The Doldrums

 

As I've complained about many, many times July and August are essentially the nadir of birding in DC. The migrants are gone, the breeding birds are few and far between (and and even those have fallen silent by late July). More importantly the temperature and humidity both get dangerously close to the triple digits, so it's the time of year that I reluctantly turn on the air conditioning and remember that I have other hobbies that can be done inside. 

One major non-weather-related event of this July, however, was that after a seemingly interminable wait (more than 2 years!) Nikki finally got her spousal visa and moved to the US! It was touch and go for a while whether or not I would be able to make it back from Vermont in time to greet her at the airport but make it back I did, in a new car at that. Much of July was spent moving her in and doing the fun things I'd been putting off until her arrival like buying furniture and rearranging the apartment. Life here suddenly feels much more complete, even more so than I'd expected it would. For those of you who haven't yet tried cohabiting with your spouse, I highly recommend it. 

Despite the non-birding distractions and oppressive heat we did get out birding a few times. The evening of July 21 we took a nice walk along the C&O Canal near Fletcher's Boathouse, one of my old favorite birding spots that I hadn't been to since moving further south to Alexandria. It was mostly just a nice, idyllic evening walk, at least until Nikki spotted a heron in the canal that turned out to be a Yellow-crowned Night Heron! While not "rare" in the DC area they're certainly extremely uncommon, and this was the first I'd seen in the area since 2021. It was flushed by a biker almost as soon as we saw it, and we continued walking along the path to try and re-find it. George and Atima had been about to head out birding anyway so they showed up shortly afterwards, and ended up spotting it right near where we first had. This time it was much more cooperative and settled down in a tree right above the canal, giving us great looks. They're one of my favorite herons, and it was cool to find one so close to home. 

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Stictolobus borealis, a cool leafhopper

Slaty Skimmer, which has the unfortunate binomial of Libellula incesta.

Late afternoon on the C&O Canal

The morning of July 28 we did a morning birding outing at Huntley Meadows along with Vikas, George and Atima. That was great fun and great birding, even if we got a bit of a late start and it was rather sunny and hot by the time we were there. I always forget how good of a spot Huntley Meadows is, between the well-maintained trails and boardwalks, diversity of forest and wetland boardwalks, and the sheer numbers of wildlife all around. If it's a bit crowded on the weekends that's for a good reason, and it always warms my heart to see the number of families with young kids starting to get into birding or general nature things. 

This time the star of the show was a little group of American White Ibises that had settled down in the ponds, a rare bird for inland northern Virginia. They were certainly a new Fairfax County bird for me, as was the group of Snowy Egrets hanging out nearby. A few shorebirds were pootling around in the mudflats, including many Solitary Sandpipers and Killdeer, a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs, and a group of Least Sandpipers that came unusually close to the happy birders on the boardwalk. A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched near the boardwalk, and a Double-crested Cormorant surfaced nearby us with an unfortunate catfish. Birds aside there were great numbers of frogs, butterflies, and dragonflies to keep Vikas and I happy. It was, yet again, a reminder that I should go to Huntley Meadows more often. 

American White Ibis

Snowy Egret

Least Sandpiper

Ruby-throated Hummingbird–still embarrassing we only get one hummingbird on the East Coast

Double-crested Cormorant with an unfortunate Brown Bullhead catfish

American Bullfrog

Southern Leopard Frog

Another photographer alerted me to this Grey Tree Frog type on a cattail, although he kept insisting it wasn't a tree frog (it was).

Painted Turtle

Green Tree Frog

Zabulon Skipper (Lon zabulon)

Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta)

Deep Yellow Euchlaena Moth (Euchlaena amoenaria)

Needham's Skimmer (Libellula needhami)

Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans)

Great Blue Skimmer and Needham's Skimmer diptych

Gnamtopelta obsidianator, an ichneumonid wasp with a very badass name

We celebrated a nice morning of birding with brunch at a Filipino diner in Fairfax, then headed home so that we could rest and pack for our upcoming adventures. In early August Nikki and I escaped the heat of DC for the nice, cool weather of... southern Arizona. But that's for the next post.