Arlington County

House Finch, © Yamil Saenz

At 26 square miles, Arlington County is the smallest self-governing county in the United States. It has a robust history, with the most notable fact being that the land was ceded to the U.S. federal government to become part of the nation’s capital in 1790, only to be returned back to the commonwealth of Virginia in 1801, eventually being designated as Arlington County. It is the 4th most densely populated county in the country, with almost 230,000 residents, or about 8,800 people/sq. mi. Fairfax County, the Cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, and the Potomac River surround it. Across the river is Washington, D.C. 

The location within the Washington metropolitan area means that the county is extensively developed. Consequently, one finds high-rise birding deserts such as the Roslyn/Ballston corridor and Crystal City/Pentagon City next to bird-rich residential neighborhoods lined with stately canopies of mature hardwoods. Of the total open space in the county only 738 acres of “natural lands” remain,
constituting less than 5% of Arlington’s landmass. Well over half of the defined natural lands occur on properties owned by the National Park Service as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway system. The remaining acreage consists almost entirely of parcels found within Arlington County-owned parkland, two properties owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and two parks managed by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.

The most critical county-owned natural lands are found along streams such as Four Mile Run, Lubber Run and Donaldson Run. The federal government owns other key natural lands, including the relatively inaccessible Arlington National Cemetery and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as well as the aforementioned George Washington Memorial Parkway. It is this last area that is the most interesting part of the county from a birder’s perspective as it provides extensive woodlands for passerines combined with the Potomac River for waterbirds and other birds that use the river as a flyway. However, to the dismay of state and county listers, the Virginia/D.C. boundary is the high tide mark on the Virginia bank of the river, which means that any birds on or over the river are technically in the District of Columbia. And while the county may lack habitat diversity (hardwood deciduous forest and riverine habitat are the rule), it makes up for it in being a very green county that is refuge to virtually all the neotropical migrants that pass through the area on  migration. Two prominent birding hotspots that are accessed from the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington County actually are located in the District of Columbia: Theodore Roosevelt Island and Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove-Columbia Marina.

The Arlington bird list stands at 239 species, with notable records including: Greater White-fronted Goose, nesting Mississippi Kites, Upland Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Snowy Owl, Rufous Hummingbird, a historical record of Kirtland’s Warbler, and Clay-colored Sparrow.

—Paul Pisano

Hotspots

Sources

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