DC City Nature Challenge Programs at NOVA Parks

We had a great turnout for several in person DC City Nature Challenge programs at NOVA Parks! @turtleboy92 and I have made a concentrated effort to increase visibilty of iNaturalist and the City Nature Challenge throughout our park agency, including a creating TWELVE new places and biodiversity projects representing different parks. You can access the NOVA Parks umbrella project here.

Friday, April 26th

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens- Vienna, VA

While most folks wouldn't think about Meadowlark as a destination for the City Nature Challenge, it is a surprising powerhouse for wildlife. Not only are there forested trails, but quite a variety of bird life and pollinators utilizing the landscape. It is an incredible location for breeding neotropical migrant bird species such as Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole , Purple Martin, and Yellow Warbler. It also hosts a greater density of year-round Eastern Bluebirds than most anywhere else I'm aware of. We had a small but determined group of five participants including a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary! What a great way to celebrate. Most of our observations occured along the Potomac Valley Collection trail and wild meadow area.

Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Algonkian Regional Park- Sterling, VA

As soon as I arrived at Algonkian, I noticed our very dependable Warbling Vireos singing along the riparian area next to the boat ramp. This is a fairly scarce species in our area, and Algonkian is a great park to find them in. Meeting up with a few locals there, we documented a few stands of poison hemlock (a non-native invasive) which had not been an issue there before. Now it appears to be spreading rapidly. A great example of how the City Nature Challenge can draw our attention to species that need to be controlled. One really cool sighting here was a raft of 58 female Red-breasted Mergansers engaging in interesting group fishing behavior. This is a species that winters along our coasts but can be seen following inland waterways during migration. It's also intriguing that the raft was entirely comprised of females! Piggybacking on the CNC program here, I visited again late Sunday night to join @cmlifelist for some microfishing at Sugarland Run especially hoping for some rainbow darters. No rainbows, but he did manage to catch a few tesselated darters and a green sunfish. We also spotted some crayfish, spiders, and toads. Hoping to try again soon!

Tesselated Darter

Tesselated darter at Algonkian Regional Park

Saturday, April 27th

Gilbert's Corner Regional Park- Aldie, VA

Nestled along the very busy route 50 in Aldie, Gilbert's Corner is passed by incredible numbers of commuters daily. However, it is an underutilized park with excellent mixed habitat highlighted by scrubby meadow and hardwood forest edge bisected by Howser's Branch. While there are plenty of invasives present, the open habitat allows for the only population of breeding Prairie Warblers in the NOVA Parks system; a declining species of concern. Out of all the parks I created projects for this year, Gilbert's Corner was pulling up the rear in all-time iNaturalist observations at a meager 242 (species count 141). Myself along with a family eager to explore took it upon ourselves to at least double the all-time count in the span of two hours. Rain attempted to spoil our plans, but we succeeded- and (with more CNC uploads to go) now stand at 508 observations (species count 221) and counting!

Prairie Warbler

Prairie Warbler at Gilbert’s Corner Regional Park

Monday, April 29th

Potomac Overlook Regional Park- Arlington, VA

For a Monday afternoon program, I wasn’t expecting to have a huge crowd; but we did get some dedicated master naturalists to show up with some varying skillsets! We were even lucky enough to be joined by retired Meadowlark Botanical Gardens manager and esteemed naturalist Keith Tomlinson! Keith showed us a section of the park that is very special to him due to the presence of fan clubmoss , aka “running cedar”. It’s not a rare plant by any means, but is far less common in the immediate DC area due to the plant’s reliance on undisturbed habitat. Other cool plant sightings included wild yam, early lowbush blueberry, cucumber root, and broadleaf enchanter’s nightshade.

fan clubmoss

Fan clubmoss at Potomac Overlook Regional Park

Bull Run Regional Park- Centreville, VA

I was absolutely thrilled to have an all-star squad of naturalists (including @serenella @ana_kaahanui and @dbarber) join me for an all out nocturnal adventure at Bull Run to end the 2024 City Nature Challenge with a bang! Some of us went all the way til midnight, furiously snapping away before the wildlife turned into the proverbial pumpkin. We had set up a mothing station, explored the vernal pools, did some owling, and even explored the world of flourescent organisms with UV flashlights. Some of the highlights include a luna moth, larval marbled salamander, begging Barred Owl fledglings, fluorescing mustard lichen , and several spring fishflies (aka dobsonflies). I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up a whirlwind weekend than an event like this and you better believe we will be back at it again next year… until then! ✌️

marbled salamander