Raglan's Wood, Tyson's Corner,

The weather was threatening to be wet and windy for the next day, so I popped out quickly to Raglans Wood (Google Earth ref; 38 55 23N 77 14 28W enter via Tyspring St. off Gosnell Rd) for my fix in case tomorrow got rained off. There was not much time before dusk, but the evening looked very pleasant if just a little chilly.

White-throated Sparrows and Northern Cardinals were making plenty of noise, but I had only brought a small compact camera which was unable to discern the birds and focus on them among the branches.

Thankfully, it takes a nice landscape picture, even in portrait attitude, so this is more of a descriptive post. The White-tailed Deer that can often be seen there were quite approachable this evening, and filled the frame much better, making focus possible.

The cropping zoom of post production reveals a curious pixel property that makes the picture look as if it has been hand painted. It's an attractive effect in the right situation, but not the one I was hoping for in my new compact camera.

A Red-shouldered Hawk was heard in the woods beyond the cut. A new path has been opened up and I followed it in search of the hawk, which I assume must be resident as I always find it here. A party of birds along this path included American Robin, Brown Creeper, Carolina Chickadee and White-breasted Nuthatch. Further along I could hear Hairy Woodpeckers, but was thrown into a crisis of confidence about my aural skills as I was seeing Downies, then a larger bird with a bigger bill appeared around the base of the trunk to confirm what I thought I was hearing.

In the past, Raglan’s Wood has not produced much in the way of birds, but today it was as productive as I have seen it. None of the birds were terribly special, but there was a better selection than previous visits, with 20+ species in just over an hour.

Species seen; 22

Great Blue Heron 1, Canada Goose 1, Red-shouldered Hawk 3, Mourning Dove 1, Red-bellied Woodpecker 1, Downy Woodpecker 2, Hairy Woodpecker 2, Northern Flicker 1, Eastern Phoebe 1, American Barn Swallow 1, Carolina Wren 3, American Robin 4, Carolina Chickadee 3, Tufted Titmouse 4, White-brested Nuthatch 1, Brown Creeper 1, American Crow 3, Common Starling 6, American Goldfinch 1, Northern Cardinal 12, White-throated Sparrow 8, Chipping Sparrow 1.

Links to other posts from Raglan's Wood can be found below;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/09/raglans-wood-tysons-corner-fairfax-va.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/07/raglans-wood-july-2011.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canada Page for other posts from nearby, including, Great Falls Park and Shenandoah National Park.

Raglan's Wood, Tyson's Corner, Washington, IAD

Raglan's Wood, July 2011

The headline act during my last visit to Raglan’s Wood had been a herd of White-tailed Deer that allowed me to pass within a few feet of them. The bird watching on that occasion had been very poor and Blogger had threatened to move my account from the ‘Birds’ section to ‘Outdoors General’ as a result.

This time the deer were gone, but there were more birds as well as some nice odonata and a big surprise. I entered the woods from Tyspring St. American Robins were very obvious with plenty of young birds still staying close to the adults. A Pileated Woodpecker was concentrating its attentions around the base of a tree and stayed low on each new trunk it visited. An Eastern Towhee called with its variable trill.

A Northern Cardinal was looking very shabby. I don’t believe it is just the rigours of raising a family that has caused him to let himself go like this. Perhaps he had had a narrow escape from a predator. A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks was attending their young one further along.

The path emerges onto a firebreak and there is a stream to the right. Grey Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch and an Eastern Phoebe were seen here, but I concentrated my attentions on a Variable Dancer, Argia fumipennis, that sat well for me.

The stream is easy to cross here and I continued through the back of the parking lots towards Tyson’s Pond. At the outfall from the pond I stopped to watch some Blue Dashers, Pachydiplex longipennis,chasing each other around. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed something curled up, sunning itself a few feet away. It was a Northern Watersnake.

