The National Mall

Today I laced on my walking boots and made a trip around the National Mall.  I concentrated on the memorials on the Western portion.  I'll post some pictures here, then the rest in another post later.  Enjoy!

The White House from the south lawn.

This view is from inside the Washington Memorial.  That's the National Christmas Tree just to the left of the portico.

A few views of the Washington Monument.  Imposing from any angle.

 

 

The Jefferson Memorial.

 

 

The Lincoln Memorial.

 

 

 

 

The step on the Memorial where MLK gave his speech.

 

 

Fin

At least for me, the 2009 hunting season has come to an end.  It's been another great year on the prairie for me and my motley crew of bird dogs.  I'm off to new adventures, so I thought I would finish up with some random pictures from this year. 

The countdown has already begun, only 270 days until next season starts!

 

Turkey -

It's the other white meat bird!

(Note the albino next to the straw bale...)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Hunting around home

I took a few days off work and just made some day trips around home.  Our brutal winter last year really seems to have done a number on our bird population.  While there are still some pockets of good bird numbers, they are definitely down overall.  I hit what was one of my best spots last season, and hardly found any birds this year.  They are still out there, there is just more shoe leather between finds!

We hit some big fields.  Lots of walking in this country.

 

We hit some coulees too.

 

And even tried the river bottom.

But we did manage to find a few birds!

 

We've had great weather this week, lows in the 20's and 30's and highs in the 50's.  The wind has kicked up today, (steady around 25mph, gust to 50!) so we are staying in.  I hope to be able to get back out tomorrow.