…pun intended. I had the day off work today, so decided to go after a few target species that are due in DC around this time each spring. Weather overnight was once again not favorable for migration with winds blowing the wrong direction, but I thought maybe a few individuals from these target species might already be present in DC and simply not yet detected. I started off the day at my favorite DC birding haunt, Kenilworth Park, around dawn. My first target was vesper sparrow, which I’ve seen a few times in the city and both times at Kenilworth, so I spent significant time walking around the fields and gravel road hoping to come across some birds poking around on the ground. I still haven’t seen Eastern meadowlark this year, which is a bit unusal, and that stayed true through today. I also went through the morning without finding any snipe. There were two pairs of blue-winged teal in one of the vernal pools, though, and that was a great treat as I had excellent views in the early morning light. At one point a bike went by and the birds flushed, but I would find them again later in the garden pools and then again even later on the lagoon.
I wasn’t able to find any verspers, so target #1 was a miss, but the birding overall was productive with 53 species between the park and the gardens. Most notable in Kenilworth Park was a flock of 20(!) yellow-rumped warblers working the trees between the bike path and the lagoon. The brown headed cowbirds were also singing in various spots, and I was very happy to hear my first singing brown thrasher of the year along the river trail. It was a decent day for raptors, with two bald eagles, a Cooper’s hawk, the usual red-shouldered hawks, and a female American kestrel hunting from one of the goalposts in the park.
My bird of the day came as I arrived at the boardwalk lagoon lookout at KAG–a male American wigeon! With its characteristic bright white forehead and gray bill with a black tip, this is a bird I’ve never seen at Kenilworth before. It was hanging out with a male mallard, and between this bird, the blue-winged teals, green-winged teal, wood ducks, and a common merganser, it was a pretty good day for ducks.
My second target bird for the day was yellow-crowned night-heron. This bird typically shows up for a week or two around this time at the night-heron roost in East Potomac Park, so I headed that way, through the cherry blossom crowds, and scoped the roost from both sides of the channel. By the time I got to the roost, it was quite windy, and I only managed to find six herons, all black-crowned. These included one immature and I gave it a close look–but the bill wasn’t thick enough, and its white spots not tiny enough, to fit as a yellow-crowned. Target #2: also miss. Tonight’s forecast is looking iffy again, but there might be some increased movement tomorrow night, so here’s hoping a few of the yellow-crowned night-herons will stop by soon.
