Unexpected Waterbird Visitors at the National Mall Photo Gallery by Helen Betts at pbase.com

Unexpected Waterbird Visitors at the National Mall

After Tim spotted a great blue heron in an artificial lake in Constitution Gardens on the National Mall the other day, we went down there on Wednesday armed with cameras to try to find him again. Not only did we find the heron, but also several cormorants and countless geese and ducks. It was pretty amazing to see the heron and cormorants on the mall as there aren’t any large fish in the water, but they seemed to make do with hunting tiny prey.

Needless to say, we took a lot of pictures over the course of a couple of hours, so this gallery will be ongoing for a while.

Me and my friend the great blue heron	Great blue heron with catch	That eye	Rapt attention
Intent	The strike	Success!	Another point of view
In the shadow of the Washington Monument	Showing off that iridescent color	Catching the light	The gaggle
Cormorant capades: Racing ahead (1/4)	Cormorant capades: Resurfacing (2/4)	Cormorant capades: Taking a breather (3/4)	Cormorant capades: Air dry (4/4)
The strike (1/8)	The commotion (2/8)	The catch (3/8)	The meal (4/8)
Deep 'dive' (5/8)	The snack (6/8)	Positioning (7/8)	Down the gullet (8/8)
Not his best side	Surrounded	The contortionist	Showing off
Keeping an eye out	Classic	Portrait of a heron	The struggle
Bonanza	Ready to pounce	Portrait of a cormorant	The pose
Living in reflections of grandeur	Just chillin'	Salad	Fall on the Mall
Postscript: Heading back to the lake	Postscript: Heron contemplating his next move	Postscript: Apparition of the heron	Postscript: Out of its element
Bad hair day	Taking in the sun	Dramatic pose	Coming and going
If you've got an itch, scratch it!	The search	Buddies	The glare
The heron made it into The Washington Post!	The entertainers	The celebrity heron	Sitting pretty
Soldiering on	The survivor	Me and the heron	More than just a leaf
Down the hatch	Was it something I said?	Behind the curtain	The ballerina
The punk heron	Chilly cormorant	Face-on	The gang
The model mallard	The beautiful Mrs. Mallard	Tired of pictures?	Opposing forces
Peaceful coexistence	Cormorant reflected	The exuberant cormorant	Reflections with heron
On the lookout	Unimpressed	The ultimate survivor	Shovelers shoveling
Pretty feathers	Up for air	The well-coiffed heron	Mr. and Mrs. Gadwall
Playing hard to get (reloaded)	Awkward shoveler moment	Heron reflections	The 'shovel'
Getting ready to move on	Movin' on	The duck with the blue bill	Posing shoveler
Mr. and Mrs. Wigeon	Sunbathing mallard