by Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

BIRDATHON 2025

Sean Fahey

Fundraising on behalf of Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

The Occoquanderers

Big Day Report Out:

We drove down to Norfolk to bird state parks, public parks, and Eastern Shore NWR. We did pretty well the first day, but came up short on warblers and a few other species. So we woke up bright and early the next day before the 24 hours were up to rack up warblers in Monticello Park. Somehow, never saw any owls, king fishers, or hawks!

Highlights:

The last bird species we saw before leaving the Norfolk area was a lifer for me! And what a lifer it was! We found a breeding colony of Black Skimmers on shore. Males were returning with Sheepshead Minnows and Silversides to court females. Some females were sitting on and incubating individual eggs and rolling them around with their sharp, bizarre bills. We even saw a banded bird, which we photographed and reported its number to USGS quickly receiving a certificate of appreciation back. Turns out it was banded in 2021 by the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program.
Once at Monticello Park, I secured another lifer - a Canada Warbler - from a backyard that backed up to the park. Later, we were staring up the tops of Tullip Poplars struggling to make out the features on tiny, fast moving warblers. Fellow Birders at the park were reporting a Golden-Winged Warbler, which we were skeptical of since Blue-winged Warblers hybridize with them. Blake was finally able to get a look at the bird, which we IDed as a Brewster's Warbler (hybrid). Later in the day, other birders IDed it as a Brewster's as well, confirming our suspicions, which flagged as a rare bird alert for Fairfax and made its way to the state rarities groups.

Ebird list: https://ebird.org/tripreport/367044

Birdathon is NVBA's biggest fundraiser of the year! Like a walk-a-thon, participants collect pledges from friends and family via their team page. Then they record how many species they can identify during any 24-hour period between April 19 and May 18.

Birdathon helps NVBA to support outdoor education, citizen science, habitat conservation and programs to encourage people to plant native plants and protect native wildlife. Birdathon also helps ornithologists better understand spring migration by reporting sightings through eBird, an online database of bird observations run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Want to participate? Learn how to register your own Birdathon team!

Fun Fact: The "Occoquanders" is named after the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Virginia, the spot where Bird-a-thon team co-captains Blake and Sean met while out birding!

Ebird list: https://ebird.org/tripreport/367044

Northern Virginia Bird Alliance is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Our federal tax ID number is 51-0246325. No goods or services are provided in exchange for your donation.

Photo: Baltimore Orioles, Eric Nie/Audubon Photography Awards

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