Winter Birds of DC

These pictures were taken on four separate excursions through downtown DC (including Constitution Gardens on the Mall) during late January and very early February 2014.  All bird identifications are from the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America (New York, 2010).

Rock pigeons (Columba livia).  An introduced species.

Male house sparrow (Passer domesticus), another introduced species (and probably the most common bird downtown).  The male is distinguished by the gray cap, gray cheeks, black stripe from the eye to the beak, and black throat.

Another male house sparrow.  Note also the black bib on his chest.

Female house sparrow.  As is the case with many dimorphic bird species (i.e., those in which male and female look different), the female is drabber than the male.

European starling (Sturnus vulgaris).  Yet another introduced species that is very common.  Note the iridescent shimmer in the sunlight.

Compare the starling with the two male redwinged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), which belong to a native species.  The shoulder patches on the blackbirds show only whitish orange when they are on the ground, but once they take off a bright red patch is revealed there.  The blackbirds are not that common in the city, but are generally found near ponds and wetlands (as here, at Constitution Gardens).

Two American robins (Turdus migratorius).  These are very gregarious, so you might find a whole tree full of them.

A Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), another native species that is very common in the city.  Has a very distinctive vocalization - rather than having a particular call or song, it changes its tune about every five notes.

Another Northern mockingbird, with its feathers a bit in disarray from the wind.  Note the white patch on the bottom of its tail feathers; this flashes very prominently when it flies off.

A female Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).  This has the pointed crest and red beak of the cardinal, but a much drabber body than the bright-red male cardinal.  I saw two female cardinals over the past two weeks, but no males.

A blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) that lives in Constitution Gardens.

What gorgeous coloration on its wings and tail!

The dominant species at Constitution Gardens is of course the Canada goose (Branta canadensis).  You will note that this particular individual has been ringed on the right leg.

Also quite common are mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), yet another dimorphic species with flashy males and drab females.

And at least now, during the winter, you will also commonly see the ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis).  Note the spotting on the head; this is characteristic of the non-breeding plumage.

But Constitution Gardens also hosts somewhat less common birds, for example these three male ring-necked ducks (Aythya marila).  Unlike mallards, which merely dabble (i.e., dunk in their head), the ring-necked ducks (which are somewhat smaller) will actually dive fully underwater for their food.

Also living at Constitution Gardens this winter is this American coot (Fulica americana).

And among all the mallards is also this feral Peking duck, which is a domestic breed that is larger than a mallard.

My trip to England Oct. 20-27, 2013

During my week in England I stayed in Richmond, once a separate town up the River Thames but now a suburb of London.  The Richmond Bridge shown here is from the mid-18th century.

Lots of scrumptious architecture in town, such as these almshouses (built by charitable bequests to house poor parishioners) from the 1840s.  

Lots of cute boutiques and delectable restaurants all over the place - a very high-end shopping district . . . 

including, of course, a brand-new Whole Foods.  Think Dupont Circle or Georgetown - with real estate prices to match (condo studios appear to start at about $400,000).

Most of my time was spent at the National Archives in neighboring Kew (the reading room is on the second floor in the bunker-like wing on the left).  But that place was very well-organized, so I managed to get my research done more quickly than anticipated, leaving me some time to go exploring.

One place I visited was Richmond Park, a 3.5-square mile area of open grassland and woodland just south of the town of Richmond first used as a deer park by the Tudor kings.  Heavenly in its peacefulness - except that it lies directly under the final approach for Heathrow Airport.

A large herd of deer were grazing in a broad meadow in the middle of the park, giving the impression of a British Serengeti.

The lake at the park featured a couple of white swans - actually quite common here (I haven't yet seen any in ponds around Washington).

Another bird found quite frequently here is the coot (so when you call me an old coot, this is what you are picturing me to look like).  This is the European species; I have encountered the American species (with a slightly smaller white face shield) on the Mall in Washington.

I also went to Kew Gardens, which are the Royal Botanical Gardens - a vast and beautifully landscaped arboretum, with some trees showing nice autumn coloring.

As the gardens are located on a couple of former royal estates, there are also some left-over architectural whimsies in the landscape.

