Back in the UK

Sunrise at Heathrow 

Georgetown

We spent an afternoon being shown around the National Cathedral and the University by our hosts here in DC.

It was an enjoyable way to spend a very sunny if blustery afternoon. It seems we are getting the tail end of hurricane Matthew. 

You'll have to excuse us if there are a lot of pictures and few words as we had a meal out and it's getting rather late for blogging. 

First the National Cathedral - we had to take care to avoid the scaffolding which is in place to repair damage done by an earthquake in 2011. 

Lots of excellent stained glass and interesting gargoyles of seemingly different eras. The glass was casting a beautiful light across the inside of the building. 

Does this guy have a pair of binoculars?

The cathedral also has a very pretty garden, called the Bishop's Garden, so there were numerous photo ops

In the entrance forecourt of the cathedral there was an exhibition of sculpture by a Danish artist depicting the Carnival of the Animals, which was a modern take on the old established use of animal decoration of religious buildings.

Eric just couldn't take this too seriously and had to get involved

The result of a blast from hurricane Matthew. 

The frontage of some of the Georgetown University buildings in where our friend teaches.

We are now preparing for our return journey having had a great time in an excellently located apartment in the centre of Washington DC and more importantly seeing my pen friend. We started writing to each other in the third form in junior school so think we've done pretty well! 

Bird List

1 W Canada Goose

2 W Mallard

3 W Blue-winged Teal

4 W Northern Shoveler

5 W Pied-billed Grebe

6 W Double-crested Cormorant

7 W Great Blue Heron

8 W Great Egret

9 W Snowy Egret

10 W Osprey

11 W Sharp-shinned Hawk

12 W Bald Eagle

13 W Red-shouldered Hawk

14 W Greater Yellowlegs

15 W Lesser Yellowlegs

16 W Laughing Gull

17 W Ring-billed Gull

18 W Caspian Tern

19 W Forster's Tern

20 W Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)

21 W Barred Owl

22 W Chimney Swift

23 W Belted Kingfisher

24 W Red-headed Woodpecker

25 W Red-bellied Woodpecker

26 W Downy Woodpecker

27 W Northern Flicker

28 W Eastern Phoebe

29 W Blue Jay

30 W American Crow

31 W Fish Crow

32 W Northern Rough-winged Swallow

33 W White-breasted Nuthatch

34 W Carolina Wren

35 W Catharus sp. -- Small American thrush, Swainson's or Grey-cheeked

36 W American Robin

37 W Gray Catbird

38 W Northern Mockingbird

39 W European Starling

40 W Cedar Waxwing

41 W Cape May Warbler

42 W Northern Parula

43 W Magnolia Warbler

44 W Blackpoll Warbler

45 W Palm Warbler (Yellow)

46 W Yellow-rumped Warbler

47 W Black-throated Green Warbler

48 W Swamp Sparrow

49 W Northern Cardinal

50 W Red-winged Blackbird

51 W Common Grackle

52 W House Finch

53 W American Goldfinch

54 W Song Sparrow

55 W Carolina Chickadee

56 W Mourning Dove

57 C Harlequin duck

58 C Wood duck

59 C Common eider

60 C Northern Gannet

61 C snow Goose

62 C Red Necked Grebe

63 C Black Guilliemot

64 C Boneparte's Gull

65 C Lesser Blackback gull

66 C Dark Eyed Junco

67 C American Kestrel 

68 C Red Knot

69 C Common Loon

70 C Merlin

71 C American Golden Plover

72 C Black Bellied Plover

73 C Semipalmated Plover

74 C Razorbill 

75 C Sanderling

76 C Least Sandpiper

77 C Solitary Sandpiper

78 C House Sparrow

79 C Tree Swallow

80 C Wild Turkey

81 C Whimbrel

82 C Pileated Woodpecker 

83 C Common Yellowthroat 

84.   C      Pine Siskin

85.   C      King Eider

Much More Museums

We worked out the walking order for our museums tour today. They have promised lots of rain for today but it hasn't started yet.  First port of call is to be The Spy Museum, it's just around the corner and a little bit along F street. We checked yesterday and it opens at 10am.  Don' t know why but decided to look this morning - and it opens at 9 today. The Lonley Planet guide says it's very popular, and it is a Saturday, so we hotfoot it around there, arriving just prior to a coach load of rather boisterous children on an outing.  We manage to get in before them as the supervisor rounds them up prior to entry.  Once you buy your ticket entry is via a dark lift pulsing with red and blue lights and a lady sends you off with a salute and 'Good luck with your mission, agents".  We have to choose a cover identity and memorise the details - we will be tested later! And the consequences could be dire if you blow your cover. 

The other chose to be an Portugese business man, which later seriously aroused the suspicions of the border guards. 

