News

Since 2016, devoted volunteers have surveyed Dyke Marsh for butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies once a month, often observing many other insects and wildlife too.  Here are a few examples of 2021 sightings. Thank you, Rusty Moran, for your observations and photographs.

The first photo is the gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus). As its name suggests, this species of butterfly belongs to a group of butterflies with hairlike markings on the underside of their wings. Fairly common, this species lives in a variety of habitats. Its caterpillars feed on a variety of plants.

The Potomac River is much cleaner today than it was in 1964 when then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called it “a national disgrace,” but efforts are still needed to get it to an A grade, Hedrick Belin, President of the Potomac Conservancy, told attendees of a May 26, 2021, Zoom meeting of the Friends of Dyke Marsh. “It is still too polluted for swimming and fishing,” he cautioned.

On April 9 and May 27, 2021, FODM volunteers conducted habitat quality monitoring in an unnamed, intermittent stream that flows through Mount Vernon Park  into west Dyke Marsh.  FODM started this project in 2016.

On May 27, the stream had the highest number of macroinvertebrates that FODM volunteers have ever seen there – 206.  “Although most were midges, it was still very, very exciting,” observed Ashley Palmer, Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (NVSWCD), who led the group. Palmer explains, “Midges are small macroinvertebrates considered to be tolerant of pollution. Finding many midges in a stream usually indicates poor water quality, but at this site we likely find more midges due to the intermittent stream flow which can make it more difficult for more sensitive species to be present.  A healthy stream has a large number and wide variety of macroinvertebrates.”

Spring’s rebirth is always uplifting, especially when Dyke Marsh’s avian heroes and heroines put on a show.  In May 2021, many people delighted in observing a barred owl pair (Strix varia) and their three young near the Haul Road trail.

Josh Brick shared a video of the two adults appearing to display affection or preening.  “It was hard to pull ourselves away,” Josh reported.

In early May 2021, the eaglet pair in one of the nests in Dyke Marsh is growing up.  They are often visible to visitors.  The flapping eaglet is exercising its wing muscles, in preparation for flight.  Young bald eagles typically fledge in Northern Virginia in June.

In these stunning photographs by Ashley Bradford taken on May 2, one of the eaglets leapt up and flapped and got up above the edge of the nest before dropping back down into it.