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April 29, 2006
Jamaica Bay
I'm taking a two-week birding class which involves two outdoor trips, one of which I went on on today. It was at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a place I'd always wanted to go to but never had because it's always been far from where I've lived. But I made the trek there today which was a long two-hour trek involving multiple subways and a 1/2 mile plus walk. I wouldn't make it a habit of going there but I would say it was worth it. The refuge itself wasn't that picturesque but I don't think I've seen so many birds (or birders) in any one place in New York City before. We saw a pair of ospreys, tons of tree swallows which were very cute, a lot of brant and glossy ibises, a yellow-crowned night heron, and several Forster's Terns. And I got to see them with my spankin' new pair of binoculars, an anniversary present from Adam. Yup, it was our second anniversary this past Tuesday. Unfortunately, no exciting trip this time but hopefully we'll be able to do something cool in the fall.
A few photos from today:
An indigo bunting--what's cool about this bird is that its feathers are actually black but it's the diffraction of light through the structure of its feathers that make them appear blue.
An egret in someone's backyard in Broad Channel--I actually thought this was an interesting urban birding photo.
Posted by Jennifer at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Baltimore and D.C.
Adam and I went to Baltimore and Washington D.C. over the weekend. Unfortunately, it rained the day we spent in Baltimore so spent the afternoon at the Baltimore Aquarium which turned out to be pretty nice. The next day, it was onto Washington D.C. to see the cherry blossoms and Tai Shan (the baby panda). I've been to D.C. once before but when I was young so this was really my first time exploring the city. Our hotel was near the train station and we spent the first half of the day walking through downtown D.C. and my first thoughts were wow, D.C. is so empty and sterile. Before we got to the touristy areas, the streets we walked were virtually empty save for the songbirds that seemed to take advantage of the absence of people. Then we walked through the National Mall and we were deeply impressed that all the Smithsonian Museums were free. Unfortunately, all the blossoms seem to have had fallen off the cherry blossom trees and we were subjected to leagues of adult kickball teams engaged in some kind of tournament as we walked past the Washington Monument but then we went to Georgetown which I really liked.
This morning we got up really early to go to the National Zoo to see Tai Shan. We got to the zoo before 8 and found ourselves alone most of the time so it was nice having the zoo to ourselves. Even though you're supposed to make reservations to see Tai Shan we walked right through the exit of the panda viewing area (as did everybody else when we were there) and it was nice being able to watch the pandas as long as we wanted. We were, of course, enchanted with Tai Shan, who slept on a tree branch the first time we went to see him and spent most of the time playing with his mom, Mei Xiang, the second time we saw him.
After the zoo we went to the National Arboretum which is nice but I don't know if it's worth it if you don't have a car and you're short on time. It's not in the best part of D.C. and it's really large so we spent a lot of time walking to get from one part of the garden to the other. Overall though it was a really nice trip. My overall impression of D.C.--wouldn't want to work in downtown D.C. (where the hell do people go for lunch or even to buy a beverage?) but some of the suburbs of D.C. are nice.
Anyway, onto the photos:
Baltimore's Penn Station has nice stained glass windows
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in Georgetown
Tian Tian (Tai Shan's dad)
The star of the show, Tai Shan
Mei Xiang (Tai Shan's mom)
Tai Shan and Mei Xiang
Elephants doing their morning exercises
What would the morning be without a Bible Bar for breakfast? (we actually found these in an Asian supermarket in Baltimore. Don't know if you can read the bottom text, but it says, "Contains the 7 foods of Deuteronomy 8:8: Wheat, Barley, Raisins, Honey, Figs, Pomegrantes, Olive Oil. According to the cashier Adam spoke to, they're a very good seller.)
Posted by Jennifer at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)