This was the show-stopper for me today and I spent quite a while with it before moving on. I also found three shed skins in the vicinity which makes me think that they must be common around here. The Northern Watersnake is non-venomous, but can be aggressive and bite just the same. It also gives off a bad-smelling musk when provoked. It is quite similar to the dangerous Copperhead pit viper, so give it a wide berth to be on the safe side.

 The path took me back into the woods where Carolina Wrens scolded me as I passed and American crows mobbed something high in a tree.

The path leads out to a wet meadow with a concrete drain running through it and I indulged myself with the dragonflies and damsels as described in Ed Lam’s wonderful field guide. One individual held its wings at half mast causing me to think of it as a Lestes sp., but then threw me into confusion by closing them as any other zygo might. I tentatively considered Great Spreadwing Archilestes grandis after noting a pale thoracic stripe on another photo, but fell for the female Variable Dancer as a much safer bet.

Common Whitetails were indeed common in an outfall for the ditch that was filled with reeds and surrounded by rocks. Both sexes were easy to see well.

Back at Tyson’s pond the snake had moved on, but a tiny patch of reeds held half a dozen odes that kept me uncomfortably on my knees for a while.

Close to the edge, Eastern Amberwing, Perithemis tenera, shared the airspace with an Eastern Pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis while a large dark dragonfly eluded identification further from the bank.

The reeds held Familiar Bluet, Enallagma civile, which were lining up to be photographed and a damaged female Blue Dasher who had somehow lost one wing and crumpled another.

A Green Heron “squarked” as it came in to land, just along the bank. It wheeled suddenly when it saw me and eventually landed further up. It kept its eye on the skies rather than me, but I couldn’t see what it was watching for.

The journey home retraced my steps across the stream and through the woods. Downy Woodpeckers put in an appearance on the large trunks and a female Northern Cardinal looked out from her foragings, looking fresher-faced than the male from earlier.

Birds seen; 22

Green Heron 1, Turkey Vulture 1, Black Vulture 1, Red-shouldered Hawk 3, Mourning Dove 2, Chimney Swift 4, Red-bellied Woodpecker 1, Downy Woodpecker 2, Northern Flicker 2, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Eastern Wood-pewwee 1, Eastern Phoebe 2, Carolina Wren 2, Grey Catbird 2, American Robin 35, Tufted Titmouse 4, Blue Jay 2, American Crow 12, Common Starling 15, House Sparrow 6, House Finch 3, Northern Cardinal 2.

Odonata seen; 5

Variable Dancer Argia fumipennis 40, Familiar Bluet Enallagma civile 8, Eastern Amberwing Perithemis tenera 2, Blue Dasher Pachydiplex longipennis 6, Eastern Pondhawk Erythemis simplicicollis 1,

Reptiles seen; 1

Northern Watersnake 1.

Directions for Raglan’s Wood can be found from the previous post.

Other posts from this destination can be found at the links below;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-falls-park-virginia.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-falls-park-virginia-april.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-falls-park-july.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/tysons-corner-virginia-iad.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canada page for other posts from the region.

Raglans Wood, Tyson's Corner, Fairfax, VA, USA.

During a trip to Washington DC, we stay at a hotel in Tyson's Corner, McClean Fairfax County, Va. A layover here would usually involve a walk around the local area which contains office blocks separated by wooded plots. The birding here can often be rewarding, but I was picked up by the police last time I tried.

OK, so I was in my camouflage gear, creeping furtively through the woods between the offices with my binoculars and a big paparazzi-style camera. How was I to know that these were government buildings? If I had known I might have thought twice about wearing the balaclava (it was very cold). Three squad cars and seven officers attended the scene. Two pulled their guns when I reached into my jacket to produce my hotel room key to prove that I was staying close by.

At Raglan Road Park, there was none of this excitement, although I did get a funny look from an elderly gent when I inadvertently found myself in his backyard.

