Central Loudoun Christmas Bird Count 2023

On a beautiful winter day over 165 counters found 48,916 individual birds during the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s 27th Christmas Bird Count. Both the number of participants and the number of birds were a record for this Count. While the 94 species found were just a bit above average, there were a number of notable sightings:

Laughing Gull.
Photo by Pat Whittle

The Count’s first-ever Laughing Gull was found by Doug Graham at the landfill.
The Count’s first ever Marsh Wren was found by Bruce Hill’s team at the Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation Project. A single Virginia Rail, found on less than half of our Counts, was also found there.
For the second year in a row two Peregrine Falcons were found. Kent Clizbe, Sector 11’s Sector Leader, got permission for one of his teams to visit the Luck Stone Quarry in Ashburn where the falcons have been documented nesting for the past few years and where they were seen.
For the third time in the Count’s history, two Palm Warblers were found. They were together on the Digges Valley Farm, a large property south of Hamilton that is protected by conservation easements donated to The Nature Conservancy by Joyce and Henry Harris.
Ninety Bald Eagles! Every year more Bald Eagles, a species that was on the Endangered Species list, are found on the Count. Seven of these were seen at the same time at the landfill.
Sixty-seven Common Ravens.
The team at the Beaverdam Reservoir, led by Bryan Henson, found an incredible 792 Ring-necked Ducks (more than the number of Canada Geese they observed), 461 Common Mergansers, and 31 American Coots, all of which were records for this Count. They also saw a single Snow Goose which is found on less than half of our counts.

Juvenile Bald Eagle.
Photo by Michael Sciortino

In addition to the above highlights, the following species were tallied in higher numbers than on any of our previous Counts:

116 Pileated Woodpeckers;
281 Northern Flickers;
12 Eastern Phoebes;
2,984 Fish Crows;
804 Eastern Bluebirds; and,
1,127 Cedar Waxwings.

Also, nine of the 12 sectors tallied all seven of the woodpecker species that overwinter in our area. Another team found a very upset flock of Eastern Bluebirds just as a Sharp-shinned Hawk took one of them and began devouring it.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy would like to thank the sector and team leaders, the many participants that join these leaders in the field and the numerous landowners who gave us permission to visit their properties. All of these individuals are invaluable to our efforts and make the Count a success year after year.

To see our totals and how they compare to previous years, check out the Christmas Bird Count Data and Reports and be sure to put Saturday, December 28, 2024 in your calendar for the next Count.