Huntley Meadows Weather
Weather


When you visit Huntley Meadows:


Huntley Meadows Park

3701 Lockheed Blvd.
Alexandria, Va. 22306
703-768-2525


Trails open dawn to dark daily


Current Visitor Center Hours


Fall


Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

9AM-5PM
CLOSED
9AM-5PM
9AM-5PM
9AM-5PM
Noon-5PM
Noon-5PM

Holiday Hours

Annual Bird-a-thon and Beyond!

2021 will see the 25th Bird-a-thon Friends of Huntley Meadows Park (FOHMP) has hosted to raise funds to support the Park’s summer Resource Management (RM) Intern. For 23 years, the counting of birds at Huntley Meadows Park (HMP) was done solely by a select group of birders on one morning in May. The 2020 Bird-a-thon coincided with the closure of Fairfax County Parks due to the COVID pandemic, causing the FOHMP Board to rethink how to conduct the annual event. The FOHMP Board decided to change the event to Bird-a-thon and Beyond! We invited everyone to join us in counting the birds in their back yards or neighborhoods for a week in early May. The final tally was then posted on our website, http://fohmp.org/.

The Board of FOHMP had so much fun seeing the results come in from those who birded with us. We think our friends also had fun joining in the count. So, this year we will again be asking our friends to bird with us in your back yards, local parks, or other locations. After the count is over, email friendsofhmp@gmail.com with a list of where you watched, how much time you spent counting birds at that location, the bird species you saw and number of each. We will create a full tally of the bird species sighted.

Please do your count anytime between May 1 and May 7, 2021. The usual group of birders will return to count in the Park during this same week, following all guidelines in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

If you don’t count any birds, there is another important way that you may contribute - you can make a donation. As always, the Bird-A-Thon is also a fundraiser that supports the Park’s RM Intern. Over the years, many on the Board of FOHMP have had the privilege of interacting with the interns in this position, and we all believe they have helped the Park tremendously through assistance with land stewardship and conservation. Additionally, this internship provides a young person with needed hands-on experience as he or she begins a career in conservation.

Sophia Chapin said of her time as the 2020 RM Intern, “Working at HMP has reminded me of all the reasons I want to work in conservation. I am excited to apply the skills I learned during my time at HMP identifying species, collecting and analyzing data and composing reports into my studies at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Front Royal this fall.

Your generous donation will help us reach our goal of $3,000 to fund the 2021 RM Intern. You can donate a set amount, an amount for every bird counted, or for every species counted. For ease of processing, we prefer donations to be made through our Paypal account. Go to our website homepage, http://fohmp.org, and look for the donate button! Alternatively, you can use the form below.

Good birding!
The Board of Friends of Huntley Meadows Park