Washington DC/ White Squirrel/ White Whale/ and Wood Ducks

Okay, that is a long nonsense name for a blog post. Unlike Lewis Carrol ( Alice in Wonderland ) by the end of this post it will all make sense. Last week I went to Washington DC. I spent most of my time in free Smithsonian Museums during the day, and looking at monuments after the museums closed. Since this blog is about southern New England Outdoors and since Washington DC is not in New England and the inside of a museum is not outdoors I may or may not write another entry about my DC visit. Still following along? Good... lets get started.

If you know the story of Moby Dick, you know that Capt. Ahab was obsessed with killing the white whale. It got to the point where it destroyed and ( spoiler alert) ultimately ended his life.

I have my own version of a white whale... it is ( and it is okay to laugh) the wood duck. In the same way that Ahab chased the whale, I have been trying for YEARS to get a perfect picture of a wood duck. This may sound like a ridiculous goal, but every chance I have gotten for a photo ended... without a photo. My obsession is not like the good captain, I still have other interests and still fall asleep thinking about the Red Sox, Celtics and Jessica Simpson. I will not be destroyed by the humble duck, nor will I feel my life was incomplete without a great picture. I will feel my photo album is incomplete without a great picture, so it is a small obsession.

Why is getting a picture of a duck so difficult? I knew you would ask. First off I have very good cameras, my film camera has a 300 mm lens, and my digital has a 20 zoom, however wild wood ducks are shy. Unlike a mallard, they stay far away from people. I have seen wood ducks take flight from across a pond when I have come into there line of site. On larger lakes they stay so far away that even with the big lens they take up a tiny part of the picture.

There are wood ducks at Roger Williams Park, that are fairly comfortable around people, I have tried to get them many times. There would always be a reason why I couldn't get a good shot. The light may be bad or a kid would throw a rock in the water as the duck was getting close enough for a full shot, there was always something. What does this have to do with Washington DC? You are asking great questions today!

At the National Zoo in ( you guessed it ) Washington DC, right next to the bird house are a couple of very small ponds. In these ponds are usually wood ducks. These ducks though wild make for a great photo opportunity. Why? Because the ducks are used to people so they don't spook, also the ponds are close to the paved trail and as before mentioned...tiny.

This was my third time going to Washington DC and the zoo. Last time I went to the zoo ( 5 years ago ) the ducks were in these pools. Why didn't I get a good picture? Wouldn't you know it, I took 15 rolls of film that trip, I was all excited about getting my glorious shots and BOOM my camera breaks. I am not making this up, The FIRST picture I try to take of the ducks, the button jammed and I couldn't take any pictures. As it turns out, the problem was just that, a jam. That night in the hotel room after playing with it for a minute ( the camera, get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family friendly blog! ) it popped up and all was well, except I DID NOT get my wood duck picture.

On this trip going to the zoo was not part of the itinerary. It is about 5 miles from downtown and on bike, that makes for a long seemingly dangerous ride stopping at every intersection and dodging cars trying to take rights on red. On Wednesday we had two things planned, going to the Postal Museum and Explorers Hall. Both of these museums took less time then planned so at 1:30 we were done with our day. Since Explorers Hall is to the north of the other attractions and so is the zoo maybe I could get my wood duck picture.

I have felt cursed by my bad luck with the white whale of a duck ( I know it makes no sense but I like it) so on my ride to the zoo my fear was my new camera would break when we got there. So we finally get to the zoo, go straight towards the bird house area and the ponds. Wood ducks were in the ponds so I had a chance. I realized right away these ducks were feeding. This meant they were in a constant state of motion. It was hard to get a perfectly centered pic, without sun glare of these moving ducks. I spent about 20 minutes taking about 75 pictures. Of the seventy five, about 20 were blurry or only showed part of the duck, 50 were acceptable photos, and I am proud to say I got 5 that I would consider blowing up into an 8x10. After all these years, mission accomplished

So this explains the Washington DC/ White Whale/Wood Duck part of the blog. The white squirrel is a whole lot shorter. DC is full of small parks and a large one called our National Mall. There are a lot of squirrels, and unlike the grey and red species of squirrels here in MA, the grey squirrels in DC have many color phases. I have seen grey , black, and white color phases and my favorite grey with a red tail. Here are some pictures