Raven Loonatics team.
Photo by Donna Quinn

Keeping up our tradition of a real Birdathon (a 24-hour period of birding) the Raven Loonatics scavenged the county for birds on May 8.  This year we were down a team member with just Gerco Hoogeweg, Donna Quinn and Bruce Hill participating. As usual we met at a quiet, dark parking lot in Ashburn. After catching up, we raced off  for a tour of eastern Loudoun: Bles Park, Algonkian Regional Park, back to Bles, then a whirlwind tour of various places along Loudoun County Parkway, plus lakes in Ashburn and Leesburg, and finally on to Beaverdam Reservoir and Dulles Wetlands.

Algonkian Regional Park is a traditional stop. Once again, we were not disappointed. We found plenty of singing warblers, but few were seen. We had slightly more luck seeing a pair of Common Loons in full breeding plumage on the river although it was a distant view. Sparrows were far and few between. Evidently all the little brown jobs had left town over the weekend since we only found a handful of them. We heard plenty of Vireos, mostly Warbling and Red-eyed. Nearly 3.5 hours later we left Algonkian with 88 species recorded.

Common Yellowthroat.
Photo by Gerco Hoogeweg

By 10:30 am bird activity started to really slow down. It was getting warm, which was not a good sign for the afternoon. A stop at Thunder Road yielded some much-needed new species such as an American Kestrel and finally a Red-tailed Hawk. That bird was hard to find. Of course, several more were seen later on.

Reservoir Road and the power cut (the area cleared for power line right of way) near the western side of Beaverdam Creek Reservoir were a fun places to bird. The reservoir itself was very quiet but the power cut was full of birds. We heard and saw Yellow-breasted Chats, Common Yellow-throats, a late Swamp Sparrow and a surprise Clay-colored Sparrow — the top bird of the day. One of the Loonatics said that around 4:00 pm he typically hears a Barred Owl at the reservoir, and sure enough we heard a Barred Owl calling at 4:05 pm. It was right on time and another species for the day.

As with every Birdathon, the Wild Turkey is our wild-card bird. We usually see one bird, but it is always at a different location and typically when we are driving around. This time was saw it running away at the power cut.

Trumpeter Swan.
Photo by Gerco Hoogeweg

Despite the heat, the team did well. Our highlights were 23 warbler species, a late Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Trumpeter Swans and our name sakes: Common Loons and Common Ravens. In total we saw 116 species by birding east of Route 15 and south of Leesburg in the county. The full list of species (minus the Tennessee Warbler) can be found on eBird at: https://ebird.org/tripreport/234365. It was another fun-filled day for the Raven Loonatics.

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