I found Ragland Road Park as a green smudge on the map and had no idea what to expect when I set out. It is an easy 5 minute, one and a half kilometre, minute ride from The Crowne Plaza Hotel at Tysons Corner, in a shallow valley with a small stream running through it. Access is via a path at the end of Tyspring St. (Google Earth ref; 38 55' 24"N 77 14' 27"W).

The thick canopy made it very gloomy inside the deciduous wood. A White-tailed Deer stepped out onto the path ahead and stood stock-still, checking me out, while I got the camera attached to the tripod and prepared for the first shot of the day. She was accompanied by a young, spotted fawn and I was surprised at how close she allowed me to approach.

A little further along, another group of deer was browsing in a dappled glade (how come glades are always dappled?). They continued to feed even though the path passed within 10 meters of them. The adult females had a darker coat with whisps of the fawny brown hair on their flanks. I wonder if they are shedding into a darker winter coat?

Soon I came to the stream. It is rocky in places, but a muddy bank showed signs of Racoon activity. The path either went into a residential road, or by skipping the stream, into the back lots of some offices. There was a narrow margin of trees between the car park and the stream. As I walked along, I flushed a large brown bird which flew silently away and out of sight. I felt sure that it was an owl and tried to predict its trajectory to judge where it might have come to rest.

For the next forty minutes or so, I scoured the search-zone, then retreated and approached from another direction. I crossed the stream on precariously placed rocks and found another angle to search from. In the distance a Blue Jay was calling hysterically. It was beyond the search zone, so I ignored it for the moment.

By a small ornamental pond, I found what looked like an owl pellet. It was on top of a light post (regurgitated there or found and placed, I do not know) and contained a lot of beetle casings, crustacian shell fragments, fish (could they be frog?) scales and thin rib bones. This might suggest a diet for an Eastern Screech Owl, but my elusive owl had been much bigger.

I was distracted by the outfall from the pond by a variable Dancer.

There had been no sign of the owl, but there is a lot of dead wood and it could easily have found somewhere to hide. A crow had now joined the jay and both were calling strongly a little way off, so I decided that it might be worth a try. As it turned out, it was not an hysterical jay, but a Red-shouldered Hawk that flew off as soon as it saw me. I reckon that it was the hawk that I flushed earlier and mistook it for an owl, although the bars on the hawk’s tail are very obvious inflight. I wonder how I might have missed them? The birding had been very slow today and the owl would have added a bit of glamour to an otherwise unimpressive list. A more practiced ear than mine may have noted the difference between the hawk and the jay’s calls, but after playing back my Peterson’s tapes, I still would not care to put money on it.

Beyond the ornamental pond and nursery school the path had a tarmac surface. Someone had tried to install a trim track, but it had been washed away. Apart from that and a couple of picnic tables for local smokers, the wood seemed unmanaged. There was a lot of dead wood and it was riddled with woodpecker activity.

On my return, I encountered the deer again, close to the path.

As a bird watching exercise, my visit to Raglan Road Park was very unproductive with only 5 species seen and none photographed. But as a relaxing walk it was very pleasant and being able to get so close to the deer was a real treat. I suspect that the woods may have more to offer and will try them again.

Hurricane Earl was due to pass through today. It was downgraded last night to a storm, category 2 and grazed the coast about 200 miles away.

Bird species; 5

Red-shouldered Hawk 2, Northern Mockingbird 1, Song Sparrow 2, American Goldfinch 2, Northern Cardinal 3.

Mammal species; 2

Grey Squirrel 8, White-tailed Deer 9.

Odonata species;

Variable Dancer Argia fumipennis 5, Eastern Pondhawk Erythemis simplicicollis 4.

Follow the links below for other posts from Washington;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/great-falls-park-virginia.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-falls-park-virginia-april.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/03/tysons-corner-virginia-iad.html

Visit the dedicated USA and Canada page for other posts from the region

Raglan's Wood, Tyson's Corner, IAD, USA