Happy New Year, readers!
As an eBirder and year lister, New Years Day is always a very exciting time—it’s when you can start fresh with your species list, FOMO is limited (since no rarities have yet been missed), and even everyday species can be exciting. (Don’t forget to list your house sparrows, everyone!) If at all possible, I love to get out and bird on New Years Day. This being winter, however, means some January 1sts can bring significantly more pleasant birding weather than others. And as it happens, DC has a bit of a streak going now for unpleasant weather on the first day of the year. This year the challenge was wind. And not just a slightly bothersome breeze that keeps the birds down. Today brought sustained winds into the teens and gusts close to 50mph. It was dry (which was a nice change from last year), but it created challenging birding conditions, especially at East Potomac Park.
Before getting deeper into the birds, it’s a fun tradition every January 1st to note your first bird of the year. Starting with 2021, my “first birds of the year” have been American Crow, Cooper’s Hawk, Blue Jay, and Rock Pigeon. I’ve yet to have a repeat bird, and there are several common species that have yet to appear to me first in any year. This year was always going to be interesting, because this morning I planned to meet some friends down at the Tidal Basin before sunrise—meaning I was less likely to see a common backyard bird stepping out of my house on the way to the car. As it turned out, this was my first year seeing a gull before anything else: my first bird of the year was a ring-billed gull that swooped over the car as I reached the Tidal Basin.
In spite of conditions, today was fun birding. While I (and several others) had hoped to spot a continuing Iceland gull at the Tidal Basin, only the usual species (ring-billed, herring, great black-backed) were present. However, fellow birder Menachem G. spotted a solitary ruddy duck amongst a distant raft of Canada geese. Ruddys are not necessarily considered “tough” birds to get in DC, but it varies year-to-year if there are any reliable individuals or groups at a given location. So this was a nice bird to see right on Day 1 of 2025. Also of note at the Tidal Basin were four gadwall.
After a quick stop at the nearby black-crowned night-heron roost, I and several others went down to Hains Point hoping to spot the short-eared owls that have been hanging around for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, it seems the wind blew away some of the cover from the trees these birds favor, and no owls were present today. We’ll see in the coming days if this is just a blip or if the birds really are gone. If they are truly gone, it will be cruel timing for the year listers as the owls were seen well up until yesterday (Dec. 31st). Without the owls (and with no sign of the celebrity yellow-throated warbler that frequents East Potomac Park), a group of lesser scaup and a single pied-billed grebe were the stars of this stop.
With the wind blowing hard, I decided to head to Constitution Gardens, which is a reliable spot for several species of duck. On the way, I passed directly by the goose flock where we saw the ruddy duck earlier, and was able to snap a few photos. At the Gardens themselves, there were the usual suspects: gadwall, mallard, ring-necked duck, bufflehead, and Northern shoveler. The surprising thing about this list is that there were only four shovelers present—there are usually a bunch of them and I’m not sure where or why they… ducked out. Poor puns aside, I was happy to spot an immature red-tailed hawk, as well as a yellow-bellied sapsucker at this spot. The sapsucker was quarreling a bit with a nearby red-bellied woodpecker, and they seemed to be jabbering back and forth at each other.
At this point, word came in to the RBA that a great egret was sitting at the black-crowned nigh-heron roost back at East Potomac Park. Great egrets are not in season here, so it’s very unusual that one is around. I wasn’t far, so I made my way back to glimpse this bird, and then headed to LBJ Memorial Grove to try my luck. It was pretty quiet, but I found a vocal golden-crowned kinglet and an orange-crowned warbler (expected but uncommon) that paused just long enough for a photo.
Just as I found my first warbler of the day, an RBA report came in that a Nashville warbler had been spotted at the U.S. Botanic Gardens. It’s a bit of a pain to get to that spot (due to lack of parking), but I didn’t see a Nashville in DC all of last year, so I wanted to try for this one. Also, another unidentified warbler was seen associating with the Nashville, so odds were good for a few nice birds. As it turned out, excellent DC birder and friend Gerry H. got me on the mystery warbler, and it turned out to be a Tennessee. Shortly after, myself and other birders who had rushed over re-found the Nashville, so it made for a very Tennessee-themed list. A yellow-rumped warbler came in, after which I headed for home and climate control. (Later in the day, a Cape May and an orange-crowned warbler were found at this spot—and five warblers in one location during winter in DC is pretty awesome!)
It was getting close to 1pm, so I called it a day. There were definitely some common birds I didn’t observe today—probably the most egregious being a rock dove—but it was a great day where a few very unexpected birds made appearances. What will the rest of 2025 bring? Keep following the blog to find out!
