Forest Hills’ Celebrity Birder

by Marlene Berlin

Our neighborhood’s go-to expert on our feathered friends is featured in the latest Washington Post Magazine, a special Rock Creek Park issue.

Marjorie Rachlin, who also writes about wildlife for Forest Hills Connection, is the first person I call when I have a question about birds. One delightful summer evening, my husband and I were eating dinner outside on our deck and the bird songs happened to catch our attention. Jim, who has a much better ear than I do, remarked on a particular complex song that he had been listening to. I had been listening to a very loud bird, much louder than the rest, that to my ear sang a monotonous trill which repeated three times, sometimes twice.

The next morning that same bird call woke me up, and then I continued to hear it at various times during the daytime and sometimes on my walks through Rock Creek Park. It was driving me crazy not knowing what was making that sound. I finally called Marge, an avid birder, and asked her what it could be. She said it was probably the Carolina wren. I went to YouTube and sure enough there it was, with that very distinctive loud bird call.

Marge is featured in this article, published by the Washington Post for the 125th birthday of Rock Creek Park. To find the piece on Marge, go to “The Birder” on page 30 of the magazine, or in the online version, click on her photo, which is the fourth from the left on the top line of the section titled “People of the Park.”

But don’t stop there. There are other interesting pieces, some that involve our neighborhood, including one on Louis P. Shoemaker, as well as beautiful photographs.