This area is important for both wildlife and water quality, providing a natural filter for suburban run-off. Be sure to visit the nature center before exploring the park. The park offers handicap accessible trails, boardwalks, and viewing platforms. The forest hosts a broad diversity of breeding, migrant, and wintering birds. Yellow-billed cuckoo, prothonotary warbler, red-shouldered hawk, Acadian flycatcher, eastern wood-pewee, and red-headed woodpecker breed in these woods during summer months. Year-round avian residents include barred owl, great horned owl, pileated woodpecker, and wild turkey. The forest is also home to diverse insect life. Look for an abundance of butterflies and dragonflies during summer months. Southern pearly eye, eyed brown, red admiral, zabulon and silver-spotted skippers can be seen flitting below the deciduous canopy. Diverse dragonflies, such as the eastern pondhawk, twelve-spotted and great blue skimmers, and common green darner zip through the woods in search of prey. The forest floor is also home to a wide array of amphibians and reptiles. Its scaled inhabitants include northern water snake, eastern ribbon snake, and five-lined skink. An elevated boardwalk offers views of marsh-loving birds such as great egret, hooded merganser and common yellowthroat.
Huntley Meadows Park protects over 1,500 acres of breathtaking forested and open wetland areas. Huntley Meadows is a natural depression surrounded by urban development.
Huntley Meadows Park entrance Nestled in Fairfax County's Hybla Valley, Huntley Meadows Park is a rich, natural island in the suburban sea of Northern Virginia.
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Blue-Jay in Huntley Meadows Park, Virginia As elusive (yet also curiously aggressive toward other birds) as they tend to be, this Blue-Jay turned out to be one tough customer to photograph. Huntley Meadows Park, VA.
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American Blue Jay, a.k.a Cyanocitta cristata * The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird, and a member of the family Corvidae native to North America. It belongs to the "blue" or American jays, which are, among the Corvidae, not closely related to other jays.
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Huntley Meadows Park and the Chesapeake Bay Huntley Meadows Park and the Chesapeake Bay are inexorably linked by their proximity to each other. The Chesapeake's watershed area is 64,299 square miles and covers parts of six states and the District of Columbia.
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No Bikes Allowed! Huntley Meadows Park in Northern Virginia take their wildlife sanctuary designation extremely seriously as this sign will attest to!
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