Hi!
This afternoon I birded the Flint Hill School
campus and my favorite place in Oakton, Difficult
Run Stream Valley Rd off of Samaga Rd (off of
Hunter Mill Rd). Every time I drive through
Oakton now-a-days, I get depressed by how much
development is occuring, jamming houses into
every little patch of woods. I have seen way too
much change in the last 12 years here. It used to
be almost out in the country. So it always does
me good to wander around off the trail at
Difficult Run, to hear the ear-splitting chorus
of spring peepers and the monkey-like hootin' and
hollerin' of a pair of Barred Owls, and to see
thickets chock-full of flocks of sparrows, and
signs of beavers everywhere. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Here's what I saw this afternoon.
Flint Hill west campus on Jermantown Rd:
19 yellow-rumped warblers
2 golden-crowned kinglets
pair of Phoebes hanging out around the drainage-
pond drain structure. (New sp. for campus list)
1 Killdeer where once there were two. I searched
long and hard for the other on a nest but
couldn't find it.
1 Red-tailed Hawk: I'm guessing the other is on
the nest in some unknown location. I found a
rabbit's tail under one of the hawks favorite
perches.
SNIPE (new species for campus list)
4 SAVANNAH Sparrows (new species for campus list,
had my first one on East campus today too.)
Difficult Run (near Samaga Rd)
1 WOODCOCK (new for my Difficult Run list)
a pair of wood duck
20-25 RUSTY blackbird
heard a pair of hootin' and hollerin' Barred owls
1 great blue heron
gobs of sparrows are still around: 9 field, 44
song, 13 white-throated, 15 swamp, 5 FOX
1 male mallard (I looked unsuccessfully for
female on nest.)
1 lone honking Canada Goose (also no nest found)
1 red-shouldered hawk
woodpeckers (2 hairy, 1 downy, 5 red-bellied, 4
flicker, 1 pileated)
11 cardinal
1 towhee
1 mockingbird
2 bluebird
2 house finch, 2 goldfinch
misc. others(5 carolina wren, 4 carolina
chickadee, 4 titmice, 2 golden-crowned kinglet)
55 american crow, 4 fish crow
+heard 1 pickerel frog and LOTS of spring peepers
+saw 1 red-backed salamander under a log, but no
egg masses of other salamanders or frogs in the
water.
+found a deer skeleton all chewed up by foxes
All the best to you!
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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