The DC Doldrums

As I've hinted at earlier in this blog, in August of 2018 I moved to Washington, D.C. to begin a master's degree program at Georgetown University. Although I'd spent a summer in DC a long time ago as an intern, this was my first time spending a longer time there, and it was certainly my first time being there as a birder. I obviously chose to be in DC for the academic part over the nature part, but I was excited to see what it had in store for me in terms of wildlife. 

As it turned out, what was in store for me in the DC summer was... not all that much. 

The Philippines has a reputation for underwhelming bird density, especially in the summer months, but in no world does that compare with the depressing mess that is DC birding in the summertime. There's a beautiful river valley park nearby my apartment in Arlington which seems like it might have some decent nature of some sort, but spending an hour there would get me something like 7 different species of birds. It was things like that that helped me understand why birders in the US get so into other things like butterflies and dragonflies. 

My first proper birding experience was a morning birding at the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve in Fairfax County, Virginia (just southwest of DC), where I joined the Northern Virginia Bird Club for their weekly Sunday morning bird walk. That morning was... depressing. Though I got an unexpected lifer in the form of a Northern Rough-winged Swallow, but besides that almost all of what we saw were exceptionally common birds like Ospreys, Green Herons, Bald Eagles, and Laughing Gulls. Thankfully there was some interesting insect life to distract me from the abject lack of birds.

Bald Eagle

Osprey

Green Heron and Great Egret preening

Laughing Gull

Appalachian Brown

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Eremnophila aureonotata

Great Blue Skimmer

Summer Azure

Funnily enough, the parking lot of the CVS nearby my house had some of the best birds that I saw in my first few weeks there, including a flock of 8 Common Nighthawks swooping low above the ground as they hunted for insects, and a  Cooper's Hawk chasing around some starlings. 

Common Nighthawk 

Cooper's Hawk

My frequent trips down the valley of Lubber Run and Four Mile Run, rivers running down towards the Potomac through my neighborhood of Arlington. Overall not much of particular interest was found, with the exception of a trio of Veery that I was able to photograph, the first time I've gotten good views of that thrush. 

Veery

Northern Cardinal

Grey Catbird

American Robin

Common Grackle taking a bath

Mourning Dove

Red-spotted Admiral

A few weekends later, I joined another Northern Virginia Bird Club trip, this one to Huntley Meadows Park, another well-reputed birding location near to Dyke Marsh. My experience there was somewhat better, with lifers in the form of a Blue Grosbeak a Barred Owl, and an Acadian Flycatcher, as well as lots of other good birds and insects. Also good was the fact that it was a gorgeous sunrise, and that I met Cory and Izzy, two rare Virginia-based birders my age, which is always a nice change.

Green Heron

Blue Grosbeak

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

Morning spiderweb

Blue Dasher in obelisk posture 

Wandering Glider

Cory later invited me to go birding with him at Riverbend Park, a nice area of trails along the Potomac River upstream of Washington DC. While it was still a little before the proper migration season got started, we still had fun, seeing some good warblers including Nashville Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, and American Redstart, as well as migratory thrushes in the form of Swainson's Thrush and Wood Thrush- only the second time I'd seen a Wood Thrush.

Hairy Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker competing for branchspace

Double-crested Cormorants in the river

Swainson's Thrush

Wood Thrush

Common Yellowthroat

DeKay's Brownsnake (photo by Cory)

Broadhead Skink

Enicospilus sp.

Male American Rubyspot

Female American Rubyspot

Common Eastern Bumble Bee

Two-banded Petrophila Moth

Transverse Flower Fly

American Nursery Web Spider

In September, I began exploring the city of Alexandria, just south of Arlington, and took a liking to two of its main birding sites, Monticello Park and Four Mile Run Park. Monticello Park is renowned as a good spot for warblers, and though I didn't see the extra-good ones that came through there, I did see a few good ones like Ovenbird, American Redstart, and Black-and-white Warbler, though most of what I managed to get good pictures of were the very common birds. 

Female Northern Cardinal

Downy Woodpecker

My first time at Four Mile Run Park proved to be surprisingly good for raptors, with a Red-shouldered Hawk, Osprey, and, most surprisingly, a Peregrine Falcon all flying around above the dead trees, sometimes chasing each other off of tree branches. My next visits had a little less bird-wise, but I enjoyed them nonetheless thanks to the amazing biodiversity in the marsh area, with some of my new favorite butterflies, among other kinds of animal life.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Osprey

Peregrine Falcon chasing the Osprey off its perch

Northern Catbird

Great Egret and Great Blue Heron 

Pearl Crescent

Eastern Tailed-blue: even prettier in real life

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Orange Sulphur

Least Skipper, I think

Smeared Dagger moth caterpillar

My second visit to Four Mile Run Park didn't have much in the way of birds, except for a bold pair of Hairy Woodpeckers, but still had lots in the way of butterflies, dragonflies, and other wildlife, which I began to enjoy more and more in the absence of anything else interesting.

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Great Blue Heron

Common Buckeye

Cabbage White

Painted Lady

Sachem

Pearl Crescent and Common Buckeye fighting over a flower

Hawaiian Beet Webworm Moth

Red-legged Grasshopper

Handsome Meadow Katydid (the actual name!)

Flowerfly of some sort

Things eventually got a little more interesting once migration started, but that's for a future blog post. I'll be going through the past few months fairly quickly, partly because I want to get caught up on this blog and partly because birding in DC just hasn't been as interesting as being in the Philippines. Which is not to say I haven't been having fun...