Kenilworth Bird Walk, Potomac Bike Rafting

Bird Alliance Walk

This morning Amanda and I went with our friend Chelsea to a bird walk organized by the DC Bird Alliance. It was led by Will, who was on the winning World Series of Birding team this year.

The highlights of the bird list were a Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) and Yellow-Crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea).

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron eating prey in Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Photo by Chelsea Rudman.

Great Egrets (Ardea alba) in snag at Kenilworth. Photo by Chelsea Rudman. — Great Egrets (*Ardea alba*) in snag at Kenilworth. Photo by Chelsea Rudman.

This beautiful insect alighted on the boardwalk handrail as I was walking by. I thought it was a moth in the field, but it seems to be a match for Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), a butterfly.

Silver spotted skipper on marsh boardwalk handrail.

Amanda has pointed out Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) to me, such that I am starting to recognize it intuitively. What are its characters? What are other closely related plants in our area? It was quite visible along the trails at Kenilworth this morning.

Detail of Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota). — Detail of Queen Anne’s Lace (*Daucus carota*).

Queen Anne’s Lace ( Daucus carota) amidst other herbaceous plants. — Queen Anne’s Lace ( *Daucus carota*) amidst other herbaceous plants.

Bladensburg Birding, Insect Netting, Tree Identification

Amanda and I continued on to Bladensburg Waterfront Park and got a pretty good complete list and an incidental list on the walk back. Most interesting was a pair of Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser). These are somewhat uncommon for this time of year in this area (0.1% of lists in Prince George’s County include them in the first week of August). Why has this pair lingered this year?

As we walked, I netted a few of this insect. Photographing them was difficult, because they are quite good at flying almost straight upward out of the net. I saw quite a few (at least twenty) in a few different mowed areas of the park alongside the bike trail. Most appeared brilliantly green in flight, but the pictured individual was an outlier (if it is, in fact, of the same species).

Finally, I wanted to start to learn to identify a new tree species, so I picked this tree.

We followed the key in the Peterson Guide and found it to be a Willow Oak (Quercus phellos). Watching us pore over the book, a woman jogging called out “Willow Oak… quercus… phellos!” from the trail with great conviction.

Why do these leaves have rusty discoloration and holes?

Packrafting from Georgetown

This spring I got an Alpacka packraft, a type of inflatable boat, that is designed to be able to carry a full-sized bicycle. I also got a Brompton folding bicycle, which fits on it neatly. This lets me carry a boat on a bike and bike on a boat, which opens up some interesting itineraries in D.C.

Packraft on Brompton bicycle with backpack containing lifejacket and folding paddle.

My afternoon’s multimodal itinerary was:

Ride bike from home to Fort Totten metro.
Metro to Dupont Circle
Cycle to Georgetown waterfront.
Paddle (with bike aboard) along Roosevelt Island shoreline to base of Memorial Bridge.
Cycle to Navy Memorial.
Metro to Fort Totten.

Probably not an itinerary urban planners spend a lot of time mulling over.

This was my first time launching from the Georgetown waterfront, and a few bystanders - mostly older men - were pretty mesmerized by the process.

My perspective in packraft facing Roosevelt island with folding bicycle lashed to bow and backpack between legs.

Packraft, backpack, and folding bicycle on Virginia shoreline.

I got a pretty good bird list on this trip. Two of the four Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) were juveniles. The wind blew me a bit closer to one than I intended and it flew into a tree, possibly into its nest hole. What species of tree do Wood Ducks prefer for nest holes anyway?

There is quite a mud flat, even at high tide, on the downstream side of Little Island. I should return to look for shorebirds.