On most mornings between June 11 and June 21 I
was out at dawn to participate in the Audubon
SOciety of Northern Virginia's Breeding Bird
Survey organized by Carolyn Williams. For
several years my territory has been the wooded
stream valleys in Oakton bordering Difficult Run
and two of its tributaries ( Little Difficult Run
and Rocky Branch) between Jermantown Road, Fox
Mill Rd, and Hunter Mill Rd. It includes Oak Marr
Park also. These woods are generally fairly
narrow bands of bottomland forest along
slow-moving creeks, with an occasional scrubby
thicket, old beaver pond, or dry wooded hill, and
bordered by residential neighborhoods whose birds
are very often within earshot of the sites. The
sites are about .5 km apart and the technique is
to note every bird seen and heard in a five
minute period. No samples are taken after 8:30
AM.
63 wooded stream valley sites were sampled.
Often beautiful shafts of morning light streamed
through gaps between the colossal tulip poplars,
oaks and maples. I covered it all on foot and
only encountered 4 people (joggers, dog-walkers)
on one morning. A very pleasant experience,
especially on the last several very crisp days. I
received no mosquito or chigger bites and saw
only one seed tick. The highlight was an adult
red-headed woodpecker near Samaga Rd in Oakton,
only the second time I have seen one here, and
the first I've had here in breeding season. Very
few warblers were noted. I have been surveying
some of these areas since 1990, and with the
rapid development of surrounding areas, there has
been a decline in many species such as prairie
warbler, Lousiana waterthrush, ovenbird, Kentucky
warbler, hooded warbler, and wood thrush even
though most of these stream-valley sites
themselves are unchanged. To me, crow numbers
seem low this year. There were more than usual
number of cedar waxwings and wb nuthatches.
Here are the totals. Numbers in () were noted
between samples, not at actual survey sites or
not during survey minutes. ("+ others" means I
didn't count how many others were present outside
the census sites, but there were several
present.) If nothing is noted about other
sightings, that means no others were noticed
anywhere.
Great Blue Heron (1)
Green Heron 1
Canada Goose 7 in 2 sites
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 2 in 1 site
Red-shouldered Hawk 6 in 6 sites (+2 in 2 places)
Red-tailed Hawk 2 in 1 site
Cooper's Hawk 1 immature flying through area
screaming
Killdeer (1)
Mourning Dove 22 in 21 sites (+ others)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Barred Owl (4 in 4 locations)
Chimney Swift 44 in 20 sites (+ others)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 (+1)
Belted Kingfisher 3 in 3 sites
Red-bellied Woodpecker 70 in 50 sites (+ others)
Downy Woodpecker 42 in 32 (+ others)
Hairy Woodpecker 8 in 8 sites (+2 in 2 places)
Flicker 11 in 10 sites
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 7 in 7 sites (+1)
E. WOod-pewee 20 in 19 sites (+ 3 in 3 places)
Acadian Flycatcher 43 in 25 sites (+1)
E. Phoebe 11 in 10 sites
Great-crested Flycatcher 10 in 9 sites (+3 in 2
places)
E. Kingbird 3 in 3 sites
Purple Martin 6 in 2 sites
Tree Swallow 1
N. Rough-winged Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 3 in 1
Blue Jay 49 in 29 sites (+ others)
American Crow (low this year?) (15 in 11 sites)
Carolina Chickadee 78 in 43 sites (+ others)
Tufted Titmouse 99 in 50 sites (+ others)
White-breasted Nuthatch 39 in 33 sites (+1) House
Wren 13 in 12 sites (+1)
Carolina Wren 96 in 48 sites (+ others)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 26 in 17 sites(+2@ 2
places)
Eastern Bluebird 9 in 8 sites (+1)
Wood Thrush 14 in 10 sites
Robin 34 in 16 sites (+ others)
Gray Catbird 10 in 7 sites
Mockingbird 16 in 13 sites
Brown Thrasher 2 in 2 sites
Cedar Waxwing 3 in 2 sites (a total of 15 were
seen in 9 sites when you include all the survey
sites not in the stream valley parks. I sampled a
total of 90 sites; see below)
Starling 6 in 4 sites (+ others)
White-eyed Vireo 5 in 5 sites
Yellow-throated Vireo 5 in 4 sites (+1)
Red-eyed Vireo 48 in 35 sites
Northern Parula 9 in 8 sites (+3 in 2 places)
Pine Warbler 1
Ovenbird 1
Louisiana waterthrush 9 in 6 sites (+2 in 2
places) There actually are probably fewer birds
since their territories often extend quite a ways
along streams.
Common Yellowthroat 1
Scarlet Tanager 11 in 10 sites There actually are
probably fewer birds since their voices carry
far.
Northern Cardinal 181 in 54 sites The most
abundant and widely-distributed bird.
Indigo Bunting 3 in 3 sites
RS Towhee 18 in 11 sites (+2 in 2 places) (Also
had 15 in 8 (of 15) small woodlot plots)
Chipping Sparrow 7 in 5 sites
Song Sparrow 23 in 16 sites
Red-winged Blackbird 9 in 2 sites
Grackle 28 in 15 sites(+ others)
Cowbird 14 in 11 sites (+ others)
Orchard Oriole 2 in 2 sites
Baltimore Oriole 6 in 3 sites
House Finch 7 in 3 sites (+ others)
American Goldfinch 28 in 21 sites (+ others)
House Sparrow 7 in 2 sites
In addition I sampled several small woodlot parks
in residential areas, a few sites that are
heavily-wooded neighborhoods, and a few
residential areas that used to be wooded sites
sampled in the past. If anyone is interested I
could send these totals too, but there was
nothing unusual. Of interest to me was the
presence of red-eyed vireos, yellow-billed
cuckoo, wood pewees, crested flycatchers, and
wood thrushes in old residential neighborhoods
that had large numbers of large trees, and that
some small woodlot parks with large trees
surrounded by suburbia are still supporting wood
thrushes, acadian flycatchers, red-shouldered
hawks, wood pewees, and red-eyed vireos.
All the best
fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
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