The Birding Friends of Little Hunting Creek celebrate the many wetland species of birds that migrate or live along Little Hunting Creek. We work to restore and preserve their habitats there. Several riparian parcels have been preserved in collaboration with the Northern Conservation Trust, which owns or holds conservation easements on them.  Betsy Martin's property is one such parcel.  It's also certified as a Wildlife Sanctuary. 

The Backyard Birdathon competition is the perfect fit for the Wildlife Sanctuary program, which is all about creating habitat in ones backyard.  If you've created habitat you should have plenty of birds to count!  (Of course it helps if the certified Wildlife Sanctuary happens to be located on a shoreline and includes freshwater tidal wetlands.)  

The Birding Friends of Little Hunting Creek started participating in Backyard Birdathon on this spot three years ago.  This year we had our best year ever--we observed 49 species on May 11 (there were four more that only one of us saw or heard). 

We started at 5:30 a.m., and the rain started pretty soon thereafter.  It was cold and wet all morning, but the weather bothered the humans more than it did the birds. We got a Swainson's thrush, a first for some of us, and a Spotted Sandpiper. Great egret was a surprise so early in the season.

The best part was, the Swainson's showed up in my backyard for several mornings thereafter, singing for me. What a treat.

Here's the report of all the birds we saw and heard on May 11:  

Last year's (2025) team--Paul Siegel, Betsy Martin, and Claire Kluskens