The View From Over Here: Lake Anne Loses Small Green Resident

One of the things we enjoy most about living on Lake Anne is the wonderful variety of wildlife we observe in, on and around this lovely small lake.

We see colorful painted turtles; big, ugly snappers, and fast-moving water snakes.  Our son and grandson catch large-mouth bass, black crappie, and pumpkin seed. One afternoon a couple of years ago, grandson Cole even caught the biggest bullfrog (measuring 14i nches from toes to nose--see photo) I have ever seen, under the Van Gogh Bridge.

We see an impressive array of aquatic and other birds all year round—including great blue herons, mallards, cormorants, kingfishers and many varieties of ducks.  One bird we used to see every spring but haven’t seen this year is the green heron, a smaller member of the heron family. 

I remember watching this colorful—green, brown, black with spindly yellow legs—little guy hunting in the canal end of the lake. He would stand perfectly still peering intently into the shallow water where he stood, then he’d take one step forward and freeze for 30 seconds-a minute-two minutes, then take a another step and stand perfectly still.  Until, suddenly, his beak shot into the water and came out with a tiny frog:  dinner!  On another occasion, I watched him stalk and ultimately catch a minnow.

Recently, we went to an art exhibition at the Reston Community Center in Hunters Woods.  I was especially impressed with one photo by Lake Anne resident and photographer extraordinaire Christine Waleski.  It was entitled “Clutch of Green Heron” (see Waleski photo), a nest of baby herons tucked away within the dense greenery of trees.

 I saw the artist and took a moment to ask her where it was taken.  She told me she took it near the Van Gogh bridge at Lake Anne.  She said it was snapped it a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, she added, the trees where the nest was located had since been cut down.

In fact, about 30 trees, according to a count by an RA arborist, had been removed from the site, to make way for some new landscaping we were told.  Only six trees were to have been downed, but for some reason the modest stand had been nearly clear cut.  Also lost was the tree-shielded thicket where
our green heron laid her eggs and raised her young each spring.

Reston Association staff told me that they were requiring the landowner to do substantially more landscaping in order to make up for the overcutting of trees.  While only three small trees have been planted where 30 were taken, additional plantings—flowering bushes and perennial flowering plants—have now been added as well.  The additional landscaping is, in fact, lovely.

The three trees and the additional professional landscaping work will make the site as attractive as it was before, maybe even more so.  But, it is different.  Without the tree cover which provided a nesting place for them and their annual brood, the green herons will no longer be a part of our Lake Anne neighborhood. 

They will be missed.