Our trip to Annapolis, Maryland

Red and I spent Monday, the 27th of August, touring around Annapolis. We first took a guided walking tour of the historic area, given by one of the docents who represents the Visitors' Bureau.

This first photo is the rear view and back yard of the Governor's Mansion.

This is a photo of the Post Office.

This is the front of St. John's College.

This is the front view of the Governor's mansion.

These are first year cadets (plebes) polishing the brass rails at the State House.

And I think this was in the court yard across from the State House, with the columns saying "Equal Justice Under Law."

Ferry Farm, Fredericksburg, VA

The Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries provides a birding and wildlife trail throughout the state. Part of that trail is the coastal area, which covers the entire coast of Virginia. A small portion of this trail includes what is known as the Fredericksburg Loop. And a small portion of this loop includes George Washington's boyhood home, Ferry Farm. Ferry Farm is located just on the eastern edge of the town of Fredericksburg. Before leaving on vacation Red found out that there was to be a birding tour held at Ferry Farm when we would be in the area on that Saturday. So we got up early that morning (Aug 25) and headed over to Ferry Farm. The tour guide, Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast, and an archeologist by vocation, showed up around 8 a.m. Before we headed out on the grounds he noticed there were 21 of us, the most birders he has had on a tour. The down side was that he informed us that we were there at a time when many birds, especially the fledglings, have already left the immediate area. And the area had not yet started seeing the migrating birds, but that they would be coming through in another month. We were told that up to 114 species have been sighted there at Ferry Farm, but we would probably only see a couple dozen that morning. On our tour we walked through various habitats - some grassy fields, some woodlands, and a river bottom. The farm is located on the northern edge of the Rappahannock River. I did not have the chance to take photos of any of the birds we saw - we were mostly too far away for my little 10x zoom digital camera. Here is a list of birds we saw in each of the various habitats:

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Mourning Dove

Ruby-throated hummingbird
Red-bellied woodpecker (heard)

Downy Woodpecker

American Crow
*Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse (heard)

Carolina Wren (heard)

*Blue-gray gnatcatcher

Eastern Bluebird (heard)

American Robin
*Gray Catbird

Northern Mockingbird

Cedar Waxwing

European starling (heard)

*Red-eyed vireo

*Prairie warbler

Northern cardinal

*Chipping sparrow

House finch
American goldfinch

House sparrow

That made a total of 24 species we saw or heard. Seven of them are lifers for me, too. And I'm only counting the ones I saw (not heard). I marked the lifers with an asterisk.

Once the tour was over we were allowed to walk the grounds and tour the house. Red and I didn't have time to tour the house, but we chose to admire the garden in the back yard. There was a lot of activity going on. Not just birds, but many butterflies, dragonflies, and bees. Here are some photos I took.

Here is a large bee gathering pollen from a squash blossom. Click on each of the photos for a larger view.

Lamb's ears, coleus, and marigolds

More of the same - marigolds and lamb's ears

This is the center of the garden, with a birdbath, and to the right is the pole where the feeder is sitting on.

Maybe someone can help me with the name of these beautiful flowers.

A Tiger Swallowtail

A hyacinth bean bush - and a close-up of the flower and beans.

Colonial Williamsburg Garden Tour

Red and I took in as much as we could walking around and touring Colonial Williamsburg Friday morning (Aug 24). One of our tours was to see the various gardens of the 18th century called The Gardens of Gentility. The first and the largest was of the Governor's palace. The second one was of George Wythe's home (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence). The third one was quite small, belonging to the home of James Geddy, Williamsburg's silversmith and jeweler. The tour provided a comparison between the gardens of royalty, gentility, and middle class folks of the late 18th century, taking about 2 hours. The next several photos are of the Governor's Palace and garden.

Front of Governor's Palace

Rear view of the Palace

And the following photos are of the garden of George Wythe's house.

Following the garden tour, Red and I continued walking around town and taking note of various other gardens, yards, and architecture. One of the things I noticed was just about every yard had at least one Rose of Sharon. They are such beautiful plants. Here are a few of the photos I took of them.

After walking around town, and feeling quite warm and sticky, we decided to drive over to Yorktown and cool down in our air conditioned car. The following photo is the only one I took while we were in Yorktown. I believe Red has a similar photo on her blog.

We then grabbed some dinner before returning to Colonial Williamsburg for our evening programs. The first one was Legends, Myths, Mysteries, and Ghosts. Below is a photo of the Lumber House, where the tour began (at 7 pm). Our second tour began at 8:30, held in the Court House, called Papa Said, Mama Said. There we heard stories about those who served as slaves and whose parents passed on their stories of culture, ethics, and morals of their ancestors from Africa. Each of our tours had volunteers/docents who were dressed in historic colonial attire. I sure felt sorry for them being dressed in such warm clothing. Here we were in shorts and T-shirts and still uncomfortable from the heat and humidity.

More photos of Historic Jamestowne

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, aka, Historic Jamestowne. While visiting this island, Red and I attempted to absorb the richness of our country's history and realizing that this was the place where it all started. We walked the pathway that pointed out the ruins of a number of buildings which once stood, and we tried to visualize what this colony of English settlers must have looked like in the early 17th century. Below are photos of what we saw while walking around. And if you click here you will be directed to Red's blog which also has photos of Historic Jamestowne.

This is a depiction of rowhouses that were built (I think in the latter part of the 17th century), when Jamestowne became a bustling outpost.

