Wednesday, October 5, 2016

HUNTLEY MEADOWS, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

It is a little longer a ride for us to get here, but is always worth the trip.  We come in every season.  I have several photos today that will fit in with the memes below them.



































This was the only Great Blue Heron we saw that day.  












We also saw this little bird.  Gregg took these photos.  I hope someone can identify it for me as I found nothing online.









For Willy-Nilly Friday Five

1) It has been a quiet week but we did go to Huntley Meadows, as you can see by the photos in this post.  

2) Mother Nature has flipped the switch.  We are now experiencing cooler weather.  This is my favorite time of the year when we say goodbye to humidity.  

3) We are still cleaning house and downsizing has become our middle name. More trips to Goodwill and also a big box of books have gone to a worthy cause.  We continue to make headway.

4) Our opera season starts this weekend.  My friends and I will be watching live performances from the New York Met on a movie screen at a local theater.  I don't know if I will ever actually get to see an actual performance in New York, but this is the next best thing.  Besides the  performance, artists are interviewed in the intermission, along with stage production people, costume designers; seeing behind the scenes is fun.  I have enjoyed opera since childhood.  My father had a very good singing voice and was also an excellent piano player.  It was my job to turn the pages of the music, and he let me join in whenever I wanted to.  Good memories but I didn't really know the beautiful music I was listening to was actually opera, and that my dad was giving me a life-long gift.  I started out very young.

5) Finishing off with a link to a beautiful home in New York here.  

I am supporting the following memes as they become available, with many thanks to all our hosts.

Maggie at Mosaic Monday
Jesh at Seasons
Tom at Tuesday's Treasures
N.C. Sue at Wordless (on Tuesday) at Image-in-ing
Betty at Wednesday Around the World
Theresa at Good Fences
Tanya at Willy-Nilly Friday Five
The team at SkyWatch Friday
Eileen at Saturday's Critters
Misty at Camera Critters
Anni at Bird D'Pot
Stuart at Wild Bird Wednesday

49 comments:

  1. I do love travelling with you - thank you.

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  2. Love all your photos, Denise, and Gregg is also a good photographer! It seems you and I have something in common. My father played the piano very well (by ear), and my mother had a beautiful singing voice. In fact, my mother, along with a friend of hers, when I was a little girl, went to a club where there was a singing contest. My mother and her friend won! :)

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  3. lush greenery ,beautiful views .
    liked the Heron and pic of little bird on empty branches are truly the display of fall ,
    hope your coming visit will be safe and adventurous for you .
    hope you will be able to see your fav opera show live one day dear

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  4. that is a good study board walk and alovely area to wander roun. Love the shots of the Heron. I also go and see the videp linked performances but this year in N.Ireland they are bringing us the Met ones. Going to see RSC King Lear and Miss Saigon next week.

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  5. Excelente trabalho com boas fotografias.
    Um abraço continuação de boa semana.
    Andarilhar

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  6. Your cloud photos are stunning, Denise. You captured the light beautifully.

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  7. Awesome photos with cloud and scenes. You had a great variety of light and dark. Keep going back to that location as it gives you many great photo opportunities.

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  8. A wonderful place to visit, and beautiful shots. My mother would have loved to see the opera in a movie theatre. She often listened to radio broadcasts from the Met.

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  9. Marvelous place to visit...

    Live screened opera. Wonderful...

    Downsizing. Are you doing this, to prepare to move? Or simply because it is a wonderful, wise, amazing thing, to do?????? :-)

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  10. Thank you for your reply to my question, about a bush/berries I saw, on my walk. Very dangerous! Eeeek!

    Silly rich people... Having it planted, as part of their edge gardening. Yikes!!!

    We thought they were poisonous, as they had not been eaten, by birds.

    Again thank you.

    Luna Crone

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  11. Also thank you, for your reply, about downsizing.

    Oh yes, you are so, so, so wise, to do it now. Said, as people near and in 80's, who are still trying to plug away, at getting-rid-of-stuff. -sigh-

    Luna Crone

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  12. Enjoy the opera, Denise. I will be seeing La Boheme in Hawaii on Oct 16.

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  13. Hi Denise, what a great place Huntley Meadows looks, what with the Beavers and all the other goodies, would love a few hours with the camera. The great Blue Heron looks a real beauty. As to your unknown bird I can be of no help i'm afraid. Enjoy the Opera. Regards John

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  14. What a fascinating wetland area and it so well sign posted with lovely boardwalks and fences!
    Enjoy your opera season!

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  15. I really like the boardwalk.

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  16. love the sun rays and gray views. the bird looks like a type of cuckoo, maybe, like a young yellow-billed cuckoo, perhaps?

