Nature

Virtual Messiah

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The Fredericksburg Community Chorus’s 51st annual Messiah had to be virtual. Although last year’s 50th performance was the complete Messiah, this year’s may have been the least complete (under 30 minutes!) See it on YouTube here. The anonymity of my preferred seat in the back row seemed somewhat diminished, as surely I must have spent at least a few moments under the director’s microscope. But the number of singers grew due to collaboration with the Williamsburg United Methodist choir. Photo by Elspeth.

Neabsco

| edwinridout

Woodbridge, Virginia

From the Neabsco Creek Boardwalk, we’re looking southeast 1.3 miles to the railroad trestle at the creek’s mouth with the Potomac River. The Maryland shoreline is barely visible above the bridge, an additional 3.5 miles beyond. That would be the southwest tip of the Indian Head Peninsula. The newly opened $4 million 3/4-mile boardwalk is a pedestrian delight, open dawn until an hour after dark. We saw a couple of egrets but only at a distance, a few redwing blackbirds, and we heard more than we saw numerous tiny chattering birds. Will have to return at a more opportune hour. The only bird I caught on camera was almost as big as a crow but I don’t know what it was yet. [Nick must be right: a crow.] I was of course pleased to catch the southbound CSX freight train through my big lens.

The red marker (top, middle) is where we parked and entered the Neabsco Boardwalk on foot. My orange ink highlights the boardwalk winding 3/4 of a mile across the wetland. The orange line at lower right is the aforementioned railroad trestle, to the right of which is the Potomac River. The as yet unrenamed Jefferson Davis Highway shown on the left is the old main road south to Key West (1,300 miles) or north to Montreal (650 miles).

Biking C&O Canal Path

Image | | edwinridout

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Path connects Washington DC and Cumberland, Maryland. We rode from Point of Rocks to Brunswick and back. We’re photographed mid-way, where the canal itself crosses over Catoctin Creek. The aqueduct had collapsed and been rebuilt a few years ago. We’re standing among some of the leftover pieces.

Currituck Banks Refuge

| edwinridout

We took a two-mile stroll on the sound-side nature walk at Corolla, where NC Route 12 becomes 4WD-only then continues north, literally on the beach. The nature walk winds through the live oak woodland, with just one viewpoint on the Currituck Sound.

Eastern box turtle dining on mushroom?
Osprey

Meanwhile, about that time somewhere above us, my friend Mike Bussey was jumping out of an aeroplane. He got a better view of the canal connecting the Albemarle and Currituck Sounds to the Chesapeake Bay. We only glimpsed the canal when crossing by road.