This photo shows the foundation of where the rowhouses once existed.



Along the pathway while walking around and viewing the ruins and foundations I found this "family" of Canada geese. I guess they were eating seeds found in the grass. I know it's not a really sharp photo, but this was the best shot I could get. It's not easy getting photos of birds, albeit large birds, in a very tall grassy area.


Due to the muggy weather, which Red and I are not used to, we decided to take a drive around the island and cool off in our air conditioned car. In doing so, we came upon an area called Black Point. Time to get out and see what this area had to offer. What we saw beyond all the trees was a small beach setting looking across the James River toward the mainland. There were several dead trees, some still standing while others were fallen over. While heading back to where we parked our car, a deer ran across our pathway. I guess she was wanting a drink of water. Of course, we did not have our camera ready, and she disappeared rather quickly. But we were able to get a picture of the bald eagle who kept eyeing us.

East Coast Vacation

Red and I have returned from our week long vacation back to the Mid-Atlantic states. We visited what is known as the Historic Triangle, which includes Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, and the Yorktown Battlefield. We also visited George Washington's boyhood home, called Ferry Farm located in Frericksburg, VA. This is where we did some tour guided bird watching on the property. We then drove to New Jersey to visit relatives and participate in a family reunion. The following day we drove back south again to continue our vacationing historic areas. We managed to visit Annapolis, MD, Washington, DC, and Mt. Vernon, VA. And as usual, never enough time to visit everything we wanted to see. Nevertheless, we did enjoy our vacation and we have spent the last several days going through and editing our photos - a very time consuming activity. Red has posted about our flight to Richmond, VA and posted a few pix of our visit to Historic Jamestown.

Here are my photos (with comments) - sorry if some of them are repeats of what Red posted.

This is a view of the James River. As you may note, the weather was mostly cloudy, very warm and humid, quite muggy for most of our trip.This is a close-up of the sign seen in the previous photo. I think you can see an enlarged view of this by clicking on it. If you can see the enlarged view, you will note that there are quite a few archeological digs going on there in Jamestown. The most active one (photos below) was located between the Memorial Church and James Fort. Here is the sign regarding the most recent excavations. If you want to be able to read it, click on the photo to get an enlarged view.

Here is the statue of Pocahontas.

And here is Captain John Smith's statue.

These are views of the James River with a cannon (not sure if it is authentic or a replica) used to protect the people of Jamestown.

We saw this boat go by on the James River - is this a barge?

And this stone is a tribute to the original settlers from England (1607) given by the Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars (1928).

And this "house" is a research center which is private, not open to the public. I was so attracted to this building and its landscape I just had to post it. Not only is the building itself very attractive, but the lawn and the crepe myrtles around it were breathtaking.

Vacation time

My daughter, Heidi, aka Red, and I will be flying to Richmond, VA early Wednesday morning. We are planning to visit Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg Thursday and Friday.

Friday night we'll probably stay in Fredricksburg so that early Saturday morning we can attend a birding tour at Washington's Ferry Farm. The tour begins at 8 a.m. and lasts for 2 hours. It will be led by Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast. There have been over a hundred species sighted at this location, so I hope to see a few that I can add to my life list.

After the birding tour we will drive up to New Jersey (southern end) to attend our family reunion. This family reunion is on my mother's side where the majority of this family has lived and stayed in the Norristown-Philadelphia area for many decades.

Last week I went shopping for a new piece of luggage. My old luggage does not have wheels except for the largest piece. I think it's a 29-inch bag, large enough for a two-three week trip. But this trip is only for one week, and I don't need anything that big. So I got myself a Samsonite 21-inch upright.

It certainly has plenty of pockets on the front, as well as several more pockets and pouches inside the bag. And there still seems to be plenty of space for clothes, too.

Sunday we will drive in a southerly direction. We are hoping to visit Annapolis before heading to Washington. Can you believe this native of Baltimore has never visited the capital of her home state?

When we get to Washington we are hoping to visit the Museum of Natural History (a favorite of mine), and the Library of Congress. We also want to visit the memorials on the mall and hopefully will visit one of the Smithsonian buildings. I'm also hoping we'll get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I haven't been there since I was in high school, the year after John F. Kennedy was buried there. There's always so much to see and do in Washington and the surrounding area.

Monterey Bay Birding Festival

The third annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival will be Fri, Sat, Sun, Sep 21, 22, 23 this year. Go to their web site by clicking on the link above. Here is the checklist of birds seen last year during the festival. There are so many trips planned it is hard to decide which trip(s) I would like to attend. The Monterey Bay area, a large part of the central coast of California also known as the Pajaro Valley, is quite extensive and geologically diverse - such as wetlands, marsh areas, grasslands, woodlands, etc.

Various and numerous trips are offered and the cost is certainly more than affordable for each trip. Most trips seem to have a limit of 20 attendees - so the earlier one registers, the better the chance of getting your choice of activity.

Oh, so many choices! Watsonville wetlands, Monterey Bay, Elkhorn Slough, Pajaro Dunes, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Carmel Valley and River, or Pinnacles National Monument. Two of the trips offered are pointing out that there is a possibility of locating a California Condor - those trips are full-day events - one to Big Sur and the other to Pinnacles National Monument. The Big Sur trip will also have bird banding demonstrations.

Can you imagine an opportunity to see more than a hundred species of shorebirds and songbirds?