The first hint of cooler weather touched Northern Virginia in the overnight hours, suggesting shorter days and the start of fall not too far away. It brings with it, too, not just the start of school again but awareness of the continuing migration of creatures. Those that came north are heading south again. There are […]

Yes, it’s true! People in Virginia are starting to see the beautiful Ruby-throated hummingbirds at their feeders. You can track them as they make their way north on the map here and report your own sightings.  So clean your feeders and get ready to put out the nectar – one part sugar to four parts water.   […]

Why did the turtle cross the road? She was likely living between two ponds, both man made, one in a golf course, the other in a planned townhouse community, separated by what is now a busy Loudoun County road. At some point, her life was destined to intersect with a mass of metal moving at […]

Ten people showed up on a beautiful spring day at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve for the regular monthly bird walk led by Del Sargent, Mary Ann Good, & Joe Coleman. The highlights of the walk were 2 Fox Sparrows, at least 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, two of which were singing away, a pair of Common […]

With the cold, frigid weather (12 degrees when we began, 14 when we ended), only two of us showed up for the regular monthly bird walk at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve on January 10th. While there were very few birds at first, and never a lot of species, we did find numerous sparrows and […]

With so many people involved in Loudoun County’s Monarch efforts, it’s a delight to shine a spotlight on some of them, so we thought it would be purposeful to share a few exciting and diverse efforts coming out of Loudoun county. Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy joined in the extraordinary citizen science and conservation effort for the […]

Thirteen birders came for our monthly (second Saturday) birdwalk at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve in Loudoun County.  It was a nice (for August) day and the birding was about average for the walks at Banshee in August. Excellent views were seen of three different YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO and several BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS. A total of 36 species […]

The 11 people on this regular bird walk (every 4th Saturday of each month) at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship spent most of their time in the forest with only a short walk along Butterfly Alley on the power line. The walk,  led by Joe Coleman and Elliott & Nancy Kirschbaum, followed Arnold Road […]

The highlights of this morning’s regular monthly bird walk, sponsored by the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and the Friends of Banshee Reeks, were three (possibly four) Yellow-breasted Chats, three of which were well seen as they perched high in trees and chatted away; a Cooper’s Hawk carrying prey as it flew overhead; and two Eastern Towhees […]

While the Loudoun Wildlife Conserancy’s monthly bird walk at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship lasted from 8 am to approx. 10:30 am, there was also a brief visit to the Sawmill Rd. area on the south side before the walk.  Additionally, after the walk, five of us spent an hour along Arnold Rd. checking […]