Manassas Park’s newest addition to its parks system is Blooms Park, formerly General’s Ridge Golf Course (and formerly in Prince William County!). In May 2019, Prince William County decided to shutter the course, and an agreement with Manassas Park resulted in the City taking over the land, with the intention of turning the property into a city park. The result is a 270-acre “passive” park, with hiking permitted along the former cart paths that connected the links. Probably not good news for the area’s putters (though the County’s reason for closing the course was due to lack of use by golfers), but it is a windfall for birders.
As of this writing (July 2020), the park has only been visited by eBirders on six occasions. The resulting roster of birds is a meager 58 species. With time, birders will likely rack up close to 100 species from this mostly-forested land. Aside from the semi-mature forest, the fairways, greens, and tee-boxes have been left to fallow naturally. Within a year, these open areas are chest high, dominated by Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum). These growing fields are already attracting species that were unlikely to be encountered in years past. Blue Grosbeaks now breed here, and Indigo Buntings and Brown Thrashers are making good use of the former fairways. But the forest is the story here. Any forest-dwelling species for this region will likely be found here as birders begin to visit. As the golf course was managed to keep short-grass fairways and roughs, the local White-tailed Deer did lasting damage to the undergrowth and low-hanging foliage of the woods. The forest floor is essentially devoid of growth. Saplings are leafless, ferns absent, and there’s no green groundcover. As other plant life takes hold in the open spaces, the deer are likely to spare the forest some, and hopefully species like Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, Worm-eating Warbler, and maybe even Kentucky and Hooded Warblers could find suitable breeding habitat over the next few years and beyond.
Along the path there is a small pond. While it is too small (only about two-thirds of an acre) and too wooded along the edges to attract a wide variety of ducks, there’s a good chance that Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and Mallards could be spotted here from time to time (the latter has already appeared on an eBird checklist). Lucky birders might even find a Bufflehead or Ring-necked Duck hanging out at the right time of year. There is also a portion of the path that walks along Russia Branch, as well as coming within 50 meters of Bull Run. Species expected along streams and rivers should be found here.
There is plenty of opportunity to search open sky while making the trek through the park. In late summer, keen birders might find swallows that have dispersed or already headed south. Purple Martin is the only swallow species on the list (Barn and Northern Rough-winged Swallow are the only two other swallows recorded in Manassas Park as of July 2020). Raptors are also likely to be spotted by folks regularly scanning the sky while in open spaces at the park, and Manassas Park still has no report of any falcon or Northern Harrier.
Accessibility: Worth noting is that the while the trail is paved, it is surprisingly steep in places. The City claims the path is a 3.4-mile loop. Without deviating from the trail, this writer’s GPS tracking showed the loop at over four miles. There are some places in the pavement where it is cracked and chunks of asphalt are missing, but otherwise it is in fine shape. Steep slopes might get slippery when wet. Several sturdy benches are encountered along the way, including along the dam at the pond. There are no services along the way, and once one has committed to the walk and reached the half-way point, there is no shortcut back to the vehicle. Parking is free and ample. The address of the park is 9701 Manassas Drive, Manassas Park, Virginia.
Owner/Manager: City of Manassas Park
eBird Hotspot: Blooms Park
—Todd Michael Day