It stopped raining in DC late this afternoon so I
decided to venture outside and drive down to Huntley
to look for yellow-crowned night herons Kurt saw a
couple of days ago. I saw my first yellow-throated
warblers yesterday at Leesylvania so I thought I'd try
my luck with another lifer. Unfortunately, by the
time I got there it was raining steadily and the light
was very poor. I ventured out anyway and was rewarded
with having the whole place almost to myself.
I didn't expect to see much with the weather
conditions and the marsh and lake were indeed fairly
quiet with just a few nesting pairs of Canada geese
and mallards. A huge turtle surfaced close to the
boardwalk about half way across, I assume it must have
been a snapping turtle from its size; quite
impressive. The beavers were quite active too.
At the end of the boardwalk I watched a small flock of
white-throated sparrows rooting through the leaf
litter and seemingly oblivious to my presence a few
feet away. The group contained a nice fox sparrow,
which was almost close enough to step on, and a
towhee. While I was watching the sparrows a red fox
made its way through the woods about 100 yards away.
I finally found some shelter under the observation
deck and scanned the lake. Several rough-winged
swallows and a couple of tree swallows were hawking
insects above the lake, unperturbed by the constant
drizzle. Many swamp and song sparrows were calling
and a couple of the white-throats started singing. A
few deer crashed through the trees on the other side
of the lake scaring up a couple of great blue herons.
Then a small flock of field sparrows flew in to a bush
right next to me and I got to test out how close my
new swift audubon 8.5x44s will focus. The results
were very satisfactory and I got to sit and watch
field sparrows through my binoculars at less than 10
feet - very nice.
It was beginning to get dark so I headed back. Just
as I was about to give up on the night herons, I saw
in the gloom a large bird perched in a tree back at
the end of the boardwalk closest to the parking lot.
Sure enough it was a yellow-crowned night heron, its
white cheek showing up nicely in the rapidly
approaching darkness. I stood and watched it for a
while until it took off and flew silently over the
marsh as I approached.
I arrived back at my car rather bedraggled, but happy.
I'm not sure if it was the weather or the lack of
people, but the sparrows seemed amazingly tame this
evening and the other wildlife seemd very active. It
just goes to show that every birding experience is
different and sometimes it can be worth getting out
there even when the weather's lousy.
Already looking forward to next weekend,
Philip Kline
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