Birds in the Watershed

Every once in a while, you open your email to a real treat. Such was the case last week, when I received an message from John Stinson listing the birds that he noted in the watershed for the Christmas Bird Count. Although the Audubon event is in its 109th year, it's the first time in years that the Little Falls Watershed has been censused. He and his two colleagues followed the path of the Little Falls Branch until they hit the C&O Canal and turned towards Chain Bridge. They found 34 species and were pleased to see Pine Siskins and Kingfishers.

The following is a complete list. If you want the numbers, please email me (Sarah Morse) and I'll forward John's chart.

Bird Count: Little Falls - Bethesda to Chain Bridge Road, December 20 (5 hours, 3 miles)
Eastern Towhee, Great Blue Heron, Northern Flicker, Red-shouldered Hawk, Ring-billed Gull, Winter Wren, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Mockingbird, American Robin, Belted Kingfisher, American Crow, Fish Crow, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Gull sp., Song Sparrow, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco, Pine Siskin, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, House Finch, Downy Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Crow, sp., Mallard, House Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Canada Goose, Northern Cardinal and European Starling.

I'm especially happy to see crows on the list. I know they are a common bird, but the West Nile Virus wiped out the foursome that hung out in my backyard, so I'm glad to see they're back in the watershed.

John is planning on participating in the Backyard Bird Count February 13-16. So hopefully, we'll have another report on who lives in the Watershed. If anyone else is participating, please send me your list and I'll post it.

Sarah Morse

2008 Volunteer Awards - Monday Night

Monday night is a special night for the Little Falls Watershed Alliance. In addition to hosting a community meeting with Councilman Roger Berliner, which we hope will be a lively and informative evening, we are pleased to be honoring two extraordinary volunteers - Elfa Halloway and Andrew Schaengold - for their efforts on behalf of the watershed.

Elfa Halloway has been a stalward member of our invasive weed removal efforts. As you may know, every other Saturday, a group of hardy souls goes out into the Little Falls Stream Valley park to manually remove invasive plants. Elfa rarely misses a session and we are pleased to be able to honor her efforts.

Andrew Schaengold is a premier member of our trash abatement program. We are recognizing this teenager for his fine service this past summer in performing litter patrol on Western Avenue between River Road and Massachusetts Avenue.

One of the pleasures of forming the Alliance is that we get to work with such fine people. We hope to see everyone out at St. Dunstan's church to honor them.

Sarah Morse

Happy New Year from LFWA

It's hard to believe it's 2009 already. Just 10 months ago, the Little Falls Watershed Alliance was just a good idea waiting to happen. It's been hard work, but now we're incorporated, we have a board, we have twice monthly invasive weed pulls, we've hosted speakers and streams walks and most exciting, we just heard from the IRS and our application for tax exempt status under 501(c)(3) application has been approved! (Use the donate button on the right to make a contribution!)

We plan to be very busy in 2009 too:
On January 26, we are hosting a community meeting with Councilman Roger Berliner. He will talk about the Montgomery County Climate Protection Plan and other Council activities as they relate to environmental and development issues watershed.

The twice monthly weed pulls will continue (bundle up). They are on the second and fourth Saturdays at 8:00 am. Contact Lynnwood for details. If you are interested in organizing a weed pull in your area, please ask Lynnwood for help. We have a community set of clippers and are more than willing to come out and help you get started.

Save the date - April 25. For the spring we are planning a "label the watershed" day, where we will attempt to label every storm drain in the watershed - DC and Montgomery parts. Obviously this will take a lot of volunteers, so if you are interested in forming a labeling team, please contact me at stormwater@lfwa.org. We'll have more information as we get closer to the event.

Neighborhood Outreach: We are also looking for contacts in the many neighborhoods in the watershed who can help spread the word. We know that many people out there would like to do something, but just don't know what one person can do. So, we thought we could meet with every neighborhood association to give a short presentation on the watershed and answer questions people might have about how they can help save the streams. Please contact me stormwater@lfwa.org.if you can help identify civic groups who would be willing to host us.

So, as you can see, we have a lot planned and there are many volunteer opportunities. We hope to see everyone at at least one event!

Sarah Morse
Blogmaster