Pre-flight with the birds

Last week before my flight back from Baltimore, I jetted off (no pun intended) to Washington to kill some pre-flight time. Washington is about 45 minutes from Baltimore with traffic. It was an overcast day which is great for photography. I knew it would be very hard to park in DC, so I had a pocket full of quaters ready to go. I found a parallel metered spot on the National Mall, 7th street I think. I thought I had parked pretty close to the Capital, but the walk from my spot to the steps of the Capital was still about 15 or 20 minutes. If you've been to the National Mall, you know what I'm talking about. While it seems it will be a relatively quick trip between the three major monuments on the mall (Capital, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial), it is not.

When I arrived at the reflecting pond just shy of the Capital I made friends with the birds there. I probably took more photos of them than anything else. It was the strangest thing. First, I couldn't scare them off no matter how close I got. They were brave little things. And, they would stand on one leg. They would walk on two legs of course, but then stand on one. Strange little birds.