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  17. Wonderful sights, great that you caught the plane in one of your sky shots.

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  18. Huntley Meadows looks like a wonderful place. The clouds and skies -- wow! The great blue is one of my favorite birds. Enjoy the opera. Seeing it with friends in a movie screen sounds like fun. Happy Friday!

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  19. Lovely gift to see the opera. I knew before reading the article that house had to be on the Hudson.

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  20. Enjoy the opera ... sounds good.

    I love all of your photo's, especially your sky pictures they are lovely.

    All the best Jan

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  21. I love the variety of images you have here today. I especially like the blue heron shots.

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  22. What a beautiful post! And you were fortunate to have such dramatic skies.

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  23. The wetland is so large and beautiful. There must be so many creatures live there. You were lucky to see the blue heron. Such a lovely capture of his legs!

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  24. Hello Denise, pretty views of Huntley Meadows. I love the GB Heron images. I am just guessing your unknown bird could be the Black-billed Cuckoo? Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

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  25. lovely sky shots!
    Pretty similar to what I posted this week.. May be you would like to check out what I posted for Skywatch!

    https://jaipurthrumylens.com

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  26. A nice little trek through the wetlands. Such pretty photography.

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  27. Huntley Meadows looks like a beautiful place! Your live performance views sound really interesting. It really does sound like the next best thing to being there!

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  28. Hello Denise!:) Looks like a great place to visit, although there were few birds to see, you and your hubby still took great shots of both the Heron and unknown bird, and you have some beautiful sky shots here today.

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  29. I enjoy opera!!! Lucky you.
    Denise, all your photos are marvelous. The little gray bird, I sure can't help you out at all. I thought Junco but I don't think so. There are several species of Junco tho. Your guess is as good as mine. Hope someone can ID it for you. There IS a 'what bird is this' forum where you can share the image and the 'experts' will identify them for you. whatbirdisthis.com or something like that.

    I'm late getting here to visit with you, it's been a most beautiful day here in South Texas I just HAD to be outdoors this morning - birding, of course. Thanks so much for sharing this post with us at I'd Rather B Birdin'!! Always appreciated. Have a great week ahead.

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  30. Wonderful shots. What a great place. Love the sky and heron shots.

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  31. huntley Meadows is a beautiful spot; you are so fortunate to get to go there often -- and we are lucky that you share it with us. I feel for you on the downsizing -- we did that of course when we sold out to go fulltime RVing and it was so hard even though we were excited for our adventure --

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  32. Thanks for taking us along on your walk through Huntley Meadows to see the wildlife that inhabit that beautiful place. Your sky captures are wonderful, so glad you brought them to Mosaic Monday this week.

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  33. Fabulous sceneries and birds! A great place.

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  34. Beautiful photos of the heron! And I love all of the neat clouds you saw. Your photos made a nice mosaic! Hugs!

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  35. Beautiful photos. Love seeing herons. Wonderful sky photos, especially with the sun shooting through the clouds.

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  36. Fascinating place to admire nature and wildlife, indeed!! Love those details captured, especially the dramatic skies...and your list of things is impressive. Hope you had a wonderful weekend at Opera. Many thanks for sharing with us these gorgeous aspects of nature in the wetland area and a very good week to you!

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  37. Denise, thanks for joining the party! This surely is a place that I'd love to see, thanks for taking me along. Where are we going next?

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  38. That must have been a great trip Denise, even though you could only capture the the great Heron and the bird. The sun bursting through the clouds is magnificent, and thank you for sharing these details in nature with SEASONS! Have a lovely week!

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  39. A real treasure of a protected wetland! Beautiful sky photos, Denise and I love the blue heron! A wonderful five, as Autumn stretches and shakes off summer! Did you see my Tuesday Treasure...we have a house! I am so excited! Can't wait to get OR...there will be so much to share. For now, even more busy packing days!

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  40. Sorry to be so late commenting. - Life has been stressful so not much time for blogging. - I enjoyed your fences & birds and the randoms. Hope to do better visiting this week.

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  41. beautiful photos denise..funny, there's a place near here that i can't think of the name right now, but it is similar to huntley meadows from what i can tell from your pictures..we've been a few times in the past but i was going to mention it to my husband for a sunday drive! isn't the weather beautiful lately?! thank you for linking and i hope you are having a wonderful week!

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  42. It looks like a wonderfully quiet place. Glad you got to see at least one heron! The crepuscular rays in the sky are so dramatic.

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  43. Amazing skies! The herons are stealthy hunters. I'm not familiar with your unidentified bird, it's quite pretty. I always love an ID challenge, though! It looks similar to an Eastern Phoebe in my bird book, but I can't judge the size of your bird.

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