The weather has been so nice lately I just had to get out of the house and revisit a few of my favorite parks that are here. I have even taken a stroll around the neighborhood near where I work in Baltimore. Ended up back at Federal Hill Park, walking up from the back area is much easier than climbing up the stairs on the side by the harbor. I can now see why it was such a great place for a look out to get a good view of the harbor and incoming ships. Of course they didn't have the big buildings surrounding the harbor as there is now. I am glad I made Federal Hill part of the B'more Outdoors SCVNGR trek. It makes going there even more adventurous as it I get to see other peoples perspectives of the park along with my own. I hope you get a chance to play along if you are in the Baltimore area, there is a link on the right-hand side of this page that will take you there to see all that you can do.
Another place that I revisited recently was Patterson Park, which is also a stop on the B'more Outdoors trek. A fun trivia question must be answered to get the points there. I have always looked at Patterson Park on a map and can see it is big, but it is not until I get there that I can appreciate how much open green space that is there. Each time I have been there I seem to find myself looking at it from a whole new location than the time prior. There were lots of families around, children of all ages, even some walking their dogs. Let me tell you I think each dog that walked by was a totally different breed, and different sizes too, some small and some big, young and old. This time I was there to see the lake (pond?) that is in the center of the park. Seemed to be a whole flock of ducks there. I recognized some as mallards and others looked similar to mallards but something was different about them. I could tell the female mallards from the male ones as the males have the great iridescent green heads and the females have just a splash of blue on their wings, but there were a few odd ducklings out there as well. My guess, was that some were blended with another type of duck to give them the interesting patterning, turns out I might be right. I went to
WhatBird and entered what I remembered as the pattern and look of the ducks I saw. It just seemed like these ducks related to mallards but not a mallard, the America Black Duck might just be the duck I was looking for.
In general they seems to look like female mallards but with a twist. Of course I don't think the pictures I have shows enough detail. According to WhatBird sometimes mallards and the American black duck hybridize so what I saw that was mallard-like but odd, could have been a hybrid.
I really enjoyed my time at Patterson Park. I think the last time I was there was is spring time, so it was just getting warmer out after a chilly winter. So from baby ducks to a full grown flock sure seems to be a nice way to experience the seasons. I didn't have my camera with me the last time I was there but this recent time I got to see the lake and had to take a few while I was there. This wider shot is still just part of the lake there I couldn't quite capture all of it, perhaps next time I will try to do a panorama shot. If you look closely at this one, across the water are some of the ducks from earlier but they decided to be a little farther away from the small crowd that was forming on my side of the water. There were a few other water birds along the far side but of course they flew away before I could take a picture of them. Something to look forward to next time.
I hope you are taking time to go back to your favorite parks and even just to walk around the neighborhood to observe the changing of the seasons as we get farther into autumn. Perhaps there are some fall festivals you can explore. Meet Me Outdoors.
The Tall Ships have arrived to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The Star-Spangled Sailabration
is the start of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the writing of
the Star-Spangled Banner. They arrived a few days ago but I haven't
been able to check them out until last night. On the website you can find out
when and where you can tour some of the Tall Ships and naval vessels that are
docked along the harbor. I walked along the harbor with couple friends
of mine and got a couple pictures of the ships. 
