It was nice to see mallard families the last time we were at Constitution Gardens.

I don’t know how much longer they’ll be accessible since an announcement was made that in advance of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026, the gardens are going to be totally overhauled because they’re an “environmental mess,” according to Catherine Townsend, president and CEO of the Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit group that works with the National Park Service.

“We have to completely rip it up and put it back in, in a much more environmentally-friendly and sustainable program,” said Townsend. “The lake is not really a true lake, so we’re going to make it a true ecology, better landscaping, better flowering landscapes, and better water resource management and better trees.”

So much for having a close (and beautiful) place to go to enjoy nature and photograph birds.

It’s lily time again, posted earlier:

a