The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia (ASNV) counts and surveys engage citizens and partners in scientifically based data collection efforts that identify the distribution of birds and other wildlife in Northern Virginia. Hard, reliable data on species and their populations is needed by stakeholders and decision-makers to make the right decisions about important Northern Virginia habitats.

  
1) 15th Annual Northern Virginia Bird Survey (NVBS)
June 2008

ASNV's on-going breeding bird survey, the Northern Virginia Bird Survey (NVBS), has been following populations and distributions of area breeding birds since 1994. Currently, over 600 points in 25 parks and other locations are being monitored. 

Thanks to the efforts of 228 dedicated volunteers over the years, over 136,000 birds have been counted, and the project's database up through 2007 contains over 73,000 records. Learn more here.

2) Butterfly and Dragonfly Surveys
Every Friday from 8:30 am - noon
 

Experience the summer magic of some of our region's most beautiful creatures by joining the experienced ASNV team of naturalists documenting the occurrence and abundance of these fascinating creatures in a long-term series of surveys at Occoquan Regional Park, Meadowood, the Metz Wetlands, and Occoquan Bay NWR.  For details, contact Jim Waggener, 703-567-3555.
 

3) Citizen Science Opportunities

From backyards and city streets to remote forests, anyone who counts birds can contribute to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's research. Data from the projects are used to monitor bird populations and outline conservation efforts.

Fall and winter projects include Project FeederWatch, the Great Backyard Bird Count and Classroom FeederWatch. For more information, visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's site here.
 

4) 2007 Manassas Christmas Bird Count (CBC)

The 27th Manassas-Bull Run CBC proceeded despite rain and a looming winter storm. Though the weather definitely held down the turnout, we still had 56 intrepid volunteers who managed to observe 76 species and some 19,000 birds.

Among the highlights of our count were three Red-breasted Mergansers, the first Ring-necked Pheasant since 1984, two Great Horned Owls, three Red-headed Woodpeckers (there were none last year), a Brown Thrasher, an American Tree Sparrow, two Pine Siskins, and a Rusty Blackbird.

It is difficult to state much with certainty about trends in bird presence given the weather conditions and other variables. Nevertheless, some facts do stand out. The number of birds counted is the highest since
2003, and the number of species is the highest since 2004. The number of Cedar Waxwings was an all-time high, and Common Mergansers were near an all-time high. Numbers for American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and Eastern Bluebird continued to rebound from low count numbers of 2003 and 2004. Finally, the number of Red-winged Blackbirds was the highest since 1988.

See the composite results for the '07 Manassas Christmas Bird Count here.  
 

5) 2008 Waterfowl Count

The 2008 Waterfowl Count was conducted on January 19. 2008. For the purposes of this count, I used the term waterfowl in a broad sense to include not only ducks, geese, and swans, but loons, grebes, cormorants, and coots as well. Note that duck hunting may have affected the dispersal of waterfowl and that we may consider doing the count on a Sunday next year.

Eight teams provided nearly complete coverage of the Potomac River and adjacent wetlands and other bodies of water along the shoreline from Algonkian Regional Park in eastern Loudoun to Leesylvania State Park in Prince William County. Four additional teams covered inland lakes and ponds in northern Virginia.

This is the first year that the survey was conducted in January, so it is impossible to discuss trends, but following are some interesting findings:

• After factoring in overlapping coverage, we determined that Lesser Scaup were present in three large rafts in the Occoquan and Mason Neck areas. The combined tally was over 7500 birds.

• Nearly all of the 340 Gadwalls observed were at Mason Neck.

• Three lingering Blue-winged Teal were a pleasant surprise as were 2 dozen Northern Shovelers.

• The teams collectively reported 57 Pied-billed Grebes, but what was truly amazing is that almost 40 of them were found in Gunston Cove near Fort Belvoir!

• From past experience, it appears that American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, and Ruddy Duck numbers were rather low, while American Coot numbers seemed quite high.

Results of the '08 Waterfowl Count