Snow in DC

 

While 2023 was seemingly a year of nonstop travel, 2024 has... not been so far. In fact I've been in the US since New Year's Day, and more or less will be for the foreseeable future. Last year I was able to finagle frequent work trips to Asia and teleworking from the Philippines, with the trade-off being that this year I need to do much less of that, at least for now. Instead, I'm back in the DC area, and have more or less completed the long, slow move that began last May.

In many ways that's nice- I finally have an apartment I can call my own, in a fun neighborhood in Alexandria, and I get to reestablish friendships and networks that sort of lay dormant while I was living in Asia. If Nikki was here living with me I don't think I'd mind it much at all. Alas, the US immigration system is terrible, with the glacially slow processing of spousal visas being among the least of its sins. If nothing else it's an excuse to take things easy and catch up on work, photo processing, and maybe a bit of studying for future birding trips.

Winter isn't really the most inspiring time of year for birding, and after years of living in the tropics I've come to the conclusion that the cold just isn't my thing. That's particularly the case in DC, which in January tends to get cold enough that being outside is unpleasant, while still not cold enough for there to be any snow to make things more interesting. Instead all we generally get here is varying shades of grey. While there are some interesting wintertime birds, for the most part they stay further north or along the coast. Of course that's DC birding in general: too far north for the good subtropical birds, too far south for breeding warblers, and too far west for the good coastal birds. It's in whatever the opposite of a sweet spot is. 

Nonetheless, I've been forcing myself to get out regularly this January, in order to refamiliarize myself with the local birds and birding spots and reconnect with the birding community. After being knocked out with some sort of travel-related bug for a few days, on January 5 I finally ventured out to Four Mile Run Park near my apartment to actually start my year list. The main highlight was an extremely round and angry Winter Wren that came in to my pishing, looking like it was ready to commit murder. 

Winter Wren

That weekend I headed to Kenilworth Park in northeastern DC, possibly the best birding spot in the whole district. It was a surprisingly active morning with all sorts of birds out and singing, including some I didn't expect. A Northern Mockingbird was foraging near the parking lot with lots of American Robins, Common Starlings, and White-throated Sparrows. A lone Hermit Thrush was a nice year bird. In the aquatic gardens I was surprised to see multiple singing Fox Sparrows, mostly deep in the underbrush, along with other relatively uncommon birds like Eastern Bluebirds, a Brown Creeper, and a single Rusty Blackbird. Downy Woodpeckers were pecking away at cattails looking extra adorable, and a pair of White-tailed Deer chased each other across the ponds right in front of me! As I exited there was a lovely Pileated Woodpecker banging away on a tree, along with typically picturesque Northern Cardinals.

Northern Mockingbird

Hermit Thrush

White-throated Sparrow, this one in unusually crisp plumage compared to the usual grungy winter birds

Red Fox Sparrow

Rusty Blackbird, an increasingly rare winter bird

Pileated Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

White-tailed Deer

The aquatic garden ponds

I then headed to Hains Point, the usual DC winter birding hangout, in search of the Yellow-throated Warbler that has been returning to winter there since 2018 (making it basically Methuselah by warbler standards). Someone had just seen it but by the time I got there it was gone, making it the first of many times I dipped on it this winter. As consolation I did get nice looks at the local Merlins and a showy House Finch.

House Finch

Merlin

A few days later I had to take my car in to get serviced, and I decided to stop by the famous Huntley Meadows Park near the Subaru service center. It's a bit further out of the way than I generally like to go for birding, but it's a really amazing spot. Visiting on a weekday afternoon meant that it didn't have the usual gaggle of photographers hanging out on the boardwalk with tripods and lenses that look like weapons of war. It was productive as always, with a nice suite of wintering ducks including Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teals, Gadwalls, and Hooded Mergansers. Another birder pointed out an unseasonal Brown Thrasher scratching around next to the trail, and just before sunset I managed to spot an American Woodcock foraging in some thick shrubbery! It's been years since I've seen a woodcock (well, besides Bukidnon Woodcock), and this was my first chance to watch one at length, doing its silly shuffle along the ground. It's easily one of my favorite American birds, and I hope to be able to see them many more times this year. 

Northern Shoveler

Brown Thrasher

American Woodcock!

The excellent Huntley Meadows boardwalk

The next Monday was Martin Luther King Day, and I decided to turn it into a long weekend trip up to Vermont to get some proper winter weather. I figure if I'm going to be cold I might as well get some snow, after all. On the way up I made a stop in New Jersey, where I met up with Andrew, who birded with me in the Philippines for a month last year. The pretext for the stop was a Pink-footed Goose (usually only found in Europe) that had been hanging out at a golf course in the northern part of the state. I don't usually twitch birds, especially not in the US, but this one was a lifer for me and it was along my way so it seemed like a good idea. It took us a while to spot it as there were about a thousand Canada Geese on the course in various flocks, but eventually we found the Pink-footed Goose on a distant field. A Cackling Goose in a water hazard pond was a nice bonus Jersey lifer. 

