Volunteers Needed for Earth Day Fairfax 2024, April 20th

Image: Wonder Wagon, courtesy of Fairfax County Park Authority

Saturday, April 20, 2024
Various shifts
Sully Historic Site
3650 Historic Sully Way, Chantilly

Sign up here.

Join Fairfax County’s largest official Earth Day Event! Earth Day Fairfax is a day-long extravaganza featuring workshops, vendors, and activities to help us improve our environment and health. The event attracts nearly 5,000 people from across Fairfax County. Volunteers are needed to fill shifts in a variety of capacities.  Possibilities include set up and take down, and attendants for nature activities, the stage, the ice rink, and the golf station.  There’s something for everyone.

This is a fabulous volunteer opportunity for service hours and making a difference in your community.

Earth Day Fairfax, April 20th

Image:  Fairfax County Park Authority

Saturday, April 20, 2024
10am – 4pm
Sully Historic Site
3650 Historic Sully Way, Chantilly
Free admission, parking $10 per car

Discover the world around you with hands-on activities, games, entertainment and fun at Earth Day 2024. See the inaugural Wonder Wagon, Fairfax County Park Authority’s Mobile Nature Center! Enjoy outdoor discovery activities, interactive nature exhibites, furry farm friends, food trucks, earth-friendly vendors craft beer garden, obstacle course, live music and entertainment, FREE giveaways, Sully Historic House tours, meet WUSA9 Meteorologist Topper Shunt and the ECO9 Broadcast Truck. Learn more here.

City Nature Challenge, April 26th – 29th

Image: citynaturechallenge.org, Washington DC metro area

Friday, April 26 – Monday April 29, 2024 take photos of wild plants and animals

Tuesday, April 30 – Sunday, April 5, 2024 identification of what was found

Do you like observing nature? Make your observations count! The City Nature Challenge is an adventure in metropolitan areas worldwide to discover and identify wildlife. You will be looking for signs of life in parks, neighborhoods, and backyards to see what plants and animals share our environment. Join the City Nature Challenge and become a citizen scientist!

Everyone in the Washington DC metropolitan area with access to a camera and the internet can observe wildlife for the Challenge. Anyone worldwide can help with identifying your finds!

Annual Fairfax County Spring Watershed Cleanup, Several Dates in April

Photo: Courtesy of Fairfax County Park Authority Clean up

 

Registration for the annual Fairfax County Spring Watershed Cleanup in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Fairfax County Park Authority is now available at www.nature.org/fairfaxcleanup.  This year’s cleanup will take place over several dates at over 20 Fairfax County Park locations. Nearly 600 volunteers are needed to help clean up plastic bottles, cans and other debris.

Registration for the 2024 cleanups is now open. Please spread the word!

Event capacity is limited. Please follow instructions about registering in groups in the detail section of the registration pages. You can view a list of all park locations, dates, times, and number of volunteers needed here and below. Locations that still need quite a few volunteers are highlighted in yellow.

Saturday, April 6

Friday, April 12

Saturday, April 13

Cub Run Stream Valley Park Cleanup Locations:

Sunday, April 14

Saturday, April 20

Saturday, April 27

Sunday, April 28

A confirmation email with additional details will be sent to registered volunteers about 3-5 days before the scheduled cleanup. If you have questions between now and then, please let Brynna Strand ([email protected]) know. If the sites reach capacity, you are encouraged to find additional opportunities to volunteer and connect with nature at:

Thank you for your support of our local waterways!

Brynna Strand
(she/her/hers)
Volunteer Coordinator
[email protected]
+1 540 255 5717 (Mobile)

The Nature Conservancy In Virginia
652 Peter Jefferson Pkwy
Ste 190
Charlottesville VA, 22911 U.S.A.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens Seeks Volunteers

Photo courtesy of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA has long had a native plant collection. This collection plays an important role in educating students and the general public about regional native plant conservation. During the last few years, the native plant collection did not receive the attention it needs to thrive. Keith Tomlinson, former long-time manager of Meadowlark and the driving force behind the native plant collection, recently initiated an effort to reinvigorate the collection and is looking for volunteers to help.

Activities will include invasives removal, mulching trails and plantings. Volunteer days will likely be on Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning March 5th. For more information, see Meadowlark’s Facebook page or reach out to Keith at [email protected].

The Hidden Worlds Within Ice Sheets and Glaciers, March 19th

Photo: Mouth of the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska (Richard Moore, CC-3.0-BY-SA)

Tuesday, March 19, 2024
7 pm
Sign up on Zoom to watch live or on-demand

The world’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, one of our best tools to quantify what’s happening beneath the surface remains largely untapped. Geophysicist Dustin Schroeder specializes in ice-penetrating radar: a powerful technique for studying ice sheets and glaciers on Earth and other planetary bodies. In this webinar, he will explore the hidden interiors of ice sheets through radar images and radar sounding data. When brought to their full potential, these tools can help us zero in on some of the most urgent questions surrounding Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers: How do they flow? What controls their behavior, evolution, and stability? And how will they impact sea level rise?

