Monthly Archives: April 2024

Warrenton, Virginia

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 06, 2024 by Henry
Old Town Warrenton, Virginia

Old Town Warrenton, Virginia

Warrenton Mural

Warrenton Mural

We visited a friend in Warrenton, Virginia today, spending most of the afternoon and evening with a larger group of good friends. We walked through downtown Warrenton, visiting a bunch of shops and basically enjoying being together. It was a cool, spring day and Warrenton seems like a nice town. It’s a bit of a hike from Rockville but once we were there we were glad to have gone.

After our walk through town we had a wonderful dinner and celebrated a birthday. After that we played a game called Codenames. Cathy and I aren’t particularly fond of games but we had a good time. I think we would have enjoyed simply talking with our friends more, but we understand that some people really like games of this sort.

We had been invited to spend the night there but wanted to be home Sunday morning so we left about 10:30 and had no trouble getting home in about an hour.

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Partial Solar Eclipse

Photograph taken on Monday, April 08, 2024 by Henry
Partial Solar Eclipse

Partial Solar Eclipse

We had quite a few friends to traveled to various places on the path of totality to see the main event. We stayed home and took about 1.5 hours off from work to enjoy the partial solar eclipse. I set up my camera with my long lens zoomed out to 600mm and auto-focus turned off. I set the aperture to f/22 and the shutter speed to 1⁄8000 second. I wasn’t about to look through the camera at the sun, so turned on the LED screen to view the sun on that. Even with those settings, the sun was much too bright and I was unable to get even reasonably good photographs, except when light clouds darkened the sky enough. That happened early in the eclipse but by the time this photo was taken, the sky was clear. Even with only this small amount of the sun visible, it’s way too bright to look at unfiltered, even at those extreme camera settings.

By stacking two polarizing filters over the lens and turning them perpendicular to each other, I was able to reduce the light to an acceptable level. With the two filters perfectly perpendicular to one another, however, the image recorded was a deep blue color. By turning one of them ever so slightly the image turned white and that’s how it was set for this photo, taken a few minutes before the maximum solar coverage.

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Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum)

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 13, 2024 by Henry
Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum)

Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum)

We went to the Agricultural History Farm Park today and walked around quite a bit. I got a few nice photos of eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) as well as some barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) but I was especially pleased with the shots I got of this palm warbler (Setophaga palmarum). It was a lovely day and we saw this species twice in different part of the property. It could have been the same bird, of course, but less likely. We are at the northern edge of their winter grounds and they breed far to the north, so now and in the fall are the best times to see them in our area.

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Rat Gallery DC #3

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 13, 2024 by Henry
Caroline, Sara, and Justin

Caroline, Sara, and Justin

Andrew, Rachel, Katharine, Anna, and Dorothy

Andrew, Rachel, Katharine, Anna, and Dorothy

It was time for another Rat Gallery opening and Cathy and I were there. I don’t know that we can commit to being at every one but we’ve managed so far. This one was very well attended and was even listed on WTOP’s “What to do in DC” listing on their Instagram story. Pretty impressive. Art is quite a varied thing and something that one person loves, another person may hate. Sometimes art is meant to express feelings or emotions, other times it tries to tell a story. It can simply be decorative, of course, or it can consider shapes, colors, and various other aspects of the physical world. It’s quite common for any particular work of art to appeal to a limited audience.

I thought these porcelain cups were lovely and I especially liked the one in the upper right of this photo, with the salmon pink petals. There were a few others that I liked the colors of, including the one immediately below that with the darker interior. They were all really nice and they spoke to me. The other artists had their followers, as well and I think everyone had a lovely evening. It was also nice that it started before it got dark, so there was some natural light for a while.

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Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 14, 2024 by Henry
Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus)

We walked on the canal this afternoon, starting at Old Angler’s Inn and heading downstream as far was where the towpath is closed for renovation (a little ways past the Marsden Footbridge). We saw at least three and possibly four muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) in the canal, which is more than we’ve ever seen on a single outing (and we normally see zero). A few of them were fairly close to our side of the canal and with my long lens I was able to get even closer. There were a lot of turtles out, enjoying the warmth from the sun. We saw wild geraniums, star chickweed (Stellaria pubera), and American cancer-root (Conopholis americana) as well.

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Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 14, 2024 by Henry
Great Blue Heron (<em>Ardea herodias</em>)

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

As mentioned in my previous post, we walked on the C&O Canal today. We saw this great blue heron (Ardea herodias) near the beginning of the walk and then again as we were returning. It was a good day for wildlife in general and we also saw (and I photographed) a hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), a pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), a few mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), a small group of double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum), a pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), and a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata). All in all, an enjoyable outing.

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The Pond and Dock

Photograph taken on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 by Henry
The Pond and Dock

The Pond and Dock

I drove up to Pennsylvania today to deliver some papers to Dorothy (or more specifically to her house, as she was still in Massachusetts). After dropping those off for her, I stopped at our property to see how the pond was doing. It’s got more water in it than before the repairs were done last year and I think more water than it’s had in over ten years. I frankly didn’t expect it to fill as fast as it has, thinking it might not be full before this time next year. Now I think it will have reached the overflow by the fall if not sooner. I have to say, I’m very pleased. There’s just a little more than a foot to go.

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Dogwood Blossoms

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 28, 2024 by Henry
Dogwood Blossoms

Dogwood Blossoms

This is the third year I’ve taken basically this same picture. This circular window is in the front of our church and for a week or two each year the dogwoods on the hill outside give us a show. They bloomed earlier last year and my picture was from April 16. In 2022 it was on April 24. So although the blooms this year seem earlier than previous years, the dogwoods, at least, are not. It reminded me that last year (on May 7) we went to the National Arboretum and really enjoyed their dogwood collection. I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it there in the next week or two, but that would be nice.

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Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 28, 2024 by Henry
Eastern Copperhead (<em>Agkistrodon contortrix</em>)

Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

We went for a lovely walk along the creek below Croyden Creek Nature center this afternoon. I assume the creek is called Croyden Creek although I haven’t ever found that name on any map. Still, it stands to reason. I got some photos of robins (Turdus migratorius), an eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), a common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), and a hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus), although none of them were great. Cathy spotted a luna moth (Actias luna), which was cool, and we found a fair amount of dwarf ginseng Panax trifolius. There was a lot of American cancer-root (Conopholis americana) blooming, which is a parasitic plant, living on the roots of oak trees. But the excitment was when Cathy came close to stepping on this eastern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix). She reacted about as you’d expect and we’ve definitely grateful that she didn’t get bitten.

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