Cackling Goose amidst Canada Geese

Pink-footed Goose

I finally got into Burlington around midnight after meeting birding friend Cedar (who joined me in Mexico last year) for dinner in Brattleboro. Most of the weekend was about visiting friends from childhood, college, church, and the refugee community. Still, I managed to get a bit of birding in- mostly driving around the fields around Middlebury looking for winter birds. That was largely a bust, as I had limited time to do it and was interrupted by a sudden white-out snowstorm that had me inching along the highway at a snail's pace with zero visibility. I did have a few nice birds- some Rough-legged Buzzards hunting from distant trees, an extremely distant flock of Snow Geese in the middle of Lake Champlain, and a flock of Horned Larks foraging in a field. On the way south I stopped in a spot in upstate New York that had some recent records of Short-eared Owls but came away owl-less, despite waiting for almost an hour in the freezing cold- par for the course for my usual attempts at owling I guess. 

Horned Lark- I had excellent views but the photos came out bad because of the heat haze from my car...

The snowstorm advancing across rural Vermont

Snake Mountain over the fields of Addison County

The Adirondack Mountains from the Vermont side of Lake Champlain

Short-eared Owl fields, sans Short-eared Owls

I had driven all the way up to Vermont for some snow, but that proved to be underwhelming- the day I arrived there it was "snowing", but that mainly consisted of half-rain, half-slush falling in above-freezing temperatures. I got some dramatic flurries on my second day but by Vermont winter standards it was disappointing.

The monkey's paw curled, however, and I did get snow on that trip- it just came as I was driving through New Jersey on the way back south. After a mostly clear drive from Vermont, this January's polar vortex his while I was still on a road, and what should have been the last 3 hours turned into the last six as I crept along the freeway behind snowplows, trying to ignore the cars lying on the side of the road. I have a 4-wheel-drive car and I'm from northern Michigan, so I'm not particularly worried about my own winter driving abilities. I am, however, worried about everyone else on the road in Jersey and Maryland, and there were way too many people cruising by at unsafe speeds or sliding around on the road. I was tired, grumpy and exhausted by the time I arrived home at 2AM, three hours after I had intended. 

The polar vortex ended up hitting with a vengeance, and we got freezing temperatures for a week straight- average April weather in Michigan, but extremely rare in DC. It did make things nice and pretty out, although I confess it reinforced my decisions that the tropics are a better place for me to be. It also meant I got to work from home for the week, and I ventured out one afternoon to see birds in the snow in Four Mile Run Park. There were hundreds of Canada Geese enjoying the unfrozen water, and a beautiful male Belted Kingfisher trilling away from a distant branch. Even the common birds like Mourning Doves and Song Sparrows were cuter than usual all puffed up against the cold. 

Belted Kingfisher

Mourning Dove

Song Sparrow

Four Mile Run in the snow

That weekend George and Atima (who have seen the light and gotten increasingly into birding) wanted to meet up so we braved the bitter cold and headed to Hains Point to look for interesting ducks and birds. I ended up running into Colleen and Shang, a birder couple from Georgia, at the point as well, and the five us birded together for a very fun- and ridiculously cold- few hours. There weren't any ducks of interest at the point, but instead we ended up finding something even rarer- an American Tree Sparrow that I spotted at the point and that we later re-found in a more accessible hedge. They're extremely rare this far south, and this was only the second DC record since 2021, and the first "twitchable" one as many other birders came afterwards to see it. A Bald Eagle perched up in a tree and another Merlin were also nice birds to distract ourselves from the wind chill. 

American Tree Sparrow

Bald Eagle

Merlin

We decided to head to Daingerfield Island on the Alexandria side of the Potomac in hopes that that might be a little less cold and have more birds. Alas, it was still extremely cold, and there weren't too many birds on that side of the river either. The exception was a nice group of Rusty Blackbirds hanging out in the snow by the parking lot, allowing me to finally get some decent pictures of that species. It was also great to bird with old and new birding friends- and especially to get some good Filipino breakfast afterwards. 

Rusty Blackbird

The next day I headed to Huntley Meadows again, this time with George and Atima. I had hopes that the ducks we'd been looking for on the Potomac might be sheltering there, but there was no such luck- instead it was frozen solid!  Despite that it ended up being a fun morning of birding. Some common species like Swamp Sparrows, Downy Woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, and Northern Cardinals were feeding on the edges of the frozen marsh, allowing for decent photo opportunities. There were a few photographers at their usual spot, pointing their bazooka lenses at a completely birdless expanse of frozen water- perhaps they weren't aware that there are other spots in the park that have birds?

Swamp Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Carolina Chickadee

The frozen ponds with some cool ice patterns

As we looped back through the woods we ran across a nice little feeding flock, with many Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Carolina Chickadees. A little later we found a flock of Eastern Bluebirds and a single Hermit Thrush feeding on a fruiting shrub. They proved to be unusually tame, and I was able to get some surprisingly good pictures. On the way out we came across a very noisy Swamp Sparrow, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and an extremely cute Ruby-crowned Kinglet doing all sorts of acrobatics to harvest dried berries from a vine.

White-breasted Nuthatch

This male Eastern Bluebird was the shyest of the lot, which is a shame because it was one of the most brilliantly blue birds I've ever seen

This one, in contrast, let us get practically within arm's reach of it- perhaps gorged with too many berries to care?

Hermit Thrush

Swamp Sparrow

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The nice thing about being back in DC is that I have enough birding friends that there's always an excuse to leave the house and find birds over the weekend. January hasn't exactly made me fall in love with winter all over again, but it does make me appreciate the value of low-stakes, close-to-home birding. I did go further afield later in the month but that will be covered in my next blog post.