City Wild Life Duck Watch

It is true. You see ducks all over Capitol Hill. They are in the reflecting ponds by the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII Memorial and the American Indian Museum. They are everywhere else too. And they must have nests all over the city. There are even ramps built on the ponds so the ducklings are able to navigate the steep inclines. And at this time of the year the ducklings may have a hard go of it. So it was with interest that we watched the city wild life duck watch people sitting at the Capitol reflecting pool. They had dispersed food and all of the ducks were paying a lot of attention. One of the staff had a very large net in her hands and inside was a little duckling. I think they try to find any injured birds as there was also a small cage there. Or perhaps they were banding their legs to study growth and other interesting things. The program also “educates residents and building managers as to how they can help Mallard families and make unsuitable nesting sites less appealing to mother mallards.” I guess the goal is to help any trapped duckling find a source of open water for food and protection and in general watch for the well being of the duck families. 

52Frames Nature

The 52Frames photo challenge last week was nature. After a couple weeks of more technical contests like fast and slow shutter, this was a nice reprieve. So I thought we could probably find something about nature on the national mall rather than in the neighborhood park. Between the Capitol reflecting pond and the Enid Haupt Gardens by the Smithsonian Castle, something would be found. And I was right. Nature doesn’t need to be in the woods or wide open spaces only. It can be located in the concrete jungle as well. And we love to drive in to the city at least once a week so this is the perfect opportunity. The funny thing is is that my husband and I rarely - if ever - agree on which image should be submitted. So I post them on Instagram and my Facebook business page to see which ones get the most impressions or activity. Usually it is never a photo either of us would pick. This week is no different and I had a lot of options. The top three ended up being the pigeons by the Capitol reflecting pool, the tulips at the castle, and the duck by the pool at the castle. He was actually posing for me. I really liked the duck, and my husband preferred the bright green leaf in the pool. So I think I’ll go with the lowly pigeons since it is a bit quirky. Since my camera is an iPhone I will never get the fantastic images the professionals create, but I like them all the same.