Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight,
Your manners for your heart’s delight…
…Forgive our harms, and condescend
To man, as to a lubber friend,
And, generous, teach his awkward race
Courage, and probity, and grace!
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, May-Day and Other Pieces
Yes, we can learn a lot from birds. And so begins a new project — our urban birding project — something our whole family of birders, young and old, can enjoy. Of course you could go to any bookstore and purchase a book of birds complete with beautiful glossy professional photography, but what would be the DIY fun in that? We want to discover them ourselves.
We love taking nature walks along the waterfront in Old Town and in our regional wildlife preserves such as Dyke Marsh by the Belle Haven Marina and Green Spring Gardens, a secret gem hidden behind the strip malls on Route 1, just to catch a glimpse of the hundreds of species of birds that call this area home.
For this project, we will photograph and document what we learn about the birds – colors, interesting characteristics, what they like to do in their spare time. As we discover different species, we’ll share what we find here.
To get started, here are two birds we’ve spotted in the Del Ray area – perhaps you have seen them as well?
Sharp-shinned Hawk
We found this fierce creature sitting on the fence in our backyard. Sharp-shinned Hawks stalk bird feeders in the hope of snacking on little songbirds, and there are plenty of bird feeders in our neighborhood to create quite the buffet. With piercing eyes and a beak and talons as sharp as knives, he’s not messing around. This beast is bigger than my cats — yowsers!
To learn more about the hawk, we consulted our Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Region.
In addition to binoculars, this is a must-have for any budding birder. It contains great photographs of each species to aid identification as well as detailed descriptions about habitat, nesting and even the sounds they make. We can see from the guide that the striped square tail is part of the Sharp-shin’s signature look.
If you are still stumped when identifying birds, the Cornell Lab of Orinthology has a great website you can use to search for birds based on shape, name or taxonomy. And if you want to get even more interactive, check out these birding apps.
We consulted the book Birds of Prey which Jack recently picked up at his school’s science night. We learned this is the smallest hawk in North America, it uses its long tail to navigate the woods in fast pursuit of songbirds and mice, and it lives mostly in dense forests except when it makes special trips to urban and suburban areas to snack around bird feeders.
Great Blue Heron
My husband Mark took this photo of the incredibly majestic Great Blue Heron over in Oronoco Park in Old Town, Alexandria. Adorned with a crown of silvery shale gray and gold and feathers cascading down its long and mighty neck, the Heron is the king of the waterfront. Elegant and sophisticated. And in contrast to the Sharp-shinned Hawk, quite a bit more approachable and docile too.
The photo in the field guide helped us identify the specific type of Heron and differentiate it from a similar bird, the Egret.
After further research we learned it’s the largest North American Heron, it makes a “hoarse, guttural squawk,” and it wades in the water to hunt for fish which it swallows whole.
Look for more posts about birds in the months to come. We hope to have quite a good collection by the year’s end. What birds have you seen in the Del Ray area? Any hawks stalking your bird feeders? Have you been to any of the local wildlife preserves to watch birds?
A wonderful post. One of the Cuisinettes is a avid birder and goes regularly to a place filled with birds near her house on Russell Road
Glad you liked it Nancy. Thanks for also sharing the link on Twitter!
Thank you for a lovely post, Katie. My garden is frequented these days b by Carolina Wrens, Cardinals, Song Sparrows, Blue Jays, White Throated Sparrows, Robins, Mockingbirds, and the occasional woodpeckers.
In a month’s time, I will hang up the feeders for my favorite visitors–the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.
We don’t have to go far at all to enjoy watching birds. Monticello Park, right here in our neighborhood, is ranked among one of the top places in the country to see migratory birds. And the Northern Virginia Bird Club http://www.nvabc.org and other organizations organize frequent bird watching walks there in the spring, as well as at Dyke Marsh, Huntley Meadow and many other parks in the area.
Thanks Vineeta — I’m looking forward to going on the Sunday morning bird walks at Dyke Marsh as soon as it warms up a bit. You seem to have a nice variety of birds in your garden. Do you plant anything special to attract birds?
Katie,
I wanted to get the National Wildlife Federation’s certification for my garden to be a wildlife habitat and made sure that I provide the four things that are necessary for wildlife–fresh water, food, a place for animals to bring up their young, and a place where they can feel safe from predators:
http://www.nwf.org/how-to-help/garden-for-wildlife/create-a-habitat.aspx
I make sure there is always food and fresh water for the birds, squirrels and other animals all year long. I also created a pond in my garden, and have lots of plants that attract birds, including a large strawberry bed, and last fall I planted two blueberry bushes and a fig tree. I am happy to share the fruits from the garden with them.
Sounds amazing! Leslie has also created a certified wildlife habitat in her backyard. If you’d be up for a garden tour, let me know (katie@diydelray.com)!
We’ve recently had a cardinal convention in the bamboo that lines our backyard. For a couple days they came in huge flocks and were quite loud back there! These guys have been a joy to watch growing up the last couple of months…although they are close to fledging, you can still watch them in the nest:
http://www.ustream.tv/SouthwestFloridaEagleCam
They’ve really been stretching out those wings and practicing!
I imagine this is a beautiful sight to see with all their vivid red feathers.