Category: Washington Dc Area

It is still winter, right?

1/14/2014

With the Polar Vortex that came through a bit ago with bitingly cold temperatures, no one was thinking it was anywhere near springtime. But today in the general Washington, DC area the temperature got up to 58 degrees with mostly clear skies. Quite the contrast.

I didn't have much time, but found an hour to go hiking at Lake Fairfax Park. And found...

A robin! At Lake Fairfax Park.

And in fact, not just one robin, but thirty or so of them. They were the dominant species in a mixed flock that included most of the usual characters, such as downy woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, tufted titmice, black-capped chickadees, etc. along with a flicker, which I don't usually see in these flocks.

While some robins do stay around all winter here (I hear them on occasion up in the trees), this is the first flock of them that I have seen since fall.

There was also quite a number of...

A Carolina wren in a mixed flock at Lake Fairfax Park.

Carolina wrens. These are always common around here, but the numbers today were unusually high.

Other things like deer were seen, and a belted kingfisher flying with a fish in its mouth (tried hard to get some photo of that, but the bird was very skittish and the forest very cluttered.

So had a nice hour in the forest. Arriving back home I spotted...