Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
by Marjorie Rachlin At night, high above us, a stream of birds is flying. Migrating birds are on the move. Some of them are migrating short distances – 200 to 300 miles – but many are long-distance migrants going to the tropics. Go out after dark, and you may hear their flight chirps. Migration is […]
by David Jonathan Cohen In the last five years, I photographed birds in parks and wilderness on three continents. Here are five things I learned. Use the light. Where are the sun, the clouds, the shadows, my lens, and the bird? In a photo of a downy woodpecker, I see a sequel to days of […]
by Marlene Berlin It is time to visit Broad Branch Stream to see the tadpoles. When they are young, it is difficult to identify their species. Two species I have heard, the spring peepers and American toad (which made a debut performance during the Forest Hills Connection Broad Branch Stream tour in April), look similar […]
by Marlene Berlin Every day brings changes as spring bursts forth. Leaves, flowers and blossoms are popping out. There is lots to see and hear in and around Rock Creek Park. Soapstone Creek is enveloped in the pale green of the winged euonymous, more commonly known as burning bush. Bill Yeaman of the National Park […]
by Marlene Berlin What would tempt me out on a hot July day that was supposed to reach 99 degrees? Bullfrogs, of course. I heard a couple of bullfrogs on a stroll one recent evening by the Linnean and Broad Branch streams. Then, on a Sunday morning walk along Rock Creek north of Peirce Mill, […]
by David Cohen Love vibrant color and stunning design? Marvel at the magic of nature? Go crazy over butterflies? Then April 18 is your day! Walk into “hundreds of brilliant live butterflies from North America, Costa Rica, Africa and Asia…” Discover “their amazing metamorphosis, the important role butterflies play in healthy ecosystems, and how to […]
by David Cohen The Audubon Naturalist Society (audubonnaturalist.org) has its headquarters at Woodend, its Chevy Chase, Maryland mansion and grounds at 8940 Jones Mill Road. Its first mention that I can find on the Forest Hills Connection came in a 2012 post by Marjorie Rachlin, “Table Manners At The Bird Feeder.” Marlene Berlin (“A birdfeeder […]
by David Cohen There must be something going around. At the end of my last Forest Hills Connection post, “Backyard nature: Winter is for the birds,” I mentioned our first bird feeder and the birds it was drawing. Then Marlene Berlin posted her marvelous account of her new backyard bird feeder. Sense a trend? Count […]
by Marlene Berlin A small goldfinch dressed in its olive gray winter coat calmly eats at the bird feeder outside my kitchen window. A moment later a chickadee flies in for a morsel and then flies away. A female house finch starts pecking way, then another. A male flies in to join them, but he’s […]
by David Cohen Thank you, Marlene Berlin! When I sent my photos from Mason Neck State Park in Lorton, Virginia, she suggested I look at Marjorie Rachlin’s marvelous 2013 and 2015 postings on wildlife in winter. That prompted me to look for winter wildlife in our neighborhood. Once again, it took a trip afar to […]
