Tim Hodge, Eun-seok (Ryan) Chang, Alex Robbins,
and Cody Vaughan enthusiastically accompanied me
on this field trip in the rain. We started at
Flint Hill where we saw an interesting mallard/
black duck hybrid in the stormwater retention
pond, and two fly-over yellow-rumped warblers.
Then, at Tim's request we continued our trip at
Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge where the most
exciting birds were 2 yellow-billed cuckoos, a
probable winter wren spotted by Cody, and a
kingfisher found by Alex. The pouring rain
brought out lots of herps who were relishing the
rain at least as much as we were: snapping turtle
baby, a hefty female box turtle, many cute young
american toads, mega-bull frogs, a slippery
pickerel frog, a peeping spring peeper, and many
frogs that got away. Tim exclaimed "This is one
of the most fun birding trips I have been on" as
he waded nearly waist deep in the trail in the
flooded floodplain forest. Accotink(?) Creek had
overflowed its banks. When we got to the bridge
we decided we shouldn't go any further since we
didn't know if we'd be able to get back if the
river flooded any further. So we headed back to
the minibus. On the way we were startled and
thrilled by the crashing sound of a large dead
tree that collapsed 100' away, breaking off the
top of another tree as it fell.
From there we went to Pohick Bay where we noted a
black-and-white warbler (spotted by Tim), a
golden-crowned kinglet, 1 caspian tern, 4
forster's terns, 2 wood ducks, 2 immature
double-crested cormorants and Ryan's first bald
eagle, a nice adult that soared right over us.
By then, despite our rain gear, we were soaked to
the skin and shivering, chilled by the wind, but
all agreed it was well worth it.
The next scheduled Northern Virginia Teen Bird
Club, sponsored by Audubon Society of Northern
Virginia and Flint Hill School, will be on
Saturday November 12, from about 1-6 PM. All
interested students in grades 8-12 are welcome.
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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