There were lots of interactive bits of equipment to play with, and later, a mission to memorise.  There were also lots of other interesting exhibits including multiple ways of dropping off secret papers and signals, or hiding the same - some of which looked seriously painful. Also you could play at spotting enemy camps etc from satellite images, and picking out spies in disguise from video footage.  They also had some ceiling ducting/ ventilation shafts that you could crawl through and spy on the people below.  We both gave this a miss - confined spaces are not our favourite! The children loved it though, as you can imagine. The museum covered a fairly long historical period from Troy, Romans, Walsingham, Queen Mary,  right up to fairly modern day. It showed some examples of how the Soviets and Americans (and the British) used to bug each other's embassies, as well as war time espionage (but then if you've been to Bletchley Park this is old hat).  Of course there is a whole section on The James Bond movies as well. 

Eric plays at being a Soviet spymaster.

Exiting the museum - oops - it's pouring with rain. Luckily we have an umbrella and our emergency ponchos (not the most elegant of couture, but serves a purpose).  There is now a large queue waiting to go in, standing patiently in the rain, so we are glad we arrived early.

The next Museum on the list is The National Building Museum, a museum of architecture, design, urban planning and construction - it sounds so exciting I bet you wish you were going there. 

They even have a long plastic bag for you to put your umbrella in so it doesn't drip all over their nice floor.

Although many of the Smithsonian Institution museums in DC are free, we have picked two museums today that we have to pay for. Turns out there is also a American Makers Craft Fair in this museum today as well - but that was an extra 15 USD each if we wanted to go in there to buy gifts, so we satisfied ourselves with just the exhibits, and a view of the hall from the balcony - pretty impressive pillars.

The displays were divided into several rooms, most of which you were not allowed to take photos in.  One of the exhibits covered the design and making of the WWll Memorial near the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, including both the friezes and the main wreath. The latter was too look as if it were floating or being held aloft by Bald Eagles. Although we were not allowed to photograph in here we had already photographed the wreath for real on one of our walks, without knowing the history behind the design.

There was also an exhibition of The Sixities (you know your old when you recognise half the exhibits).

Eric got a good groove on doing the Twist.

It was still raining when we exited this museum.  A good couple of blocks further south we find our final  stop, The Air and Space Museum.  This is one of the free ones, and there's a queue out of the door (they are doing security checks on bags). Trying hard not to get too close to the men in front as they had no coats or umbrella and ours was on the way to dripping down their backs.  Not too long before we are in, bags scanned (the security guards were standing at the side, although there was no-one sitting looking at what was going through?!). The place is 'jumping', very, very full. Nearly all the major attractions, such as Skylab, iMax theatre, planetarium and simulators have long queues waiting.  A bit too many people for us, but we do take a tour around the levels.

A very large Soviet rocket.

Some of the space ships (particularly the silver one in the background) looked like 'Here's one I made earlier' of Blue Peter fame.  How they survived in space we don't know.

And the site of the fake moon landing shots? Only joking! 

Eric contemplates taking a ride to see if he can find Ben, as he always loved Montgolfier ballooning.

Still raining on our return to rest up tired feet.

Around the Capital

After an exhausting two days we had a very relaxed breakfast, not finishing till well after 10am. 

Then we set off to the botanical garden where we were to have a guided tour arranged by our American friends.

On the way we passed the Capital Building and took a much better view of it than previously.  There were, however, barriers preventing closer access as they are preparing for the inauguration. We thought this a rather early start now when the ceremony isn't until January. Our assumption is that Mr. Trump has insisted that it is all painted gold or he won't turn up. White is so last century!!

We cut off all the barriers and workmen that were filling the foreground. 

Next into the garden. whose entrance sculpture (roots) entertained Eric for a few moments.

The garden is a bit like the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire, with different areas devoted to to different climates, and areas of native plantings, but unlike in Wales, they have a First Lady's Garden, plus a lawn and Rose Garden that is used by Congress for their parties.  Llanarthney would be a bit far for our Assembly Members to travel unless they were on a jolly.

Far too many good things here to picture but attempted a few.

And my favourite (no need to guess who's writing this!)

No sign of a Cadbury logo but it is a chocolate tree and Eric decides to swat up on the recipe thinking he might pinch few fruits and have a go. 

From here we head for lunch at the cafeteria in the National Gallery of Art, which we approached via this rather futuristic moving walkway. A tour of the mostly unintelligible Modern Art section, although with some interesting pieces.  Then we moved upstairs passing under the Calder Installation, a 76ft long assemblage of moving abstract structures making up a mobile that hangs over the central court. It was designed, using an ingenious system of weights and counter balances, to move powered only by slight air currents. We have seen several smaller versions of this type of sculpture on our various travels, often including them in the blog, but Calder is credited with being the instigator of such art. 

