It was the morning of Easter. We started our walk from the parking lot at Sycamore Landing a little later than usual – after going to Mass. In spite of the chill in the air, it was clear that the season of Spring was well underway. Various wild flowers were making their appearance, 
and in sufficient numbers to brighten the pathway,
and the surroundings,
on a sunny morning.
The trees are still in the process of greening these days.
The towering Sycamores with the bare white tops will be the last to respond to the coming to the warmer days.
This baby turtle, perched on the trunk of a tree that had fallen over the canal bed, kept us in its sight as we passed by.
It was prepared to dive into the green water at the slightest sign of trouble.
The birds were noisily making these presence known, but I was not having much luck in getting their pictures with my new lenses. The Merlin app on my smartphone did confirm the presence of the birds. The Carolina Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Rusty Blackbird, Bluejay, White-throated Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse and American Goldfinch, were recognized in one location. Additionally, the White-breasted Nuthatch and a Brown Creeper were heard in a different location. Even on the rare occasion when I was successful in sighting one of these birds, they seemed to be intent on playing with me – either positioning themselves behind some smaller branches so that I would have trouble focusing on them and getting a complete picture, or flitting rapidly from one location to another, so that I would not be able to track them with the camera. The zoom on the lens already made it difficult to point the camera in the right direction to find the birds, and then to isolate them from the background. Their further antics made for a hopeless situation in this regard. I had to settle for this picture of a bluebird.
We enjoyed our Sunday outing, and all its distractions, as usual. It was warming up nicely by the time we were done.
This being Easter, we treated ourselves to a brunch from a neighborhood breakfast shop. I would recommend this place to the locals. But be cautioned that you really should go there on an empty stomach since the quantity of food offered is substantial, especially for some of us folks whose stomachs feel like they have shrunken over time.
made their appearance beside the trail. The other flowers that I became familiar with when I started visiting the canal was the Fleabane. Those were also around in large numbers.
what I think is called False Solomon Seal,
and clover.
and Yellow Iris.
It would indeed be quite the coincidence if we happened on both False Solomon’s Seal and Solomon’s Seal during the same outing, but I am not completely confident about my conclusion.
In my mind, limited as it is in its capability to understand such things, the birds had nested close to each other on the tree for the night, had just woken up, and were getting ready for the activities of the day. You could see the early morning light hit the upper branches of the trees – to light up the birds, and to perhaps warm them up. I could not identify these birds. They looked like doves from this distance, but I could not confirm this in spite of some research.
This level of air traffic felt unusual, especially for that time of day, and for that day of the week. Most of the aircraft were small to medium size, and seemed to be on domestic flights. I could recognize the 
and I thought I had seen an Emirates aircraft earlier on when we were driving in. Based on what I noticed that morning, I get the impression that the international carriers have reduced the size of the aircraft that they are deploying for their flights. 
We had seen a Great Blue Heron in the same area during previous walks. This led us to consider the possibility that this was the same heron that we had seen before, and that the bird had somehow claimed this area as its territory. Fact of the matter is that we do not even know if herons are territorial and behave like this.
But the colorful specimen, although excited, seemed to be quite harmless. It was not frothing at the beak. It seemed to be following us with some purpose, and fortunately that purpose did not seem to include attacking human beings. I could tell by the look in its eye! Maybe it was expecting some food.
Not only that, there also seemed to be a different pipe leading out of the river towards the canal not too far from the pipe running through the culvert.
With some effort, and using a certain amount of skill that was newfound (and ultimately useless, may I add!), I managed to get the rooster back to the main trail. I could not have done it without the encouragement of the cheering squad.
It was not long into the walk before we spotted a bright blue bird flying across the trail in front of us. This was a bird that we do not normally see on the towpath. The color stood out amidst the green of the forest. The vibrance of its color was similar to the vibrance of 
One was curious as to the nature of the bird. I guessed that this was a male bluebird during its mating season. I was wrong! Later that day, we had a phone call with the kids on account of Mothers’ Day. I shared this picture with them. Jesse was quick to research this, even while we were talking. The bird in the picture above is called an 
Further along the trail, we came across some deer that were hanging out. These two appear to be having a conversation about the approaching humans. If you look carefully at the picture, you might also notice the cardinal (out of focus) on the trail in front of the deer.
The woods along the C&O canal are infested with a plant called garlic mustard. They are massively invasive, and show up once in two years. We have been seeing these plants during all our walks along the canal this year. Three or four years ago, I even took part in a cleanup effort along the towpath at a place called Carderock. I think controlling the spread of these plants is a losing effort.
Here is shot of the flowers of garlic mustard. This was part of my experimentation with the zoom lens to see if I could capture a picture which looked like one taken with a macro lens, i.e, taken with a lens that allowed you to take a picture from very close to the subject matter. At the time that I was taking this picture, I did not realize that there was an insect nectaring on the flowers.
Further along, we came across this Great Egret that took off at our approach. We saw it flying over the trees further along the trail.
We finally came across a real 
As usual, the air was filled with the sounds of the birds, occasionally mixed with those from the scurrying squirrels. There are certain sections of the trail where the birds are more plentiful. The woodpeckers, in general, make a very guttural sound. The trees can vibrate quite loudly when some of the woodpeckers hammer on their trunks. The woodpecker in the picture below is most likely a 
There were many flowers beside the trail as we approached Edwards Ferry.
These are fleabanes.
I myself did not walk all the way up to the river since I was busy changing the lens on the camera.
The parking lot at Edwards Ferry was quite full.
This 
The rest of the walk was completed with a renewed sense of purpose. We picked up speed in spite of the distractions of the park. We completed the walk in a reasonable amount of time. There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot by the time we got back shortly after 11am.
Splattered Brains 