Colder Weather

After a brief but spectacular period of peak fall colors, the leaves began to disappear and the weather in Washington DC slowly got colder- yes, DC really does get winter! The cold weather part at least, if not really the snow.

A late November visit to Fort C.F. Smith Park drove home that winter really was on the way- the warblers were all gone, the leaves were turning brown, and insects were dormant. The sparrows were still there though, including a small flock of Chipping Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows foraging in a holly bush. 

Last of the remaining leaves

Fungus of some sort

Chipping Sparrows

The Pine Siskins I'd seen on my last visit were gone from the bird feeders, but there were still the usual residents, including Dark-eyed Juncos and an unusually tame Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-bellied Woodpecker

For Thanksgiving I made a quick trip home to Michigan (my first Thanksgiving I spent at home since 2010!). I had high hopes for a quick visit I made to my old haunts at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but bird-wise it turned up nearly nothing, except for a Herring Gull feasting on a dead fish. There were some good landscapes as well I suppose. 

Herring Gull and its struggles with a dead fish.

Back in DC, I made a long-overdue visit to Fletcher's Boathouse, a fairly well-known birding spot along the Potomac River north of my university. It proved to be some nice birding for that time of the year, with good looks at some nice (albeit common birds) like House Finch, Mourning Dove, and Canada Geese. There was a Golden-crowned Kinglet in the bushes near the bathroom that gave me surprisingly good looks at its golden crown, while a pair of Ring-necked Ducks hanging out in the old canal with a large flock of Mallards was probably the most uncommon bird I saw.

House Finch

Mourning Dove

Canada Goose

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Look at that golden crown!

Ring-necked Duck

White-tailed Deer faun

As I was at Fletcher's Cove, a text came through on the DC rare bird alert group chat that someone had seen a Long-tailed Duck at the Georgetown Reservoir, about a 10-minute walk away. Long-tailed Ducks are quite rare for this area and I'd never seen one before, so it was an easy decision to walk up the hill toward the reservoir. Once I was there the duck took a bit of looking, but finally I spotted a female bird quite far away in the middle of the water. My only picture was absolutely abysmal, but it's still the only picture of a Long-tailed Duck I've ever gotten.

My horrid record shot of a Long-tailed Duck

I was drawn back to the reservoir a week later by reports of a couple of Cackling Geese, another lifer for me. Cackling Geese were only recently split from Canada Geese and they look damn similar, especially the subspecies on the East Coast, but I finally found a couple of birds that looked suitably different. There was also a Common Goldeneye very far out in the water, another uncommon bird for DC.

Cackling Goose, probably

Common Goldeneye- another horrible record shot

Nikki came to visit me over the winter (what better time of year for one's first time in the US?), and we were able to find time during my busy final exam schedule to head to the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool. There was a nice sunset, but also a little flock of Buffleheads, one of the cutest wintertime ducks in the US, dabbling around in the reflecting pool that I was able to get some pictures of in the fading light.

Female Bufflehead

Male Bufflehead

Lots of Buffleheads

Once my semester had finally ended we headed to Michigan for the actual holidays, and birding unexpectedly got much better. But that's for the next blog post!