Our afternoon was taken up with further exploration of the gallery and then we decided to checkout our means of getting to the airport. Everyone has been at pains to say that Dulles airports is not the easiest to reach. We find that there is a direct bus so do some investigating as to from where and when. We fing L'enfant Plaza but are unsure where the 5a metro bus top is. A very helpful gentleman, with a Georgetown University sweatshirt on, comes to give us some assistance (I guess we must have looked a little lost), and shows us where to go. Then it's back to the apartment for the evening and to get a meal. 

BirdingDC, Fairfax County, Virginia

An early start today, we are being picked up at seven-thirty for our DC Birding tour.  We should issue a warning now that there are quite a few bird pictures with the odd landscape shot, butterfly, snake, flower, turtles, crickets and dragonflies. It's all we've done all day, so if it doesn't float your boat then look away now (we can see that bored yawn from here). 

A Forster's Tern. 

With a fish in it's mouth.

There were also Caspian Tern.

Osprey

Greater Egret - there were loads of these around.

Pied Bill Grebe.

A Mourning Dove 

Blue-winged Teal

A relief landscape shot. After years of debate Maryland decided to start building the bridge from their end and hoped Virginia would meet them in the middle. It obviously worked. 

Ring billed gull

American Robin

Juvenile bald eagle

Oh look, another landscape shot of the Potomac River. Whereas the river border between most states is down the middle of the river. The Potomac was given to Maryland completely by Mad King George. There is a small bay adjoining it that is in Virginia.

Double crested cormorant, eating what we first though was an eel, then realised that it was struggling with a Northern Water Snake, which wrapped itself around the bird's neck. Cormorant is obviously trying to eat it, but it's a non- venomous snake with attitude, and it was fighting back.

Eventually the bird gave up and swam off - 1 nil to the snake 

Scruffy Great Blue Heron standing on an Osprey nest

Some Laughing Gulls - as you may be able to spot we were by a marina.

Here's a closer view of one of the Laughing Gulls.

Some Fish Crow - they are slightly smaller than the American Crow and have a different call - sound a bit like a Punch and Judy show.

There was a Red-shouldered Hawk sitting in a tree on the Island, as well as a Banded Kingfisher.

On our way back to the car we see some Red-wing Blackbird - the female (brown) looks almost like a different species entirely - but it isn't!

And a butterfly - a Monarch

Next stop some woodland - good spotting of Cardinals, several different Warblers and Flycatchers as well as Red-bellied Woodpecker. 

It doesn't really have much of a red belly, but there was already a red-headed one when this one was described so they had to think of something else.

And Downy Woodpecker. There are plenty of leaves left on the trees here and consequently quite difficult to photograph some of the species.

Palm Warbler

An Eastern Phoebe 

An Empidonax Flycatcher - could be a couple of different species but indistinguishable unless it sings - and the fat lady was not singing today.

An as yet unidentified flower. Looks a bit like a Vinca, but maybe not.

A White-breasted Nuthatch

 A Northern Flicker.

Just to show it's not all birds - spot the wasps nest in the tree. Ha - we didn't mention that in our introductory spiel did we? 

Pretty amazing bit of construction.

Then it's onto some wetland boardwalk and a view of a Mockingbird.

A Great Blue Heron that looked more like a garden statue.

and then another wetland site with an extensive boardwalk that was actually called a Meadows wildlife site. 

With some dragonflies

A colourfully marked cricket. 

As well as birds, including this rather beautiful Cat Bird (because it's song sounds like a mew).

and an American Goldfinch feeding on the thistles.

To make a change - another landscape, looking the other way this time.

There are Muskrat and Beaver here. We saw a 'V' ripple in the water and a little brown nose poking out, too small for a beaver so think it was a Muskrat. 

The Beaver's here are very industrious, so much so that they decided to build a lodge that included a bench and part of the boardwalk - this has been partially cleared now, but our guide told us that the lodge appeared overnight, completely covered the bench, was halfway across the board walk and there were wet beaver prints leading to the water. Guess they might have thought that the bench made good roofing material.

We thought this was a rock in the middle of the wetland at first, but then it moved and revealed itself as a Snapping Turtle - this one was a 'moderate size'.

There are a few different kinds, and they like to come out and sit in the sun on logs - the one on the right is a Painted Turtle, the one on the left a Red-necked and the middle one is a UST (unidentified swimming turtle).

The best was saved until last. Returning to the car we heard the unmistakable call of a Barred Owl, which if you've been paying attention you will remember a demonstration of the same on the Acadia birding trip.  This time, however, it was not our guide making the noise but the real thing, and we got to see it as well. Brilliant!

First it was only a rear view.

Bingo, it turned it's head to look at us before flying off.

A long but enjoyable day. You'll be glad to know that's the end of the birds.  Our total identified species count to date is around 80, with some still unknown.