Your Piece of the Planet

With mile after mile of strip shopping centers, offices and residential developments that dominate the landscape, Northern Virginia might seem like a poor choice for wildlife watching.

While there’s no denying that development has fragmented natural areas and degraded wildlife habitats, causing declines in the populations of many species, there’s still an amazing assortment of cool critters to discover close to home.

Good things come in small packages and dragonflies are no exception. Look for them in every type of habitat near fresh water, where their antics will quickly capture your attention. They’re easy to observe and never fail to delight.

Some look like jewels on the wing, others are more earthy and subtle. They all have huge compound eyes compared to the size of their head. If I was a dragonfly, my eyes would be about the size of a basketball and I’d have 30,000 lenses instead of just one. Read the rest of this entry »

Our monarch butterflies migrate from Prince William to Mexico every Fall. This week is normally the peak migration season for our area, according to Journey North.

To get to the single forest in Mexico where the insects over-winter, they need a compass and a clock.  The butterflies use the sun to determine direction – but because the sun moves throughout the day, the monarchs also need a clock.

After all, setting your path by the sun at 9:00am will send you in one direction, but if you fly at the same angle to the sun at 3:00pm you’ll end up going in a very different direction.  (Ask anyone who lives west of their job.  They commute east into the sun in the morning – and back home, into the sun again, in the evening.)

Scientists have just discovered that the biological clock that enables monarchs to use the sun as a compass is located in their antennae, not in their brain. Guess there really is something new under the sun, occasionally… (For more, see article in Wired.)

Last weekend I was driving out from the Stone House and saw large birds walking across the road a ways down. Great, I thought, a couple wild turkeys. So I stopped and grabbed my binoculars… and said what the heck is that?

They were about the size of a turkey but chicken shaped, with a red comb and fancy tails.  An exotic surprise, akin to seeing a camel walking through the floodplain.

I looked them up and discovered the Red Junglefowl, thought to be the ancestor of all domestic chickens. Originally from southeast Asia, it appears that Red Jungle Fowl have found their way to Nokesville, Virginia. I’d guess they are escapees from a nearby farm,  a familiar path that many exotic species have used to transition from pets to problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Prothonotary Warblers are at Vet's Park now.

Veteran’s Memorial Park, located in the Route 1 corridor, is a good place to experience wildlife.

You wouldn’t think so at first glance. The Park is jam packed with ball fields, a skate board facility, 50-meter outdoor swimming pool, picnic pavilions and a community center. Every weekend the park is brimming with people engaged in active recreation activities.

With all this activity, how could Vet’s Park be a great place to watch wildlife? Read the rest of this entry »

Bluebird Eggs

Not all nesting boxes provide a safe refuge for Bluebirds. Bluebirds have many predators, including snakes, raccoons, ants, squirrels and cats. Also, other birds, such as House sparrows, wrens, chickadees, and tree swallows, compete for available nesting sites.

Successful nesting boxes are constructed to protect Bluebirds from predators and discourage competition from other species. Snakes love to eat tasty bluebird eggs and young birds. Adding a baffle made of round metal ducting material on the mounting pole prevents snakes from slithering up the pole and entering the box. It also protects the nesting box from climbing cats, racoons and squirrels. Read the rest of this entry »

Spring Peeper by John White

You don’t have to visit a rain forest or huge wilderness area to see cool critters. Some pretty amazing animals can be found right here in Northern Virginia. You can find nearby nature everywhere… in your garden, along the stream corridor behind your house, watching your kids play ball and when visiting local parkland.  Last fall I was delighted to see the Variegated Fritillary butterfly I’d been hunting for weeks perched on a tent, not five feet from my chair, at my son’s Ultimate Frisbee tournament at the Polo Grounds in Upperville.

Once you spot an interesting critter, it’s fun to know more about the species. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Even if you have the right field guides at home, some species can be difficult to identify and it’s very helpful to know which species you can expect to see in Northern Virginia.

Read the rest of this entry »