Return of the Kinglets

Fall has never been my favorite season, mainly because of the progressively cold weather and the long, dreary winter that comes after it. I probably just made some people I grew up with mad with that first sentence, but let's just say there's a reason I choose to live in the tropics whenever possible. That said, there are always two things worth looking forward to in fall: beautiful fall colors and fall migration. The peaks of those two things seem to come at different times in DC, but I suppose that just gives me a slightly longer period when I can enjoy the fall before resigning myself to winter.

It was around the peak of the latter when I made my first visit to Hain's Point Park, located at the tip of a large island in the middle of the Potomac River between Virginia and Washington DC proper. It's DC's birdiest birding place, with over 250 species recorded. Since it's in the middle of the river, it gets a nice mix of water birds, land birds, and flyovers of migrating bird. My first time there wasn't as spectacular as it apparently sometimes can be, but it went well enough, starting off with a nice flock of (very drab) warblers including Blackpoll Warblers, Cape May Warblers, Northern Parula, my first-of-year Bay-breasted Warbler, and lots and lots of Myrtle Warblers. 

Myrtle Warbler

Nearby the flock of warblers but lower to the ground was a flock of kinglets, the classic fall birds in the DC area. It was mostly Golden-crowned Kinglets, but mixed in were a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets, birds that were technically lifers for me (I've seen them before, but in the days before I started recording my life list). Ruby-crowned Kinglets are the smallest passerines on the East Coast, and very cute with their big eyes and little white eye-rings. The birds weren't shy at all, hopping all around me in the branches of the cherry trees and bathing in a small puddle by the road. They were super difficult to photograph though, flitting to a different perch as soon as I got my camera on them. 

Bathing Golden-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Nearby was a Red-shouldered Hawk perched in a tree chowing down on a squirrel, as well as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, the first one I'd seen in DC. In some scrub I saw a Magnolia Warbler, staying late enough to trigger a rarity alert when I posted it on eBird, as well as an Eastern Towhee, another technical lifer. 

Red-shouldered Hawk with a squirrel lunch

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

I'm not sure what it's about, but photography seems like it's easier in the fall and winter- maybe because the air is a bit clearer and birds are too focused on feeding to worry about people getting near them, or maybe just because I'm becoming a better photographer. My visit to Fort C.F. Smith a few days later was evidence of that, with some of the best photo opportunities I've had in the area. The day started off with a Cooper's Hawk perched by the entrance, followed by some resident Song Sparrows and a Carolina Wren that posed beautifully for me. 

Cooper's Hawk

Song Sparrow

Carolina Wren

Even better were the Ruby-crowned Kinglets, which were perched on top of the shrubbery busily feeding and posing much better than the ones in Hains Point had.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The woods held some more common birds like Mourning Dove and Northern Cardinal, while to my surprise there was a flock of Pine Siskins feeding at the bird feeders, the first (and so far only) time I'd seen them in the area. I'm a huge fan of siskins of any kind, and they're lots of fun to watch eating seeds, even if it's just at a bird feeder.

Mourning Dove

Northern Cardinal

Pine Siskin

The next weekend, I visited the National Arboretum in DC, in what proved to be probably the best birding and photography day I've had so far in this area, even up to now. DC is too far south to get the truly great fall color like my old homes of Michigan and Vermont, but we did have a solid two weeks of nice color in late November, and I visited the Arboretum at their peak, and they were truly gorgeous. 

Fall colors at the Arboretum

The first birds I saw when I got to the Arboretum were sparrows- lots of them, and the good kind of sparrows (not House Sparrows!). A small flock of White-throated Sparrows, a recent migrating arrival, were in the garden by the gate, while the trees held over 40 Chipping Sparrows, as well as a few Dark-eyed Juncos, the first I'd seen that season. 

White-throated Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Northern Mockingbird

In the actual forest, besides beautiful fall scenery there was a flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, more White-throated Sparrows, and a Hermit Thrush, another fall arrival.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

White-throated Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

Photography was great fun in the woods, with the bright orange fall colors giving amazing backdrops to the birds. That was especially true for some very good birds: first, a Blue-headed Vireo, easily my favorite vireo and the first I'd seen in the area, flew by then perched right above my head as it captured, killed, and devoured a small caterpillar. Next was a late-staying Black-and-white Warbler, one of my favorite warblers, that posed for a little while as crept along tree branches.

Blue-headed Vireo

Black-and-white Warbler

 In the extensive Arboretum fields was one of the last Common Buckeyes of the season and some Large Milkweed Bugs, but not much in the way of birds. I went back into the woods on another trail, and was soon in the middle of a nice mixed flock of passerines, including Ruby-crowned Kinglets, White-throated Sparrows, Tennessee Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, and a surprisingly bold Eastern Towhee that allowed me my first-ever pictures of that species.

Large Milkweed Bugs

Eastern Buckeye

White-throated Sparrow

Orange-crowned Warbler

Eastern Towhee- the skulker at last!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

I was amazed to see a Red-shouldered Hawk perched directly above the path only a few meters above the ground. They're usually quite skittish, but this one just sat and watched me as I took pictures. Even more amazing was watching dozens of people pass directly above it without noticing it- it made me wonder how many of those encounters I've missed by not being observant enough.

Red-shouldered Hawk

My last stop before going home was the stream restoration area, where a (very rare for the area) Lark Sparrow had been hanging out for the past couple of days. To sum up an hour of exhaustive searching, I... did not see it. Either it wasn't there or I just missed it among all the other sparrows- because there were a lot of other sparrows: Song Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows, and even a Field Sparrow, which was a lifer for me. There was also a few Palm Warblers, some Eastern Bluebirds, a small flock of Purple Finches, a Myrtle Warbler, lots of American Goldfinches, a Great Blue Heron, a Brown Creeper, and flyovers from a Red-tailed Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk. In short, lots of birds except for what I was looking for, but that's how birding goes I suppose. 

Swamp Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Field Sparrow

American Goldfinch

Great Blue Heron

Common Slider

Isabella Tiger Moth caterpillar (aka a Woolly Bear)

Bent-line Dart Moth

The best was a Merlin perched right above the stream restoration area, eating a small songbird of some sort. I worried at first that it might have been eating the Lark Sparrow, but of course someone else managed to see the damn thing where I'd looked for it the next day. With a day like that, though, there was absolutely nothing to complain about.

Merlin, post-lunch