Brown Creeper.
Photo by Bryan Henson
On a chilly morning with snow and ice-covered ground, seven adventurous birders braved the trails at Algonkian Regional Park for the monthly bird walk on January 19. In truth, the trails weren’t too bad, but the birding was a little slow. We started off with tw0 adult Bald Eagles perched on an island in the Potomac River. Common feeder birds like Tufted Titmice and Carolina Chickadees were feasting on some bird seed in the parking lot.
As we walked down the trail, we heard and spotted several woodpeckers, including Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker and Pileated Woodpecker. We found a Yellow-rumped Warbler fliting along the trees on along the river. A Brown Creeper gave us good looks of its customary climbing behavior. The mostly frozen river held five Hooded Mergansers, but once we passed that section of the trail, we saw very few birds until the very end of the walk. All told, we found 28 species; the full list can be seen on eBird at https://ebird.org/checklist/S209896099.