More rain overnight.

Wet but sunny.

Still very few jewelweed blossoms are visible.

Found a few honeysuckle blooming again. The water level is very low. Heard a bullfrog.

Another butterfly, redbud and catalpa seedpods, and an unknown insect.

Finally a comfortable temperature.

An overnight drenching.

Spiders and a Strange Insect. Plus Wild Bergamot.

Very sunny.

Hot. Visited by a Stinkbug. Learning how to use new camera.

Bugs, spiders, pokeweeds. A bullfrog was heard.

Much rain overnight.

Another ordinary day.

Another hot day anticipated.

Mulberries are ripening.

Damselflies are back.

It's spider time.

Lots of sun this morning.

Mulberries are ripening.

Things are very wet after the overnight rain, again.

Lots of rain overnight. Magnolias are blooming.

Lots of flowers --- and a duck.

Actually I took a few of these on May 7, but I won't tell if you don't.

Very bright, very sunny, very green.

Flowers and butterfies, again.

An eggshell appeared yesterday below the Heron nest.

Mayapples are blooming.

The two Yellow-crowned Night herons are back!

Lots of blooms.

Sighted: One Yellow Crowned Night Heron!

Dogwoods are opening up.

Lots of Trout Lilies today are blooming.

Redbuds are blooming.

Much unfurling going on.

Still no herons in the nest!

Cherry blossoms, some weeping.

A touch of frost this morning. Still, the Trout Lilies are coming along, as are the Red Maples.

Many flowers and insects appear. Trout lily leaves emerge.

Heard many red-bellied woodpeckers this morning.

Forsythia, daffodils, and red maple are blooming.

Things were soaked overnight by heavy rain.

The Mallards are back!

Spring insists it's here, despite the chill.

Tweet

Snow again, and a gray sky.

The algae are blooming.

Colder again.

Cold, again.

Rumblings of Spring.

Overnight, some snow.

Very cold but sunny.

Some sun warmed things up a bit.

Much ice after a night of drizzle.

A gray morning, cold and on the verge of snow.

Snow overnight.

Another touch of frost this morning.

One advantage of Autumn: it's easier to see the birds when the leaves are off the trees.

Frost ... and Violets.

Most leaves are down but much color remains.

Some kind of worm (pictures 4 and 5).

A Bee on an Aster.

Anyone know what those berries are? If you do, please let me know via email at ddmcd@yahoo.com

Another very bright day emphasizing the wide range of yellows and golds on display.

Reds seem to be fading a bit, yellows are taking over.

A gorgeous afternoon punctuated by a sighting of a perched damselfly.

Another beautiful morning (1-6) and afternoon (7+).

First 17 are from morning walk. From 18 on are from afternoon walk.

A tinge of Fall is beginning to show. The first 15 are from the morning walk. From 16 on are from the afternoon walk.

Fungus!

Another awesome Fall day.

Small White Asters, Lunaria, Mistflower, White Snakeroot, Sensitive Ferns, Porcelainberry -- and Skippers.

Sunny and crisp.

A very moist morning. Mistflower (blue) and White Snakeroot are blooming.

A late afternoon walk results in new butterfly pictures.

More aphids!

Ladybug and Aphid.

Crane Fly!

A glorious low humidity morning.

Low flying jets heard overhead.

A good Insect day.

Porcelainberries in Living Color.

Some Clematis (Virgin's Bower) that escaped the Mad Mower of Timber Branch Park.

Fall cometh.

More mushrooms. Also holly berries, another white planthopper, greenbrier tendriles, and pokeweed berries.

Mushrooms and a Zabulon Skipper.

Things are still flowering and the bees are still buzzing.

Lots of rain overnight. Sensitive ferns are coming back after being mowed.

A moth.

You want purple? You got purple.

Pictures of a downed Red Maple.

A morning glory glowing in the morning sun.

A Fall Webworm Moth posed this morning.

A cool morning.

A glorious day.

Saw a police car driving around the park this morning.

Cooler and lower humidity this morning.

There be spiders.

What is the insect with the snout (last 2 pictures)?

Something is eating the Hoary Tick-trefoil.

Not as humid this morning as yesterday. Saw several new spiderwebs but they are very difficult to photograph.

Nostalgia: saw several fathers out walking with their small children this morning.

100 degree weather today.

An interesting bug day.

Spotted Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) is starting to bloom.

Finally, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).

More insects.

Things are very green after a night of steady rain.

Moss continues to amaze me.

Hoary Tick-Trefoil seeds are starting to take shape.

Another unidentified butterfly.

Day Three of No Herons Sighted.

