On August 28, 2021, 18 plant lovers studied the diversity of Dyke Marsh’s plant life, on a Haul Road trail walk led by Alan Ford and Margaret Chatham of the Virginia Native Plant Society’s Potowmack Chapter.
Why insects need trees was the theme of the walk for 16 nature enthusiasts in Dyke Marsh led by arborist Jessica Strother on September 4, 2021. She titled the walk, “Trees and their Insect Friends.”
On August 28, Todd Kiraly, Steve Bielamowicz and Sherman Suter saw and reported a buff-breasted sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis) in the Hunting Creek mudflats, just north of Dyke Marsh. This was a first sighting and a record for the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP). This is bird number 294 for GWMP.
Virginia Wildlife magazine chose the photographs of two talented members of the Friends of Dyke Marsh for the magazine’s annual Photography Showcase, published in the July-August 2021 issue: Barbara Saffir and Jane Gamble. Congratulations!
Since 2016, devoted volunteers have surveyed Dyke Marsh for butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies once a month, often observing many other insects and wildlife too. Here are a few examples of 2021 sightings. Thank you, Rusty Moran, for your observations and photographs.
The first photo is the gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus). As its name suggests, this species of butterfly belongs to a group of butterflies with hairlike markings on the underside of their wings. Fairly common, this species lives in a variety of habitats. Its caterpillars feed on a variety of plants.
On April 9 and May 27, 2021, FODM volunteers conducted habitat quality monitoring in an unnamed, intermittent stream that flows through Mount Vernon Park into west Dyke Marsh. FODM started this project in 2016.
On May 27, the stream had the highest number of macroinvertebrates that FODM volunteers have ever seen there – 206. “Although most were midges, it was still very, very exciting,” observed Ashley Palmer, Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (NVSWCD), who led the group. Palmer explains, “Midges are small macroinvertebrates considered to be tolerant of pollution. Finding many midges in a stream usually indicates poor water quality, but at this site we likely find more midges due to the intermittent stream flow which can make it more difficult for more sensitive species to be present. A healthy stream has a large number and wide variety of macroinvertebrates.”
