A Year of Birding “Centuries”

Photo: American Goldfinch on sunflowers, Sycamore Landing, MD, Libby Lyons

Libby Lyons

As 2021 began, I was feeling listless – in a general sense and in the bird-list sense. So, I challenged myself to see 100 bird species each month, a “century” challenge, because I wanted to get out of the house and be more active, see more birding friends, and become more purposeful in my birding. 

I can now report success!! From my first bird, the Painted Bunting on the C&O Canal (MD), to my last, an Audubon’s Oriole (TX), I saw 400 species in 2021– and at least 100 per month!! But I was rewarded with so much more than just a count of birds – here’s what I learned:

For me it’s as much about the people as the birds! I loved meeting and befriending so many folks with the same love of birds and nature. I went with them on trips far and near including the ASNV Birdathon and many Northern Virginia Bird Club trips. And I found I still get immense joy in sharing my passion – even with total strangers, e.g., showing my Painted Bunting photo to passersby wondering what all the fuss was about, and pointing out a perfectly camouflaged Wilson’s Snipe at Huntley Meadows and being called a “snipe whisperer.”

Piping Plover chick, Moonstone Beach, Trustom Pond NWR, Rhode Island, Libby Lyons

Birdwatch wherever you go! The pandemic kept me stateside, so I redoubled my efforts to bird more while visiting family. In a Rhode Island wildlife area on a balmy, buggy evening in May I was transfixed by the plaintive call of an Eastern Whip-poor-will, and then just down the road, by the dueling calls of two Chuck-will’s-widows. On my next trip, I delighted in a handful of little brown and white fluffballs, juvenile Piping Plovers, at Moonstone Beach (RI). When we retreated with our grown children to the cool of the West Virginia mountains in early August, I twice trekked off to Cranberry Glades bog, where I was rewarded with 9 species of warblers and 4 species of vireos so easily seen on their breeding grounds! In Olympic National Park in late August, it was a treat to join my brother as he led a boat tour of Lake Quinault and to revel in our shared love of natural history. From Washington I drove through smoky Oregon to stay with family friends and compiled a bird list for their yard among the Northern California redwoods, then headed to Point Reyes Bird Observatory, a birdwatcher’s mecca, which I had not visited in four decades. It is easy to forget how large and variable our country’s habitat is – there was almost no overlap between the West Coast birds I saw and those I had seen back East!

Mourning Warbler, Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, WV, Libby Lyons

Birdwatch all year! Another pleasant surprise was summer birding. I do not handle Virginia’s heat and humidity well, so had birded infrequently from mid-June to late August. I had rarely seen or heard fledglings, with their stubby tails, often murky plumage, and muddled songs! The summer foliage was also a pleasure – swaths of sunflowers in full bloom, replete with American Goldfinches and Indigo Buntings at Sycamore Landing (MD). And the wetlands at Huntley Meadows was transformed by the huge white flowers of the native hibiscus called Swamp Rose-mallow.

Photo: American Goldfinch on sunflowers, Sycamore Landing, MD, Libby Lyons

Even new birders can surprise you! Near November‘s end, I was still far short of my target.  I was in a migration void – the passerines had flown south and the waterfowl had yet to arrive. I headed to the coast with my adult son, who is not a birder. He is a serious fisherman – observant, patient, and nature-loving – perfect skills for birdwatching. He not only spied a Black Skimmer (“That bird can’t keep its head up!”) at India River Inlet (DE), but he also spotted a sandbar harboring American Oystercatchers and Brants. As we chatted about why we loved our respective hobbies – he framed birdwatching in a way novel to me, perhaps due to his years studying economics. One reason birders are so friendly, he noted, is that sharing information about a target species doesn’t deplete the resource the way it might for fishing. Not only that, sharing makes you feel good, it helps the other person, and it increases the chances that they might share information back.   

LeConte’s Sparrow, Sully Woodlands Park, VA, Libby Lyons

Be opportunistic and persistent! I took advantage of “lost” birds last year. There seemed so many – was it because so many of us were out birding, or just because the birds were roving farther afield? Certainly, the Green-tailed Towhee in Sky Meadows State Park (VA) and the Kirtland’s Warbler in Baltimore (MD) were far from their usual stomping grounds (West Coast and Michigan, respectively). And I was persistent – it took two attempts each to see that Green-tailed Towhee and the skulking, well-camouflaged LeConte’s Sparrow at Sully Woodlands, and three trips to see my nemesis bird, another skulker, the Connecticut Warbler, in Rock Creek Park (DC). Alas, it is valuable to temper persistence with common sense; it was a lot easier to spot a Ross’s Goose (white, slightly smaller than a Snow Goose) among a few Canada Geese at Mount Trashmore Park (VA) than among 4,000 white Snow Geese on a Delmarva field!

What next? I am not sure whether I will continue with the challenge in 2022. I hope to travel farther afield when COVID allows. But as the climate crisis looms, I am also trying to birdwatch with a smaller environmental footprint. I think this will mean more carpooling, not making long trips just to get the last few birds for the month, and exploring new places to birdwatch close to home. I don’t think I will ever tire of the Sandhill Cranes at Algonkian, the warblers at Monticello Park, the woodcock at Huntley Meadows, nor the rafts of winter waterfowl off Mason’s Neck. Join me!

No Car – No Problem!

Photo: Fairfax Connector bus

Northern Virginia Public Transportation Can Deliver you to E-Bird Hotspots!

You might think that none of the best birdwatching spots are accessible if you don’t have access to a car. Not so in Northern Virginia! To reduce any transportation barriers to birdwatching, or for those who just want to lower your environmental footprint,  ASNV went looking for e-Bird hotspots that you can reach by bus and/or Metro Rail. We found more than a dozen such spots! Be sure to check the transportation system’s website before you go – and beware that some of the buses are commuter buses so only run on weekdays and/or at certain times of the day. You Find a chart of public transport routes near eBird hotspots on our website here.

New book on The Birds of Northern Virginia for Beginning Birders and Educators

ASNV is pleased to announce that a new digital picture book on local birds, tailored to beginners, is now available free of charge on the ASNV website. It is written by an experienced Connecticut birder and educator, Florence McBride, who responded to a request from a Northern Virginia teacher for bird-study materials to use during the pandemic. The book covers many common birds of our area and arranges them by color, except for the birds of prey and the water birds. It also identifies whether each species is a permanent resident or migratory – here in spring-summer-fall or fall-winter-spring. The book gives each bird’s length and shows separate pictures of male and female, or adult and immature, if they look different. Other information may include notes about identifying the birds’ songs and calls, and feeding or nesting behavior. Useful links to the ASNV Northern Virginia bird list and Cornell Lab’s “All About Birds” Bird Guide, and Merlin app can be found in the introduction.

The book is copyrighted and may be shared free of charge digitally or as (self-printed) hard copy for non-commercial personal and educational use. It is also readable on a smartphone. For more specific information on use of the book and the pictures within it, please see the introduction and the picture credits (near the end of the book.)  Notes on the author, including her recent photographic preservation of the Birds of Connecticut exhibition in Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, can be found at the end of the book.

A link to the book in downloadable PDF format may be found on the ASNV website here.  We hope Florence McBride’s book is an inspiration for all educators and beginning birders in Northern Virginia!