A Silent Sentinel.

A Platoon of Planthoppers!

Sycamores are still shedding bark.

Yellow-crowned Night-herons are still here.

Still soggy after yesterday's downpour.

Not seen here: a flock of white-throated sparrows.

Trumpet-Creeper blooms!

Summer is upon us.

The Lunaria are officially in "coin mode."

Humid and wet after the rain .. but sunny.

Leafhoppers today.

Nice views of a moth and a heron.

Touch-me-nots are blooming. Will hummingbirds be far behind?

The juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons are out and about.

A VERY sunny morning!

Tendrils, anyone?

Things just keep getting greener...

There be spiders...

Check out the shadow of the damselfly (picture number three).

Rainy and dark this morning.

Neat little white flower.

A Cloudless Sulphur butterfly.

A good morning for insects.

That Yellow Crowned Night Heron's nest is starting to look a bit crowded.

Things are green and lush after a rainy night.

... and it's not even Summer yet ...

Not sure what those grape like berries are attached to...

Leafhopper!

Little blue flowers!

Another beautiful day - and more ladybugs.

Lots of rain overnight.

Wild strawberries!

Herons staying close to the nest. What's inside?

Wild Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) are flowering (or at least budding).

Virginia Creeper are blooming.

Chilly but sunny this morning.

Meadow Garlic still haven't bloomed.

Magnolia are blooming.

Last year at this time the Meadow Garlic were already blooming.

Asters, chokecherry, and one heron in the woods.

Ducklings!

Herons are back.

Bright and sunny. Many White Throated Sparrows sighted along the path.

Drizzle, cloudy, but very green.

Today, some insects.

Photographic proof: female mallards have blue wing bars.

I think we're at least two weeks ahead of where we were last year at this time: http://www.ddmcd.com/timber-branch-creek/a-walk-through-the-park-on-april-21-2009/

A bit of a chill in the air.

Catalpa, elm, sassafras, maple, mulberry -- lots to see.

Insects are making their presence known.

Lots of cherry blossoms.

Herons are back. So are the May Apples.

Easter Sunday.

The violets are back. So are the Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Lots of low-down blooming.

The last day of March.

Still waiting for Trout Lilies to bloom.

Trout Lilies are getting ready to bloom (last 2 pictures).

Gill-over-the-ground (Ground Ivy) are blooming.

Today's color is Yellow.

Violets and Periwinkle bloom. Trout Lily leaves are up.

Spring.

Bright and sunny. Green is accelerating.

The Red Maple are blooming. Also, a Dwarf Spider is seen.

Another wet and dreary morning.

Very wet and soggy this morning.

The Mallard appears to have a Mate.

Gray and overcast. More geese overhead.

Snowdrops were out in force today.

Noisy geese fly overhead.

Saw and heard a lot of birds today, including a young Cooper's Hawk.

More green appears every day.

Today's Featured Bird: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens).

Today's featured tree is Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera).

More buds.

The crocuses are blooming!

You can smell the snow melting.

I find shadows on snow to be endlessly fascinating.

Snow. Sun. Shadows.

Snow overnight. followed by a sunny morning.

The snow and cold are back.

The crocuses are coming up. Seems a bit early, but who am I to argue? Also, here's what things looked like one year ago today: http://www.ddmcd.com/timber-branch-creek/a-walk-through-the-park-on-january-25-2009/

I took these pictures on January 8, 9, and 10.

It's freezing outside.

A day of rain melted the snow.

The Snow Arrives.

After a night with frost, the day arrives as sunny, cold, and bright.

Another dog walker told me she had just seen a fox a few minutes before we crossed paths near the pedestrian bridge.

I repaired the LCD screen on my Casio EX-Z850. These pictures are from this morning's walk.

The robins were out in force this morning; one sat still long enough for me to take its picture.

A cold, wet, drizzly pre-snow walk this morning.

A touch of frost overnight. A mallard has returned to the creek as well.

The heron's nest - unoccupied and forlorn.

I totally missed the heart in all the years I've been walking past this tree.

A spectacular sunny morning. A lot of color, again.

I'm always pleasantly surprised at how colorful a dreary, gray, and drizzly day can be.

Today's theme is NOVEMBER LEAVES.

Here's what the park looked like one year ago today: http://www.ddmcd.com/timber-branch-creek/a-walk-through-the-park-on-november-5-2008/

Finally, a really sunny morning.

Yellow is becoming the dominant color.

Cool and cloudy this morning.

Experimenting with different settings on camera to accommodate cloudy conditions.

I took these pictures over the past three mornings.

