Bald Eagle.
Photo by Bryan Henson
Eleven birders joined the monthly walk at Bles Park in Ashburn on a cold, but sunny morning on February 18. As the walk started, we visited some shrubs good for sparrows and found three of our local sparrows: White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow. We also found a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Northern Mockingbird and several Red-winged Blackbirds nearby. Around the marsh, we spotted an adult Bald Eagle flying over, one of four Bald Eagles seen during the walk. While looking at the marsh, we spooked a couple of American Coots who flew to a nearby patch of cattails to hide. Along the Potomac River, we found a few Common Mergansers and several Mallards along with several of our local woodpecker species including: Northern Flicker, Red-bellied, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. The highlight of the whole walk for the fortunate few that saw it, was a North American River Otter that was up on a log in Broad Run as we approached.
The walk was lead by Carol Sottili, John Denice and Bryan Henson who assisted the group in finding 39 species of birds. The full list can be viewed on eBird at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S162009397