Habitat Network, A Citizen Science Social Network

Cornell Ornithology Lab and The Nature Conservancy have joined together to create Habitat Network (http://content.yardmap.org), the first citizen science social network. Habitat Network is a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of wildlife habitat, for both professional scientists and people concerned with their local environments. They collect data by asking individuals across the country to literally draw maps of their backyards, parks, farms, favorite birding locations, schools, and gardens. They connect you with your landscape details and provide tools for you to make better decisions about how to manage landscapes sustainably.
The kinds of questions  they are seeking to answer with your help are:
1 What practices improve the wildlife value of residential landscapes?
2 Which of these practices have the greatest impact?
3 Over how large an area do we have to implement these practices to really make a difference?
4 What impact do urban and suburban wildlife corridors and stopover habitats have on birds?
5 Which measures (bird counts? nesting success?) show the greatest impacts of our practices?

Members, Service Project C253-Habitat Yard Mapping has been approved for your use.  You can map your own yard, a local park, or other public or private property for which you have access permission.

The Health and Ecology of Hunting Creek

On November 15 the Friends of Dyke Marsh will present Dr. Kim de Mutsert, George Mason University’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, who will give a presentation on the ecology and challenges of Hunting Creek. 

Dr. de Mutsert heads GMU’s research that monitors water quality and the biological communities in the Hunting Creek area. Her studies research water quality, fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, anadromous fish, Escherichia coli levels and micropollutant levels in sediments and waters of Hunting Creek and Cameron Run.

  Streams in the Cameron Run watershed “are listed on the EPA list of impaired waters for acute ammonia and fecal coliform contamination,” according to Fairfax County. Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality reports that the creek is impaired for bacteria and PCBs in fish tissue.

The program is sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh and cosponsored by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, Potomac Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club, Mount Vernon Group.

Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is a 485-acre tidal freshwater marsh on the Potomac River one mile south of Old Town Alexandria, administered by the National Park Service and part of the George Washington Memorial  Parkway. The Friends of Dyke Marsh is a 35-year old conservation advocacy organization. Visit Friends of Dyke Marsh website (https://www.fodm.org)

Free, public program

Wednesday, November 15th,7:30 p.m., at the Huntley Meadows Park Visitor Center, phone 703 768 2525.

If you use a GPS device to find the park, do not use the park’s name. Enter the park’s address, 3701 Lockheed Boulevard, Alexandria, VA 22306. 

A Day of Discovery at Huntley Meadows

Birdwatching on the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows (Photo by Ana Ka’ahanui)

Huntley Meadows Park offered our gaggle of naturalists a perfect view of its 1,500 acres of wetlands, meadows, and forests for our second fall field trip, on 7 October. In the morning, Rentz Hilyer and Mary Benger directed our eyes skyward as we looked and listened for birds. Alonso Abugattas, Jr.’s afternoon herps walk kept us earthbound as we tried to spot the creatures that slither and swim. And wiggle. And sometimes just lollygag in the weeds.

Rentz, land steward specialist at the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, and Mary, a graduate of the FMN program, helped us track the movements and calls of the more than 200 species of birds known to live in the park. As a group we observed 29 species of birds including Great Blue Herons, Hairy, Downy, Red-Bellied and Red-headed Woodpeckers, Great Egrets, Red-winged Blackbirds, Carolina Wrens and Chickadees, Northern Flickers, Mourning Doves, Wood Ducks, Canada Geese, Northern Rough-winged Swallows, Eastern Phoebes, Gray Catbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Belted Kingfishers, Blue Jays, American Robins and more. Rentz introduced us to the app eBird so that we can contribute to its ever-growing database as citizen scientists.

Gorgeous afternoon for discovering the park’s biodiversity. (Photo by Ana Ka’ahanui)

After lunch, we trekked back out into the park in search of herps with Alonso, the natural resources manager for the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation. With the recent drought, we weren’t sure how many critters we would find, but the beautiful day was good to us. We observed Eastern Ribbon and Eastern Garter Snakes; Snapping, Spotted, and Eastern Painted Turtles, as well as Southern Leopard, Pickerel and various other types of frogs. We learned that a group of frogs is called an army, and a group of toads is called a knot. Alonso has published a great resource called the The Reptiles and Amphibians of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area and leads a Facebook group called Capital Naturalist, both of which are helpful to naturalists looking to identify the great diversity of life in Northern Virginia.

