Saturday, February 11, 2006
Patuxent Wildlife Refuge 01-08-06
URL to Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157611539885358/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meabbott/sets/72157611539885358/
Update: After moving my photos to Flickr I deleted the two Bald Eagle photos referenced below because, frankly, they aren't very good. I have left the links in place to those photos to Webshots here.
After my experience at Jefferson Patterson Park I decided to find a new place to go take pictures. I used Microsoft's mapping service to scroll around to find parks. I prefer it over google's because of how it displays on the screen and I feel that the actual map display looks better. I saw a great big blotch of green on the map labeled "Patuxent Research Refuge" and punched it up in google and found their website.
I saw there that they are home to the National Wildlife Visitor Center and decided that is where I wanted to go. The weather was supposed to be sunny but it was fairly cloudy most of the day so I didn't get the bright pictures I wanted, but was still a good day. I found that the Visitor Center is not on the actual Research Refuge but to the south of Route 197 from it. The visitor center itself is a nice looking modern building and has a world class exhibit inside. After you go through some fairly mundane but informative exhibits you walk into a room with beautiful glass exhibits with stuffed animals in their habitat from the various Wildlife Refuges from around the country. The visitor center has a nice "back porch" that looks out over Redington Lake. If you remain fairly still and quiet a variety of small birds will come to the various feeders around and I got some fairly nice shots from there.
After spending a few minutes there I was ready to hit the trails. Before I left for the place I looked at their website to see what kinds of trails (map at bottom of that page) they have. I was looking forward to taking the trail all the way around Cash Lake and then back to the visitor center. A park ranger said that the eastern leg of the Cash Lake trail was closed at that time as it is for the part of the year when the Ring Neck Duck stays there. I mentioned that I wished the closing was mentioned on the website and later when I got home and squinted properly I discovered that the map unhelpfully and barely visibly says “closed seasonally”. The friendly park ranger patiently described the places where I would be likely to see various kinds of birds. I was hoping I would see other kinds of wildlife as well but I did not. I followed the open portion of the Cash Lake Trail then backtracked to the Valley Trail which was rather hilly. Then I connected with the Laurel Trail and went back to the Visitor Center for a few more photos and called it a day. When I got home I discovered that I had scored a pair of shots of a Bald Eagle (1 and 2). Here is a Bird’s Eye view of the visitor center courtesy of Microsoft.
After my experience at Jefferson Patterson Park I decided to find a new place to go take pictures. I used Microsoft's mapping service to scroll around to find parks. I prefer it over google's because of how it displays on the screen and I feel that the actual map display looks better. I saw a great big blotch of green on the map labeled "Patuxent Research Refuge" and punched it up in google and found their website.
I saw there that they are home to the National Wildlife Visitor Center and decided that is where I wanted to go. The weather was supposed to be sunny but it was fairly cloudy most of the day so I didn't get the bright pictures I wanted, but was still a good day. I found that the Visitor Center is not on the actual Research Refuge but to the south of Route 197 from it. The visitor center itself is a nice looking modern building and has a world class exhibit inside. After you go through some fairly mundane but informative exhibits you walk into a room with beautiful glass exhibits with stuffed animals in their habitat from the various Wildlife Refuges from around the country. The visitor center has a nice "back porch" that looks out over Redington Lake. If you remain fairly still and quiet a variety of small birds will come to the various feeders around and I got some fairly nice shots from there.After spending a few minutes there I was ready to hit the trails. Before I left for the place I looked at their website to see what kinds of trails (map at bottom of that page) they have. I was looking forward to taking the trail all the way around Cash Lake and then back to the visitor center. A park ranger said that the eastern leg of the Cash Lake trail was closed at that time as it is for the part of the year when the Ring Neck Duck stays there. I mentioned that I wished the closing was mentioned on the website and later when I got home and squinted properly I discovered that the map unhelpfully and barely visibly says “closed seasonally”. The friendly park ranger patiently described the places where I would be likely to see various kinds of birds. I was hoping I would see other kinds of wildlife as well but I did not. I followed the open portion of the Cash Lake Trail then backtracked to the Valley Trail which was rather hilly. Then I connected with the Laurel Trail and went back to the Visitor Center for a few more photos and called it a day. When I got home I discovered that I had scored a pair of shots of a Bald Eagle (1 and 2). Here is a Bird’s Eye view of the visitor center courtesy of Microsoft.
