Dave Eckert will be making a 30-minute digital video film for the Friends of
Dyke Marsh. It will be titled On the Edge–The Potomac River Dyke
Marsh Preserve. The film is being made in conjunction with the 30th
anniversary of the Friends of Dyke Marsh in 2006.
The film is scheduled to be premiered at the DC Environmental Film Festival
during the week of March 20, 2006. Dave will be at the Friend’s
quarterly meeting on September 7 to give a presentation about the
making and distributing of the film.
Eckert’s films have been premiered at the DC Environmental Film Festival
for each of the past four years.
Dave has made a name as a local environmental film maker by focusing on
local water and other environmental issues in the metropolitan Washington
area. His most recent film, “Reining in the Storm–One Building at
a Time” is about Low Impact Development and has received significant
local, regional and national attention. Funded by the Commonwealth of
Virginia and sponsored by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, copies
have been distributed by the State to every jurisdiction to encourage better
storm water management practices.
His previous local environmental films include:
Reviving an Urban Stream–Four Mile Run which was hosted by Mutual
of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom star Jim Fowler.
Reclaiming Our Water–The Occoquan River Watershed narrated by
NPR’s Frank Stasio.
Laying Down Roots about the values and methods to create a viable
urban tree planting program.
Dave was born along the Hudson River and received degrees from Duke
University and California State University at Los Angeles. His
corporate life was spent at Unisys Corporation and the National Headquarters
for the American Red Cross. His environmental film making grew out of
a combination of his environmental activism in northern Virginia and past
experience filming for a business he owned in Los Angeles.
Dave is also Vice-President of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation (www.tinnerhill.org),
Director and past president of the Falls Church Village Preservation and
Improvement Society, and Commissioner and past chair of the Falls Church
City Tree Commission (15 years). He is also the founder of many
cultural events and environmental projects in the Falls Church area.
Dave is married to environmental educator Annette Mills and is the father of
California organic farmer Marta Eckert-Mills.
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Mississippi Kite
(www.BirdsofOklahoma.net)
|
Ictinia mississippiensis, The Mississippi Kite, will be soaring gracefully over
the Potomac close to Dyke Marsh as its
migration to South America begins in late August. This medium sized raptor of 12
to 14 inches in length takes its favorite prey, dragonflies and other large
flying insects, on the wing in acrobatic aerial dips and turns. The kite is a colonial nester which extended
its breeding into Fairfax County
last year with confirmed breeding close to the intersection of Fort Hunt Road
and Stagecoach Road.
Viewing of the buoyant flight is best seen over Carl Sandburg
Intermediate School but sightings over Waynewood Elementary and the adjacent
neighborhood are not unusual. The
Mississippi kite appears to be nesting at a second site in since observations of
two adults with one young bird were confirmed at the intersection of Rolling
Road and Braddock this year.
This species has its largest populations in the Gulf Coast and lower
Great Plains regions but it is now expanding back into its Eastern range. The
bird appears to prefer proximity to rivers and lakes. It tolerates human presence although during nesting season
swooping flights over encroaching humans may result in occasional strikes
with potential for talon induced abrasions or lacerations.
Feeding in the area of Carl Sandburg is most frequent between 4 p.m. to 6
p.m. Morning flights in search of insects usually await the help of thermal
lift to aid gliding.
Try to catch a glimpse of this beautiful raptor with its strongly
patterned white gray and black colors observed in the adults. By the end of August they will have begun their long journey of migration
but will return to the area in the first week of May.
- Ed Eder
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