Early Autumn in the Park

We get regular visits from Green Herons.  The days remaining for the water lilies are few.

Last Potomac smallmouth trip of season (?)

Probably.  Air and water temperatures were still acceptable when I went to the Mouth of the Monocacy on Friday but won't continue to be for much longer.  Grasses still there.  Fishing was subpar with no bass and mostly smallish bream.  Water levels 1.51 at Point of Rocks and 2.8 at Little Falls.

Good weekend for Maryland sports. Bad one for DC.

Watched University of Maryland Football team beat West Virginia yesterday in the rain at the Ravens' stadium in Baltimore.  First time at the M & T Bank stadium and was impressed.  Ravens won today while the Redskins lost, and I'm more of a Ravens fan.  Big Nats fan and they lost.  Their hopes of making the play-offs are becoming dimmer.  Orioles also lost but I have less emotional ties to them, so it doesn't diminish much the state's sports weekend for me.

I'm out of practice at trout fishing

I was surrounded by rising fish today on the Gunpowder River, but I didn't succeed in catching any.  Tried a lot of flies:  dry caddis flies and emergers, mayflies, midges, etc.  Haven't done any stream fishing for trout in over a year, so I should take my lack of success as incentive to go more often.

At the Park again

Saw another egret, or the same one returned.

Here he's in stalking mode:

Couldn't resist another wildflower shot:

Fishing Update

Have been out three times in the past two weeks.  Once in the canoe at Triadephia where I caught a number of small bream.  Then last Saturday to the same spot on the Potomac I fished recently with Lou.  I had similar results too:  two smallmouth hooked and one landed as well as a bluegill.  Finally, I got out today to the Patuxent below Brighton Dam where a small fallfish saving me from being skunked.  I did take picture there though.

All these were very quick trips, just a couple of hours each.  I also got Pam out in the canoe on the lake last week.

Park Update

Saw an egret at the pond a week ago, but he was gone the next day when I had a camera with me.  I also failed to get a shot of a green heron who was visiting a number of days running.

Did manage, however, another wildflower photo:

Late summer in the Park

During my daily walks, I often promise myself I should return with a camera.

One subject is this tree stump.  Some passers-by might wonder why the tree was apparently cut off at a point higher than a man's head.  It wasn't.  The tree fell during a storm last year, and the park personnel cut it up.  Then they wisely decided to push the stump back where it was originally which looks better than another uprooted tree, in my opinion.

This field of wildflowers always catches my eye:

 

 

I took the shot above yesterday and this one today:

 

 

Just as I was leaving, these mallards walked by.  Although the males lack the really bright colors this time  of year, they're still pretty handsome: