Loudoun Wildlife’s monthly Algonkian Park bird walk on July 20 was attended by 17 people, including a couple of first- time participants. With just 33 species, it was a fairly low count for this birding hotspot, but there were still highlights worth mentioning. There was a huge number of swallows flying over the river and perched in the trees along the river. Most were Northern Rough-winged Swallows, but we did pick out a few Tree Swallows and a Purple Martin. The group also got to see a perched Bald Eagle from probably 15 feet away before it flew and circled over us.
A Canada Goose walked up to the group in the parking lot as we were kicking off and walked right into the middle of the group. It appeared to have a broken wing, and people had been feeding it. Other birds we got good looks at include Pileated Woodpeckers, Eastern Kingbirds, a Warbling Vireo, a Brown Thrasher just hanging out at the top of a tree, and a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches.
The complete list of species can be viewed on eBird at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S261430931.
Photo by John Denice.