And across the River Thames you can see Syon Palace, still the country home of the Duke of Devonshire.  The dirt path in foreground, incidentally, is the Thames River Towpath, which is now a bike- and hike-trail stretching for a hundred miles along the river - just like our C&O Canal Path.

In a pond at the gardens, among a bunch of common mallards, I saw these cute ducks I had never encountered before (a male and a female red-crested pochard).

Ah, geese!  On the left are two Canadian geese, with which we are of course quite familiar here in America.  On the right are two Egyptian geese, another introduced species that is also becoming a pest in the U.K.

And I managed to catch this shot of a magpie.  These are actually quite common there, like our mockingbirds.  But they are strikingly beautiful - basically pitch-black (they are related to crows and ravens), but with white shoulders and wing tips.  When they take off, they look like spats in flight!

Finally one day I took the train to Amberley, in the countryside maybe 50 miles south of London (if there is one thing that fills me with envy of the Brits, it is their stupendous rail service!).

Amberley is an exceedingly romantic old English country village, with thatched-roof houses lining its main street.

And I'm not kidding about thatched roofs!

The village has a Norman church dating from 1104 . . . 

and the remains of a 12th-century Norman castle.

But what interested me most was the hill rising above the village.  This is the South Downs, which is a limestone ridge about 500 feet high that stretches for about a hundred miles across the southern English landscape until ending in white cliffs along the coast.

And there is a public hiking path along the entire crest of the ridge, so I went off for a hike of about 8 miles.

Some landowners even allow you to tramp across their sheep meadows - what American rancher would consider that?

While on the ridge you will frequently encounter these ring-necked pheasants.  They love to hide in the grass or under bushes - until you get too close, when they will burst into the air, just like clay targets in skeet shooting (I can now see why British hunters liked these)

From on top a spectacular view back at Amberley village and the flatlands beyond.

And on the other side the English Channel beckoning on the horizon.

i

Enid Haupt Gardens, morning of September 7, 2012

An ornamental canna (Canna spp.) at the southeastern corner of the intersection of 12th Street and Jefferson Drive SW, just to the northeast of the Freer Gallery on the Mall in Washington.  For more on canna, see this very informative Wikipedia entry.

A closer look at the canna's flowers.  Cannas are now widely used in Washington gardens and landscapings.

A gorgeous Bird of Paradise plant (Strelitzia reginae) in the landscaping at the northern entrance to the Freer Gallery.  Read more at this Wikipedia entry.

Another Bird of Paradise flowering in this same location.

And there is also one blooming in the collection of tropical plants in the Smithsonian's Enid A. Haupt Garden, immediately east of the Freer Gallery.

A very funky tree growing near the northwestern entrance to the Enid Haupt Gardens, right up against the southern facade of the Smithsonian Castle.  This is a young monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana), a native of the dry highlands of Chile and Argentina.  See more at this Wikipedia entry.

A closer look at its foliage, which consists of triangular, very sharp and leathery leaves set directly in the stem - an adaptation designed to deal with an arid environment.

An ornamental Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansi spp.) growing at the center of the Enid Haupt Garden's tropical collection.  See this Wikipedia entry.

A closer look at the Angel's Trumpet's large hanging flowers.  This plant is a member of the nightshade family and thus distantly related to tomatoes and potatoes.

Another truly wild plant from the tropical collection - the Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis), a native of the northern Madagascar highlands.  Each entire splay of spikes, looking like the display of a peacock, is a single humongous leaf.  Learn more at this Wikipedia entry.

A gold finger plant (Juanulloa aurantiaca), a native of Mexico.  No Wikipedia entry on this one, but see this page from a tropical garden center.

A Buddha's belly plant (Jatropha podagrica), another native of tropical America.  Not much information at this Wikipedia entry.

A closer look at the Buddha's belly plant, showing both the tiny orange flowers and the rounded seed pods.

A banana plant (Musa spp.), which has attained a respectable size for Washington.  It is found frequently as an annual plant in local gardens; because it has to start over again after each winter, it never attains sufficient size outdoors to flower and produce fruit.  See more at this Wikipedia entry.