I headed out today for a walk on the Occoquan Trail which runs 17 miles from Bull Run Regional Park to Fountainhead Regional Park along Bull Run Creek. The trail meanders along the creek and up into the hills and creek overlooks. I figured it would be messy since we had a six inch dump of wet snow a couple of weeks ago and temps today were in the low fifties. I didn’t expect to see much in the way of critters.
It was muddy as hell in many spots making for slippery, sloppy conditions. But I had the good fortune to meet a couple at the top of a hill, as I was breathing heavily from the ascend, who had just seen a hawk, Bluebirds, a Downy woodpecker and, they said, a Red Headed woodpecker. I stopped to pull out my binos and caught all the aforementioned birds less the hawk.
I pondered the likelihood of seeing a Red Headed woodpecker at the time and a bit later after checking my bird book realized that the woodpecker was really a Red-breasted which are much more common in my area. The Bluebirds were brilliant. I have seen them before later on in the season when their colors are not so vibrant. I followed a flock of them for awhile and everyone I saw had very pronounced blue on the back and wings as well as pronounced orange on the breast. Beautiful birds! I also saw a Tufted Titmouse. To cap it off, I heard either one rapidly moving Bard owl or two of them calling out to each other.
There was a downside to the whole venture unfortunately. As soon as I got on the trail I heard and saw 4-wheelers on the other side of the creek. One was stuck revving its annoying engine trying to get out while a mud-splattered friend was trying to push. Never in the three or four years I have been hiking on this trail have I encountered 4-wheelers. They were not on my side of the creek in the park but they were certainly annoying. I saw at least four 4-wheelers and one dirt bike and heard them and smelled the exhaust for most of the six mile hike I took.
I could see the trails they had blazed including areas where they went in and out of the creek to the islands and up and down the embankments. The noise and smell was annoying enough but when I think about the potential erosion and degradation of the flood plain and all the crap that will flow down the creek to the reservoir and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay I just cringe. I also have two friends who live on that side of the creek who must hate the noise of these off road vehicles.
It is a shame that the northern side, the Fairfax County side, is protected as parkland but the Prince William County side to the south is wide open to such abuse and devastation.