Our 2025 Birdathon: Celebrating Birds, Salamanders, Snakes, and Mammals

Volume 30 Issue 3, Summer 2025

by Joe Coleman, Birding Coordinator

For 20 years, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy has been celebrating the phenomenon of spring migration with a series of walks, events, and a Birdathon, and this year’s celebration set several records.

• A total of 160 bird species were found by the Birdathon teams and participants in our Celebrate Birds! walks and the Big Sit.
• Over $26,000 was raised for Loudoun Wildlife by 18 Birdathon teams comprised of 77 people.
• More than 200 people visited the Big Sit held May 10 at Algonkian Regional Park.
• There were 13 well-attended bird walks during our month of Celebrate Birds! events.

For a full picture of the species counted and their numbers, please see the teams’ reports of their Birdathon findings.

The species our teams found included some that have made remarkable recoveries. While not rare today, Green Herons, along with other wading birds, almost disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century because their feathers were collected to decorate women’s hats. Protests helped end this trade, and most wading birds thrive today.

Grassland birds, on the other hand, are the most threatened type of bird in North America, largely due to habitat loss. Some of our teams were lucky enough to see Bobolinks, once-common Loudoun nesters that have almost disappeared from the mid-Atlantic because the fields they nest in are mowed before they finish nesting. A few still struggle to nest here, but unless changes are made, they will disappear from the county.

Of course, birds are the centerpiece of our Birdathon. But as always, our teams also encountered snakes, turtles, amphibians, and mammals. Liam McGranaghan had warned his fellow Shrike Force team members that the warm, moist weather the first weekend of May would bring out turtles and snakes. When they found an Eastern Rat Snake on the road in Algonkian Regional Park on a busy Saturday morning, Liam hopped out of the car to move it, but the snake disagreed. It crawled into their car’s engine cavity, where it took Liam three attempts to get a good enough grip on it so he could move it to the nearby woods. By then a good-sized crowd had gathered to watch the eventually successful rescue.

Birdathon Wins

Part of Celebrate Birds!, the Birdathon is a highly competitive contest to see who can find the most birds in several categories, all while raising funds for Loudoun Wildlife.

This year’s First Timers Award went to the new Taking Terns team, which found 91 species during their one day of birding! Members Justin and Gwendolyn Ellis-Joyce, Ryan Christensen, Carla Nicolini, Thomas Ravenscroft, and Lauren Warning began their day at 5 a.m., found Trumpeter Swans at midday at the Dulles Greenway Wetlands, and wrapped up 15 hours later watching a Peregrine Falcon chasing another bird on the HHMI Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, where they all work.

The winner of the Most Species in a 24-hour Period Award was the TowHEE-HEEs. Comprised of Sean and Porter Blackford, Danielle Wilkinson, and Rachel Cates, the team found 82 species.

For the third year in a row, the winner of the Most Species by a Family Award was The Flying Kites team. The Andersons (Eric, Kiersten, Abigail, Rua, Sadie, and Henry) found 80 species (including their namesake Mississippi Kite, a fairly uncommon bird in Loudoun) in a 48-hour period that included a six-hour track meet, a soccer game, and two birthday parties.

Six teams were in close competition for the Most Species in 48 Hours Award, with all six finding more than 90 species. The winning team — with 118 species — was the Fully-palmated Birders, comprised of Michael Sciortino, John and Kevin Denice, Mer Mietzelfeld, and Mike Scott.

Two teams raised more than half of the over $26,000 raised for Loudoun Wildlife during this year’s Birdathon, with the Most Money Raised Award going to Gone Pishing, comprised of Allison Gallo, Bryan Henson, Gerco Hoogeweg, and Jane Yocom. They raised more than $6,750 while finding 114 species of birds. (Be sure to check out the video of their surprise encounter with an American Woodcock walking on the forest floor at Sweet Run State Park, linked here.

Loudoun Wildlife cannot begin to sufficiently thank all the Birdathon teams. They spent hours searching for birds, and their efforts also raised a great amount of money for Loudoun Wildlife and provided an incredible snapshot of the birds in the county from mid-April to mid-May, the height of spring bird migration.

Loudoun Wildlife also thanks the Celebrate Birds! walk leaders; the many people who donated to us through contributions to Birdathon teams; and our sponsors — Watermark Woods Native Plants, Wild Birds Unlimited/Ashburn, Avenue Wealth, Yield Bookkeeping Services, and the Catoctin Creek Distillery. Without their support, the Birdathon would not have been nearly as successful.