Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge trip

November 11, which is also Veteran's day, is my birthday! So I'm 12 now. I decided to celebrate by taking a trip to Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge, with some of my friends!

I have previously seen Bald Eagles there, so I was definetly going to keep an eye out for them.

The first thing I saw was a Turkey Vulture flying over. It got pretty close!

Then, after walking a bit down the trail, we came to a bird blind. There, we saw a lot of birds! While we were at the blind, we saw 20 or so Mallards, an Eastern Towhee, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but best of all, we saw a Belted Kingfisher! It got really close (for a kingfisher) and he dived several times.

My camera can't do justice to the incredible Belted Kingfisher.

A really fast Ruby-crowned Kinglet. He got pretty close too!

After a while, we continued walking down the trail. We began to see several insects, including a Virginia Beetle, an American Oil Beetle, and a Praying Mantis.

A Praying Mantis. Unfortunatley, I have seen a lot of these stylish bugs smushed in many places, including Occoquan. Maybe it's because they're so big.

An American Oil Beetle. It's lucky we didn't touch it, they produce an oil that irritates skin.

We tried to look for the Bald Eagles, but all we could find was their nest:

See the nest in the center? Don't get me wrong: this nest is HUGE. Like 6 feet wide or something. I remember about a year ago I saw the Eagle parents feeding their chicks in this very nest. They will probably return in the spring or summer!

Then we left Occoquan. We stayed from 1-4pm, and it was a lot of fun!

After that, I went to see the bird banding session at Flint Hill. I got there a little late, but I saw a nuthatch being banded! I got to hold and release it, but it flew off before I got a grip on it. The people told me they caught 10 Dark-eyed Juncos in a net, at the same time! They had to close down the station while they banded them.

A club member banding the Nuthatch I held and released.

It was a great birthday, and I got to see many cool things!