Fairfax County Birds

July 5, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 5 min read
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July 5, 2026
Bird of the Day: white-breasted nuthatch, working the angles

Where: Hidden Oaks Nature Center

When: 11:00 am

Bird Species: American robin, downy woodpecker, northern flicker, eastern bluebird, eastern phoebe, northern cardinal, American crow, eastern wood pewee, house finch, tufted titmouse, blue jay, pileated woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, eastern towhee, Carolina wren

Things I Thought About:

  • It is robin fight season. They gather in great groups all winter, but in the summer, when there are plenty of resources available, they like a little more personal space. They are not big fights, just little "leave me ALONE" scraps, and happening all over.
  • I'm finding it easier than it has been lately to blank my brain and just be present in the day. I credit the three-day weekend and the 15 degree drop in Real Feel.
Eastern bluebirds love posing on their boxes.
  • There is a whole area of this park, way below the nature center, technically another Fairfax County park, with a softball field and playground and shelter, and below that, there are bird boxes and a thin trail through a pollination garden. I never come down here, and I kind of wish I was more prepared for it today. This is so pretty and unspoiled, and I just saw an eastern phoebe, a pale yellow streak of color, fly by. It is simply not a trail one can follow while wearing shorts.
On camera it looks like even less of a trail. The problem with "Leaves of Three" is that they all have leaves of three, just some of them also have more. I need summer weight birding pants.
  • I was walking instead by the little sidewalks around the shelters and got to the end of a side and it wasn't a ramp, it was an edge, and I stepped off it so hard my teeth clattered. Note to self, you cannot look up all the time.
  • There is a bench under full canopy in the upper area of this park, a soft green haven, full of movement and bird song. No one else is ever around when I come here, it's like a cocoon. I am trying that thing where the more I make my body and mind still, the easier it becomes to pick out a chipmunk, the robins, a downy woodpecker, a blue jay flashing blue, quite a ways away. At first, I am bamboozled by leaves falling, and shadows of blowing limbs, but eventually it becomes clear what is a living thing like me. It is genuinely beautiful in here.
See a flicker, post a flicker. This little bastard didn't get anywhere near me.
  • Why isn’t there a product that is both sunscreen and insect repellent? I hope people just pile on me in the comments because I'm so dumb I don't know about the perfect product that is this exact thing. This pretty little spot is full of bugs, and I need to wipe the sweat off my face, so I move on.
  • Sara Kate, do you truly believe that ticks are watching you, waiting for the moment when you pull your bandana down off your hair to wipe your face, and then planning to pounce in the three seconds before you re-situate and pull it back up again? Yes, I do, because they are.
  • Oh, hot damn, hahahhaah, it's a blöödchëëp! Look at this hideous bird. I love her so much.
Cardinals will sometimes go through something called a 'catastrophic molt,' where rather than slowly shedding and regrowing feathers, they'll lose all of their head feathers in a burst and just have to wait it out, like a bad haircut. Having a mouthful of bug really makes this shot for me, a portrait of a bird that usually looks as plump and satisfied as a TV mob wife.
  • A pill that makes you immune to sunburn and mosquitoes for 90 minutes, and you can take two in row before it's time to go inside for 90 minutes, and then you can do it again. What are scientists even doing.
  • Sunday mornings are my favorite time for birding, I think. The gloomies have not set in yet, I have usually managed to free myself from obligations and errands for the day, and the mid-morning quiet disposes me to feel gratitude and connection to the earth.
  • Like devout churchgoers feel about actual church, I suppose: I don't get the feeling every time I go, it would be weird and debilitating if I did, but every now and then I get a glimmer of something big and special that wants me to know about it. It is very energizing, and, for want of a better word, for someone who has been wilting in the heat and blues of summer, it is a bit of a revival.
  • There have been blue jays hollering all over this park, and it has taken me an embarrassingly long time to realize that they are a family, and not in a fight. There are five hanging out together, with the young ones looking almost exactly like the adults at this stage. I would not have figured it out, probably, if I hadn't seen the biggest one feed one something.
This is one of the young ones. Almost grown, but not quite. Not just the size; you can see that looseness still around the corners of his mouth.
  • I bet that little collection of titmice, which were on the log pile the last time I was here and are here again today, are the same story. They do all look young and cute.
Pretty cute. I think you have to age into that brownish wash on the belly.
  • A very respectable list today, in less than two hours. And it's barely 95. I feel better than I have in a while, refreshed and restored to order.

BOTD: White-breasted nuthatch. I feel like I got several good photos today, and I could make and argument for every bird I saw, which was a bunch. Most of the others have better photos; this nuthatch was a little too close for clarity, but I haven't featured one in ages and they're cute.

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