Smithsonian National Zoo, Chapter 3

You know I enjoy aviaries, and I'm actually excited for the fact that the one at the National Zoo is being renovated and up-graded.  However, nothing about it suggested that it wasn't presently open to the public still.  There was no external evidence of construction and there were no signs indicating that it was closed to the public.  So I blithely made my way over the bridge and past the series of duck ponds expected to spend some time with the tropical birds only to discover that it was, in fact, closed until further notice...  However, I was still able to catch a Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos, on the only Hippo left at the zoo (the zoo gave up their Hippopotamus when they decided to expand their Asian Elephant collection.), and a Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax.  I also spoke with a lovely woman who just bird-watching in the zoo and she reminded me that time schedule for the renovations on the Aviary is three years, and added wryly, "and they're already two months behind schedule, eh?"