Articles Archives - 2002

Photo of Peter Vankevich by Rich Greenfield

Beginning in late February for the last 19 years, I hike on the C&O Canal. This is part of a training program for the annual 100 Km One Day Hike from Washington, DC to Harper's Ferry. Setting aside the questionable quest of hiking 62 miles in one day (with its 3:00 AM start), I find peace in these 20-plus mile Saturdays. Each week brings new signs of spring along the Potomac. I have found a Great Blue Heron rookery with birds on their nests in March and migrating Double-crested Cormorants flying upstream or perching on stones and trees in the river. Each week, new birds appear. Early on, it's Eastern Phoebes, and then the warblers arrive. In order from early March, I see Yellow-rumped Warblers, then loudly singing Louisiana Waterthrushes, Northern Parulas, Palm, Common Yellowthroats and Yellow-throated Warblers. Then there are the wildflowers, such as wonderful Virginia Bluebells and Dutchman's Breeches.

It all started with a lonely Mockingbird. One day in March I was on playground duty at Oyster Bilingual Elementary School, where I work as the school librarian. We are currently located at 4th and Bryant St. NW, near Howard University. I was looking in a sweet gum tree for the Mockingbird that I had been hearing on and off during the previous weeks. All of sudden, I gasped. There, at the top of the trunk, was none other than a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker! Finding this Neotropical migratory bird anywhere is a treat, but finding it in the middle of the city, on a playground of a bilingual school that just last year had studied migratory birds, was simply amazing! Although we had no binoculars that day, many, many students got to observe the Sapsucker as it made its characteristic horizontal and vertical rows of perfectly round holes.

DC Audubon's chickadee field trip on Saturday, March 25, 2000, to Nolands Ferry, Hancock, and Little Orleans, each a beautiful location on the C&O Canal, was a delight. The idea of a trip devoted to chickadees occurred to President Peter Vankevich, not so much because chickadees are cute and familiar little songbirds, but because Maryland is favored with two species: the Carolina Chickadee (CACH) and the more northerly and westerly Black-Capped (BCCH). If you ascend the C&O Canal from the lower Piedmont toward the Ridge and Valley province, you pass through a transition zone, moving from the range of the CACH into the range of the BCCH, through a zone where hybridization between the two species occurs. For the observer armed with binoculars, tape recordings, and the willingness to look and listen carefully, evidence of gene flow and hybridization can be detected in birds along the towpath. The goal of our field trip was to learn the fine points of distinguishing Carolina, Black-capped, and hybrid chickadees.

The Anacostia River has nowhere to go but up. Long dismissed simply as Washington's "other river," it has been so mistreated and abused that its waters, laden with toxic sediments and swarming with harmful bacteria, have served mostly as a trash transfer service, carrying an endless stream of plastic bottles, rags, and other junk downstream toward the Chesapeake Bay. But under the new mayor, Anthony Williams (a loyal Audubon member), the city is starting to look east, to visualize the Anacostia as it can be -- "a constant source of natural enjoyment, urban orientation, and visual delight."

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is a beautiful National Park in northeast D.C., specializing in aquatic plants. The park includes lily and lotus ponds, a restored marsh, and trails through the woods bordering the Anacostia River. Recently, Kenilworth opened a new boardwalk through the marsh, allowing better viewing of wetland birds and other wildlife. Stop by to investigate this latest addition to this wonderful park. To get to Kenilworth, take Kenilworth Ave. (I-295) to the Eastern Ave./Quarles St. exit (south of Rt. 50/NY Ave. & north of Benning Rd.), and follow signs to the parking lot off Anacostia Ave. Call 202-426-6905 for additional information about hours and programs.

West Nile Virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne disease named for the district in Uganda where it was first identified in 1937. Its appearance in New York in 1999 was the first record of this virus in the Western Hemisphere. Since that time, the virus has spread rapidly through the eastern United States: north into Connecticut in 1999, into Massachusetts and New Hampshire in mid-summer of this year, and, most recently, south through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and into the Maryland-D.C. area. Probably, the spread of the disease is mediated by the movement of infected birds. Birds are the primary reservoir of WNV, although the disease has also been found in mammals, including horses, several species of rodents, and humans.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) for 2001 was held on February 16-19, 2001. Participants in the GBBC report the birds sighted in their backyard (or schoolyard, window box, etc.) directly to a website operated by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. As data are received, the information is processed and the data displayed on maps showing the locality of the sightings (your backyard!) and the species reported. The data provide a snapshot of the distribution and abundance of bird species across the United States in mid-winter. GBBC 2001 is the fourth annual count. The GBBC provides an opportunity for participants -- individuals, families, school groups, and others -- to contribute to science, learn about birds, and have a great time. For more information, contact Sally Conyne at National Audubon (sconyne@audubon.org, phone 215-297-9040), or visit the GBBC website (http://birdsource.cornell.edu/gbbc/).

The CBC is an annual event sponsored by National Audubon, to monitor the distribution and population trends of bird species in North America during the early winter. The count period extends from mid-December to early January. DC Audubon members regularly participate in two local counts, District of Columbia (Saturday, December 16) and Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge (Sunday, December 17). If you are interested in participating in either or both counts, please contact Peter Vankevich (202-547-4523, pvank@cais.net). Other counts in the area are being organized by the Audubon Naturalist Society (301-652-9188 x10).

Results of the Third Annual Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Mid-Winter Bird Survey are finally all received and tabulated. DC Audubon's most ambitious birding activity, the C&O Survey aims to provide a true picture of winter birdlife along the entire 184.5 miles of the Park, from Georgetown to Cumberland.

Cameras were rolling last December 16 on Capitol Hill as a small band of DC Audubon birders gathered at Eastern Market for their annual Christmas Bird Count trek to Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge. National Geographic had sent a television crew to meet us there, at 5 a.m., mind you, and true to their word the reporter, cameraman and sound man were busily preparing their equipment as we drove up. After a shot of the few and the proud standing on the corner drinking coffee in the pre-dawn dark, with the U.S. Capitol lit up in the background, it was off to the refuge, the crew truck following along over the Bay bridge and into the wilds of lower Kent County. As the reporter, Betsy Querna, had explained to me on the telephone a few days previously, Geographic wanted to cover an Eastern seaboard Christmas Count, in a rural setting, for their new cable television anthology show, National Geographic World. Eastern Neck refuge was a picture perfect choice, in my opinion, and we were rewarded with a beautiful day afield in which to savor our few minutes of fame.

Some of our chapter members may have noticed that they have not received the quarterly newsletter from the Washington, DC Audubon chapter. No, it's not a problem with the mail. In the fall of 2001 our chapter's board decided to suspend the newsletter indefinitely.

Saturday morning, June 10, 2002, was cool and comfortable at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. It was also very lively as students and their parents and siblings received Cardinal Gear Packs to use on their end of school year trip to bird KAG. There were about 24 students and family members.