Alonso gives us a closer look at a painted turtle. (Photo by Ana Ka’ahanui)

In addition to animals, we observed all manner of plant species, such as Lizard’s Tail, Swamp Rose Mallow (a type of hibiscus), Winterberry, Arrowwood Vibernum and Wood Asters, to name a few. We learned that Jewelweed is a natural preventative and treatment for poison ivy and poison oak and that Turtlehead Flowers are a favorite treat of grazing deer.

Insects were plentiful, too, and some were vocal, such as the Handsome Meadow Katydid. The Long-jawed Orb Weaver spiders spun impressive webs at angles to best catch their prey. Common Whitetail Dragonflies and electric blue and red Damselflies whizzed over the wetlands as we wandered over the trails and boardwalk.

While we saw some evidence of the local beavers—lots of chew marks and piles of wood—they proved elusive that day. We did, however, see a lone muskrat cruising around in the marshes. The day was filled with nature discoveries galore and was a perfect learning lab for our Master Naturalist class.

Class photo on the observation deck

Click here to view photos from our outing.

Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird, with Katie Fallon

Just in time for Halloween!  Vultures are often overlooked, underappreciated, and unloved, despite the vital role they play healthy ecosystems. Worldwide, vultures are more likely to be threatened or endangered than any other group of raptor, but in the United States turkey and black vultures may be increasing in number. Based on Katie Fallon’s new book, this presentation will discuss the life and times of the noble turkey vulture, including its feeding, nesting, and roosting habits, migratory behaviors, and common misconceptions.

Katie Fallon is the author of Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird (2017) and, previously, Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird (2011), which was a finalist for the Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. She is also the author of two books for children, Look, See the Bird! (June 2017) and Look, See the Farm! (forthcoming 2018). She is co-founder of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the region’s wild birds through research, education, and rehabilitation. Her first word was “bird.”

Free and open to the public.

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia

Sunday, October 22, 2017

3:00pm 5:00pm

National Wildlife Federation Building, 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA, 20190

RVA Environmental Film Festival Seeking Entries

The eighth annual RVA Environmental Film Festival (RVA EFF), to be held February 5-11, 2018, has started its planning. The week-long event will showcase films designed to raise awareness of environmental issues relative to all residents of our planet.  As part of it, the RVA EFF Committee is pleased to announce that the Sierra Club Falls of the James Group will once again sponsor the Virginia Film Contest and finance the contest prizes.  This is in addition to the SCFOJ’s continued RVA EFF founding sponsorship.  Other film contest sponsorships are still available for the RVA EFF.

Last year, “Troubled Water: Voices From Bath” won the contest and its filmmakers, Barb Adams, Julian McBain, and Sam Wright, collectively received the $1,000 prize.  Runner-up prizes and checks for $100 each went to Priya Jaishanker for “Mission RareQuest,” and Ellie Morris for “Bike Your Boat.”
For submission information for this fifth annual RVA EFF Virginia Film Contest please visit our Withoutabox website. (https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=16159)

All Virginia filmmakers are encouraged to submit entries. Submitted films should include environmental subjects in Virginia. Those subjects can include a wide range of topics – wildlife to human relationships, politics to development, parks to pollution. Outdoor recreation can also be a part of the environmental theme. Film entries can be fictional or nonfictional. All entries should incorporate at least some footage created in Virginia.

“The film contest has become a celebratory culmination of our festival and we look forward to including more and more Virginia filmmakers as the festival continues to grow,” said the RVA EFF’s main contest organizer, Scott Burger.

For general information about the RVA EFF 2018, please visit the RVA EFF website (https://rvaeff.org). Information about the films, guests and speakers, and specific schedules for each day of the festival will be made available as the event becomes closer.

4th Annual Nearby Nature Photography Competition

Submit your photos of Northern Virginia’s beautiful urban and rural places in the 4th Annual Nearby Nature Photography Competition, sponsored by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust. Enter Today! Deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 31 at midnight. (Please note: Deadline has been extended!!)

The contest is open to all non-professional photographers, with prizes for adults in two categories:

  • The Land and Water Around Us
  • Urban Nature

There is a separate youth category (under 18) with prizes.

Learn more on the NVCT.org website