Hello Everyone,

 

Can anyone tell me if they themselves or others they know have birded the McMillan Reservoir and Grassland?  It is located immediately south of Washington Hospital Center at Michigan Ave. NW and !st Street NW.  The reservoir itself seems quite deep and is attracting waterfowl, large numbers of gulls and, of course geese.  This place seems to be a well-kept secret, but I have to think others have birded it over the years and may even have keep records.

 

An even better kept secret is the large grassland area bordered by Michigan Ave. NW, 1st Street. NW, and North Capitol.  The grass is pretty wild, but quite short, and provides a great number of perches on the old "waterworks ruins".  I've seen some pretty neat stuff here recently - mainly hunting raptors (Kestrels, Merlin, Coopers hawk).  I am going to bird it pretty intensively this fall/winter to see what grassland birds and raptors (short-eared Owl, Rough-legged Hawk, ...?) might show up.  

 

Both sites have chain linked fences around them like the Georgetown Reservoir, but the diving ducks seem to like to hangout in the extreme northwest quadrant - very close to the fence.  So far I've gotten American coot, Lesser Scaup, Pie-billed Grebe, Ring-necked Duck in the past ten days.  There are huge numbers of gulls in the late afternoon, but I have not yet made an effort to pick through them.

 

I really like this place as it is about five minutes from my house in Columbia Heights, DC and is easier to get to than the Georgetown reservoir.  Please consider this as an "invite" to all DC area birders to give it a whirl when the migrant winds are blowing right!

 

Jason Berry

Columbia Heights,

Washington, DC

 

 

P.S. For directions you can use mapquest and put in 2800 1st Street, NW, Washington, DC  20001.  Parking can be had either on this stretch of 1st Ave near Michigan Ave.(paking meters are cheap)