Patuxent Research Refuge – Part I

Last weekend, we spent an hour at the south tract of the Patuxent Research Refuge – that’s the area that includes the visitor center (map). We got there early enough that it wasn’t overwhelmingly hot (and before the visitor center was open). We stopped at a recent addition along the Loop Trail: a bird blind with bird feeders: seeds, hummingbird, and suet. They are still working on the area; as time goes by it should become a better and better place to see birds. In just a few minutes, I saw and photographed three different birds in the area: a male Red-winged Blackbird with patches just beginning to show,

A male American Goldfinch,

And a juvenile Common Grackle.

We walked down to the Cash Lake Trail and out onto the pontoon lake crossing part of the trail. There were two Great Blue Herons out on the lake in the shallow water.

Note the water lilies in bloom around the herons. I’ll post about other things (not birds) we saw in our short visit tomorrow.