Walking Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

A rare perfect July day to me says get out of the house and go soak up some nature, right now! Yesterday, I picked up my friend Meron for a day at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens to see the Lotus, waterlilies and native plants and creatures who inhabit the park which sits at the edge of the tidal Anacostia river. It's a huge marsh land with a farm for cultivating those delightful water flowers.

Meron enjoying the garden tour

We enjoyed all the wonders of nature in the ponds and around the edges. Frogs we croaking, Turtles were sunning and dragonfly and butterfly were all around us.

Turtles like those we used to get as children for an aquarium pet were much larger than any I ever raised but this is their natural habitat complete with muddy shells. Meron spotted some sort of snake from our safe perch up on the high boardwalk over the reeds, thank goodness.

Kenilworth also is a birder's paradise and I was challenged several times to identify some new ones we saw. The only one I got a good portrait of was what I now think was a familiy of northern rough-winged swallows.

Honestly it was hard to sort out this bird identity even with these photographs but without the bird guide book and the internet's great resources I wouldn't have known anything but that it was likely some kind of sparrow.

One I did know very well was the red winged blackbird and I  didn't get a great shot of any of them but this one and there were about 75 of them in the marsh but they got down in the reeds where we couldn't see them and the grasses were swaying back and forth making it quite difficult from our location. Might be worth a return trip with tripod and time to sit and wait to get a series of this beautiful black bird.

Canada geese were swimming in the marsh channels searching for grasses they like to eat and what I thought was a duck flying by turned out to be a favorite of mine the green heron who gave it's self away by landing on a log at the edge of the channel rather than on the water like a proper duck would do.

can you find two geese in this shot?

In the end the flowers drew me out on this beautiful day but the call of nature has a powerful draw all it's own. So here are the native and tropical waterlilies that are blooming now...

black berries for the birds

Our picture perfect visit lasted from 11 till 4 PM next time I will take along a picnic lunch and iced water. This weekend is the big festival of waterflowers at Kenilworth and I have to say it is a very special place. You can read about it in this week's Washington Post article here: Kenilworth water lilies thrive.

Stuart's Signal Hill trail part two

Stuart's Signal Hill Trail head 

In Manassas overnight with Keith, today we decided, in spite of a steamy July kind of day, that we wanted to go to Stuart's Hill trail in the Bull Run National Battlefield Park for a nice long nature walk. Keith missed the first time and I really wanted to explore it again with him along to share my experiences. I got a few more photos of things I didn't see last time. Wild field flowers and stream side a very beautiful blue flower. We saw an adult pair of wild turkey but they slipped by so fast at the end of the trail I barely had time to see them. There was a most exotic crimson red and black ant that was as big as my little finger about about 1.5 inches long! He was moving fast too but I captured something to show. Different this time was the way I went roving up the other side of the trail I had missed the first time through a wood that had been hit by winds or a storm and felled a lot of pine and cedar.  We found lots of turkey feathers in a couple different spots along the trail. There were deer dashing off into the woods. Birds included a small flock of blue birds, several pairs of blue jays. We spotted a hawk and a couple woodpeckers too. There were lots of things jumping we didn't catch a good look at but it was hot and the woods are drying out now. Fall is sneaking up on us even thought it feels like the fourth of July today.

goldenrod

sweet everlasting

switch grass flowers pale yellow

purple gerardia

sunflowers

look closely for the gray "deer foot" moss between the blades of grass 

the edge of the woods the last field before  the trail to Lewis house. 

field seen from the edge of woods where the Lewis house stead was. 

back into the woods 

lichen on the rocks and bark in the woods 

 in bright sun the great lobelia's blue flowers by the creek 

by the creek blue flowers of great lobelia, lower right side

blue flower great lobelia at the edge of creek 

closer view of the  great lobelia 

remarkable grass going to seed 

Stuart's hill today 

brown and orange butterflies are called Pearl Crescents (Phyciodes tharos) in the grass field on white asters 

two of these pearl crescent butterflies were the size of a quarter or smaller

"red velvet ant" that raced along the trail running from my camera is actually a female wasp  

this wasp lays eggs on bumble bee larvae and have a sting that hurts so much it's also called a Cow Killer wasp.  

Keith marching along beside me on the trail through the field 

Proof I had company

there he is the little frog or toad that jumped on the trail