I hiked from the meadow to Visitor
Center as well as much of the woods and along the
river.
R.C. KINGLETS, YELLOW-RUMPS and WHITE-THROATED
SPARROWS were the most abundant migrants today.
About
50 RING-NECKED DUCKS are still hanging around on the
Md. shore. I missed the Common Mergansers that
Karen
saw but I did see a couple of HOODED MERGS. I got
lucky while I was viewing a songbird through my
binoculars because I noticed a BROAD-WINGED HAWK
soaring way up high. I tried to get more
comfortable
and lied down on the grass to view it but in doing
so
I lost the bird. 6 species of warblers today - YEL.
RUMP., PALM (yellow), LA. WATERTHRUSH, NO. PARULA,
BLACK & WHITE and PROTHONOTARY.
While soaking up the outdoors and enjoying a book
(collection of works by John Muir - great man and a
great writer) on our front steps this evening I
thought I heard a CHIMNEY SWIFT. I stopped to
concentrate and looked up. No swift in sight but I
definitely heard its "chippering" a second, and
last,
time. My first Swift of the season.
Scott Baron
Fairfax, Va.
--- KarenNyere@xxxxxxx wrote:
I felt like Dorothy, only I was following the
magical blue path of bluebells
along the Potomac trail. Blue-gray gnatcatchers
and
yellow-rumped warblers
called, accompanied by the musical trilling of
American toads in the creek.
Adding to this dreamworld were scores of
zebra-striped swallowtails driven
by the ancient call to their paw paw trees. Along
the sandy shoreline,
several tiger-striped swallowtails were repeating
their annual mating dance.
In the distance , along the opposite bank, two
wood
drakes were to be seen.
Some common mergansers, their heads resplendently
iridescent green were
darting in and out of the water and one finally
came
to rest on a rock on one of
the little islands. Tree swallows swirled about.
Cormorants dove in and
out as black vultures like eminence grises, looked
on. A bald eagle showed
himself and then perched behind fresh foliage in
a
tree on the other shore. An
osprey sailed over us gracefully.
Trillium was blossoming . And finally, not to be
topped a teeny carnelian
spider boldly crossed the path in front of us.
Our hearts soared.
Karen Nyere
Alexandria
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