Birrrrrrrrrrds!

Braving the cold has its rewards. A bald eagle (like this one) topped the list.

I just spent a frigid but fun Saturday leading a dozen kids and their families on a bird count here in Washington, D.C. Brent Elementary School held its second annual “New Year’s Bird Count,” a spin-off of the nationwide Christmas Bird Count (sponsored by the National Audubon Society). Brent is the first public school in the nation to follow this citizen science tradition, and close to 150 people participated this year.

I led a group out to Hains Point, an area along the Potomac River. We caravanned around the island, stopping at various pull-offs to scan the ice floes in the river or the trees along the golf course.

“Those are just a bunch of seagulls,” muttered several participants as we got out of the car to look at a large flock out on the ice. I, too, have been guilty of ‘gull glaze over’ in the past and knew I had to set up my spotting scope quickly to peak their interest.

“Wow!” I heard now, as they saw the birds magnified, “what kind of gull is that?” Herring, great black-backed, ring-billed gull – three identities revealed as differences in leg color, body size and bill markings were noticed. “I didn’t know there were different types of gulls!” exclaimed one parent excitedly.

Northern shovelers (like the ones pictured here) left an impression.

Ducks, too, became a lesson of reward through closer observation. Amidst the common mallards, we discovered a pair of northern shovelers, or rather their rear ends as they swam away from us. The handsome male, dressed in emerald and chestnut, received several oohs and aahs through the scope. We also found a lesser scaup (another duck), and admired his jet black head and golden eye.

Blue jays and starlings perched in bare branches, tufted titmice flitted along the ground below. A northern mockingbird struck a pose on a trash can as we drove by. Suddenly I spotted a silhouette atop a tree and we pulled over quickly. It was a merlin, a small, streaky breasted falcon. “Cool!” remarked one parent, admiring it in the scope. My sentiments exactly.

Our count ended with a bald eagle sighting (the first for most of the kids) and a fly over of nearly six hundred Canada geese. Not your typical Saturday for these families, who gained a new appreciation of the wildlife around them and made discoveries together.

One woman commented to me, “I never knew what I was missing” when it came to birds. All it took was a closer look and the willingness to get out there and do it.