Air was cooler this morning. A few leaves are falling here and there.

Fall may be coming but flowers are still blooming and bugs are still crawling.

Overnight the temperature dipped into the 50's. Fall is coming.

Lots of bugs today.

Several of the flowers here I have not been able to identify.

After a night of rain the sun shines.

The touch-me-nots (jewelweed) are not blooming as much as last year and I have not seen any hummingbirds yet.

It was very humid this morning. The plants have responded positively to last night's rain. I have seen the yellow crowned night heron once this past week.

I have not seen a Yellow-crowned Night-heron for 5 days.

The Yellow-crowned Night-herons are out and about, flying all around the creek and surrounding neighborhoods. During this morning's walk one almost hit me flying away as I disturbed it walking along the creek.

I saw the Walking Backwards Lady this morning.

I'm constantly amazed at the day to day and week to week variation of flora and fauna in this little park. This is the first time I've seen Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).

I am having some difficulty identifying all the flowers here (other than the big fat orange one).

Wild Strawberries!

The "Touch Me Nots" are blooming (see the orange flowers). Can the hummingbirds be far behind?

After a night of rain it was STILL raining.

Very sunny. Yellow-crowned night-herons not seen. Lots of dew from overnight.

After so many days of rain, the park has taken on a lush green appearance.

Lots of rain this past week. Things are very green

Finally some bug pictures.

Really wet and drizzly this morning. But lots to see.

Wildflowers continue to appear. It has now been two days since I saw the Yellow Crowned Night Herons.

May Apples Blooming. Plus a mystery item found hanging from a branch.

Two days of sunshine after lots of rain.

The May Apples are coming along nicely, Dogwood continue to bloom, and the Yellow Crowned Night Herons are maintaining their precarious perch high above the creek.

Easter Morning. Beautiful sunshine.

Tent Caterpillars are here. Also, Trout Lilies are deepening in color after several days of blooming.

Warm today. Hawk guarding nest. Spotted 4 male mallards. Trout Lilies blooming.

Cool this morning but sunny. Mallards hanging out by the pedestrian bridge. Hawk seen nearby in tree high above.

Wet and foggy, today's Spring Cleanup was a great success!

Lots of pollen in the air. Pictures include a sleeping duck.

Crocuses are almost all gone, and bushes are starting to explode. Still wet and rainy but that's good.

The snow is gone and serious green is starting to show. Plus there are more crocuses than ever before AND I caught a hawk taking a bath in the creek.

The crocuses have survived the snow and bitter cold.

Yep, it snowed.

A slight dusting of snow does not prevent Spring from showing through. And, the bamboo I thought we eradicated years ago is starting to make a comeback!

Cold but very bright and sunny. Signs of Spring.

The crocuses bloomed today!

I like ice patterns.

Viewing included Geese and a Hawk.

The temperature was 10 degrees F this morning.

Winter is setting in but there is still much to see. For these pictures I borrowed Number One Son's camera. (The third to the last picture contains an image of a hawk perched in a tree.)

A dusting of snow overnight. Last image: raccoon tracks.

Frost on leaves this morning and ice skimming over slow moving parts of the creek.

Most of the leaves are down now. This makes it much easier to see the birds.

There are a couple of things here I don't recognize. Always something new to see.

The theme for today: Orange and Red.

The theme today: Yellow and Gold.

Some flowers are still blooming, and yesterday I saw some bees buzzing around. But the changing of the leaves appears to be accelerating.

It was bright and chilly this morning, but still not cold enough overnight to wilt the Sensitive Fern (last picture in series).

A couple of these pictures are from October 16, 2008. My favorite: the flowering holly.

The mornings are getting cooler. I saw no hummingbirds this morning around the little orange flowers.

It was gray and wet this morning but there were still many nice things to see.

The title of the last picture is "The Boy Who Caught a Fish In His Shoe"

Despite the lateness of the season, a lot of things are still blooming.

I heard an owl hooting while walking the dog this morning.

This was a late afternoon walk.

Another walk with the dog. At one point I smelled grapes.

It rained last night. The air this morning was clean and bright.

Pictures taken from April through June, 2008.

I took these pictures while walking my dog on the morning of July 20, 2008.

For the past 2 years, Alexandria resident Diane Blair has organized an annual volunteer clean up by nearby residents of the narrow parkland that stretches along Timber Branch Creek.

First snow of the season!

I took the dog for a walk again, this time on Sunday afternoon, November 13. It was a glorious Autumn day. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

Over the past two weeks, Spring has slowly but surely been creeping in. The real tip-off was the return of the Duck Family...