View more SERC Life on a Sustainable Planet webinars

FMN Quarterly Chapter Meeting, March 19th

Photo: Doug Tallamy by University of Delaware

Tuesday, March 19, 2024
7 pm
Virtual
Email [email protected] for the Zoom link

Fairfax Master Naturalists’ Quarterly Chapter meeting will consist of a short business meeting followed by a presentation by Doug Tallamy. The title of his presentation is: “The Nature of Oaks.”

Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. “The Nature of Oaks” reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own yards and restorations. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. “The Nature of Oaks” will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.

Dr. Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 112 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 43 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His books include Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, Nature’s Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, and The Nature of Oaks, winner of the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 book award. In 2021 he cofounded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari (HomegrownNationalPark.org). His awards include recognition from The Garden Writer’s Association, Audubon, The National Wildlife Federation, Allegheny College, Ecoforesters, The Garden Club of America and The American Horticultural Association.

The Black Vultures of Langley Fork Park

Not just for Bluebirds, Langley Fork Park in Mclean is home to Black Vultures.  The large hole cavity (in photograph center) is the entrance to their extended canopy nest.

Photos and article by FMN Stephen Tzikas

I have been monitoring the Bluebird trails at Langley Fork Park in McLean for the last 3 years.  With my recent discovery of a large Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) nest, I am almost beginning to believe this park is like a large laboratory to observe wildlife.  The Bluebirds are a nice attraction, along with their Tree Swallow competitors, and the occasional Carolina Wren.  The eBird website lists about 100 species of birds in Langley Fork Park.  There are predators too – snakes and foxes, along with their prey.  But my discovery of Black Vultures is something new indeed.

It happened one morning while I was performing maintenance on the Bluebird trails with a couple of my fellow monitors.  At Bluebird Box 10, I saw several Black Vultures emerging from a hole in a thick brush pile thicket. In fact, it’s just not a pile, it’s an extended canopy.  A whole flock of

This entrance close-up shows the local personalities.

Black Vultures began emerging as the morning sun rose and warmed the air.  It was about 9:00 o’clock. Then slowly, they flapped their wings and flew to the branches of some nearby tall trees, staying together as a flock. How convenient, as Georgetown Pike was in view, and I can only assume the vultures were hoping for some roadside kill breakfast.  If they didn’t get a warm fresh road breakfast, the nearby dumpster might offer some left over ball park treats.

Indeed, the behavior I witnessed is all too similar to the internet

The extended flock in nearby trees.

commentary on Black Vultures.  Black Vultures usually nest in dark cavities such as caves, hollow trees, abandoned buildings or brush piles and thicket habitats, such as those at Langley Fork Park.

I wasn’t too sure at first what I was witnessing.  My colleague suggested they were Turkey Buzzards.  A search for Turkey Buzzards also revealed Turkey Vultures.  However, I could rule out Turkey Buzzards as they have red colored heads, which is the obvious difference to what emerged at Langley Fork Park with dark grey and black heads.

ASNV Presents: Aquatic Ecosystems in Northern Virginia with Professor R. Chris Jones, April 18th

Photo: Sycamores at Riverbend Park by Ana Ka’ahanui

Thursday, April 18, 2024
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Virtual Presentation
ASNV Member ticket: $15 (Non-member ticket: $25)

Registration is REQUIRED.

Aquatic ecosystems in the Northern Virginia area are subject to a variety of stresses, most related in some way to urban/suburban land use. Professor Jones will present an overview of the major aquatic ecosystems in northern Virginia: the tidal Potomac River, lakes (large and small), and streams (larger and small) and their current status and prospects for improvement.

Dr. R. Christian “Chris” Jones is Founder and Director of the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC) located on the tidal Occoquan River in Woodbridge, VA. PEREC is home to eight faculty researchers from George Mason University’s College of Science and three from its College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Jones has been a Potomac researcher since 1980 and founded the long-term Ecological Study of Gunston Cove, which has been conducted annually since 1984, making it one of the longest continuous aquatic ecosystem studies in the world. He has published in major journals such as Estuaries and Coasts, Journal of Phycology, Ecology, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Hydrobiologia, and Inland Waters. He has mentored over 20 Ph.D. students and over 40 Masters students and been awarded the Jack Wood Award for Town-Gown Relations and the Earl C. Williams Presidential Medal for Excellence in Social Impact at GMU.

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia Presents Author Talk: “Flight Paths” with Rebecca Heisman, March 26

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Virtual Presentation
ASNV Member ticket: $15 (Non-member ticket: $25)

Registration is REQUIRED.

 

We’ve all heard amazing facts about bird migration—the long distances that birds travel and the ways that they navigate. But did you ever wonder how we figured all of this out? While working for the American Ornithological Society, Rebecca Heisman became fascinated with the varied and creative techniques that scientists have used to study bird migration, and this eventually became the basis for her book, Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration. In her talk, she’ll share some surprising stories from the history of bird migration research and discuss why understanding migration is so crucial for bird conservation.

Rebecca Heisman is an award-winning science writer who lives in Walla Walla, Washington, and has worked with organizations including the National Audubon Society, the American Bird Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the American Ornithological Society. Flight Paths is her first book.