Henbit flowers are fading. Gill over the Ground is in full flower, along Rockville Pike just east of NIH main campus in Bethesda.
Magnolia
A magnolia that looks to be ‘Sunspire’ (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=298816) is flowering on the west side of Woodmont Avenue near to Montgomery Lane. It has upright flowers with deep yellow petals. The tree has a primary trunk (<6″ dbh) and is <25′ tall. It is setting seed.
Crow interaction
At ~9:25AM, two crows were flying north above Woodmont Avenue just south of Cordell Avenue. One repeatedly approached the other as they flew.
Squirrel and Osage orange
An Eastern Gray Squirrel was eating an Osage orange fruit at ~9:15AM in Battery Lane Urban Park.
Hornet nest
A hornet nest is hanging towards the end of a branch of a zelkova at the northern tip of the park at Rockville Pike and Woodmont Avenue. It is directly above a stormwater inlet (the stormwater inlet is in a grassy area of the park).
Crows
At 8AM and onwards (about 5 minutes), crows calling and aggregating on the top of a building on Cordell Avenue, just west of Woodmont Avenue.
Bald Eagle
At ~8:35AM, a Bald Eagle was flying above the pond just south of NIH main campus in Bethesda. It called.
Crows aggregating
Last Wednesday (22 November) at dusk, crows were flying in the thousands near the North Bethesda (formerly White Flint) Metro stop; some were in trees, many were in the air, and many were arriving in massive flocks. They were in trees (including street trees, and in the scrubby / small tree area just east of the Metro station) over to Citadel Avenue to the east, Marinelli Road to the south, and Old Georgetown Road to the north (and the Metro station to the west). They weren’t anywhere else (except flying in). They weren’t in the scrubby / wooded area east of Nebel Street.
At about 7PM, they were still there, mostly in the trees (a few were still flying), and generally in the crowns (not throughout the canopy, but towards the very top). They were in a very tightly delimited area, and only at high densities (i.e., they were not in sparsely populated crowds, but only densely, with each individual maybe less than a couple feet from another). They were in street trees along Marinelli Road.
This phenomenon is studied in Lawrence, MA: https://www.wintercrowroost.com/
Notes on Winter Crow Life in the Delaware Valley; Witmer Stone; The Auk, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jul., 1903), pp. 267-271 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4069789.pdf
California central coast: “You can see large flocks from late summer until about February as they loudly gather to search fields for food.
Experts say during that time, the roost breaks up into smaller flocks to feed in the morning and by afternoon join each other in the sky as they make their way back home.
The Morro Coast Audubon Society says the reason crows seem to “disappear” in the spring in summer is because they pair up in breeding territories rather than flock together in big groups.” https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/why-so-many-crows-experts-say-they-are-roosting-in-five-cities-neighborhoods
Kinglets in the cold, Bernd Heinrich: https://vtecostudies.org/blog/kinglets-in-the-cold/
Yellowthroat
A female Common Yellowthroat (vivid yellow throat; size of a sparrow; no black mask; wings brownish [not yellow]; lower belly not yellow) was flying in the meadow (goldenrod dominant) at the east end and inside the fence of the wetland south of NIH main campus in Bethesda.
Ants and ragweed
Ants were at the anthers of common/annual ragweed this morning (~8:30AM), in the brushy area south of the path that runs along the southern edge of the wetland south of NIH main campus. Common ragweed has been shedding pollen this week.
~11:45AM – ants were at the anthers and actively moving. They were not on all common ragweed individuals.
The ragweed was shedding pollen.
22 September 2023 – ten at least ants were at ragweed anthers at ~11:45AM. Ragweed is shedding pollen.
Flora and Fauna of Washington, DC and environs 