Val's email from Saturday inspired me to bird Roaches Run this afternoon.
What a crazy place it is - how do the birds get any relaxation there?
Planes on one side, trains on the other, and cars everywhere. Despite the
human hub-bub, there was a good deal of birding hub-bub too.
Highlight for me was one winter HORNED GREBE (with a last name like mine,
these are always the best birds). The longer I stayed, the more PIED
BILLED GREBEs I saw as well - I counted 7. I've never seen so many HOODED
MERGANSERS in one place - 5 males, and probably 7-8 females. More gulls
and scaup than I could shake a stick at as well. 5 GREAT BLUE HERONs, as
well as one which had a gigantic (dead) fish. It kept putting it down in
the water and circling it, then picking it up and trying to figure out
what to do with it. Of course, there were obligatory MALLARDs everywhere,
but no geese, interesting enough. One KINGFISHER scouted the shores, as
did one DOWNY woodpecker and a small flock of singing RED WINGED
BLACKBIRDS. I never get tired of hearing them call...
I moved on briefly to the boat docks down at the Dyke Marsh (just south of
the city of Alexandria). The highlights there were 6 COMMON MERGANSERS (3
pairs) in relatively close to the boats, one beautiful male HOODER
MERGANSER and one female BUFFLEHEAD. (I later found 3 male and 2 female
Buffleheads out further in the river - I guess the little lady was boat
shopping when I saw her.)
No luck with the Redheads, but it was a beautiful day outside today
nonetheless.
-Renee Grebe
Alexandria, VA
VA Birders,
On my first birding outing since our snow & ice storm earlier this
week, I went to Roaches Run Sanctuary, here in Arlington Co., about midday
today. I had planned to go on to Riverside Park, near Mt. Vernon, to
make one more try to find the Redheads which had been reported there,
but happily I found 2 lovely male REDHEADS in the big pond at Roaches
Run, which had lots of ice but also still had some open water. I also
found all 3 merganser species there: 2 pairs of HOODED MERGANSERS, 3
female COMMON MERGANSERS, and 1 female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Other
sightings of interest included 30 LESSER SCAUP, 10 PIED-BILLED GREBES, 6
GREAT BLUE HERONS, 1 adult BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON, and 1 AM. COOT (my
first in Arlington this year).
The Roaches Run Sanctuary is located on the west side of the G. W.
Parkway, across from National Airport. Both the sanctuary and the airport
are located in Arlington Co.
Good birding,
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
