White-throated Sparrows & Warblers

Yesterday, I ventured out alone to bird some places new, some places old.

The new: I started off at Algonkian Regional Park, where I was lucky enough to see numerous warblers, white-throated sparrows, kinglets, and winter wrens. At one point, after pishing just a couple of times, a huge--and I do mean huge--group of birds became active in a small tree just in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes at first, but I soon gathered my wits and pulled out the camera for some video. This massive group must have included upwards of 100 birds, but it was the variety that was most extraordinary. I easily spotted kinglets, wrens, titmouses, chickadees, and warblers of all kinds. They were all moving so quickly, though, that the warbler IDs were tough to come by, but the spectacle was awe-inspiring.

The old: Lake Thoreau in Reston, which is a place I've birded often enough to know pretty much what I'll find. But for those of you looking for a new place to visit, the path alone is worth your time. And on certain lucky afternoons, the birding can also be quite good. The thing is, eBird doesn't even list Lake Thoreau. In fact, they have it mislabeled (I'm in the process of getting them to fix it) as Lake Audubon, which is close by, sure, but nowhere near the same.

In any case, the first bird to greet me was a common raven, which I always find entertaining, and then things really picked up when I arrived at the meadow-like habitat just a little southwest of the lake. Here I found plenty of warblers--yellow-rumpeds, maggies, and others I couldn't ID--and I had some wonderful views of white-throated sparrows. Here's a highlight...