RSS FeedUsing birdNet To Bird In Downtown DC
The pandemic reduced street traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, significantly in the downtown neighborhood and that has brought nature into the foreground. Lots of birds frequent the trees that line our neighborhood’s streets and their chirping and song are now the soundtrack accompanying our walks and runs. Enter birdNet, a project spearheaded by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Chemnitz University of Technology that allowing s cell phones to act as ears around the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) powers the detection algorithm identifying up to 984 different species of birds.
We’ve been using birdNET regularly to learn about birds in the area. Some we can see such as Common Starlings and House Sparrows. Others we hear such as Mourning Doves. The free app is available for Android only (sorry Apple users) but they do have a Twitter bot that provides updates about bird observations. There is an app for Apple phones called Song Slueth that we’ll be checking out next.
Fado Irish Pub Now Really Closed (808 7th St NW)
Fado Irish Pub (808 7th St NW) is one of the longer running businesses in the Penn Quarter neighborhood having been open since 1998. We remember visiting it in 2000 when it was relatively new. It was always a good bet as a place to watch soccer games when soccer wasn’t as popular in the United States as it is now. A message on their website includes:
Fado Irish Pub in Washington DC opened on March 16, 1998 with a 20-year lease on our building at 808 7th Street. March 16th was our last day of business before the COVID-19 shutdown. It is with great regret that we tell you that, 22 years to the day of our opening, it was our final day of business at 808 7th Street, forever.
The Washington Business Journal reports that Fado couldn’t renegotiate the lease and that ultimately led to the decision to close. Fear not though as there are plenty of other Fado locations to visit if you need an Irish pub fix.
World War I Memorial Emerging From Ground At Pershing Park (14th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW)
On our regular walkabouts we noticed that the slabs of eastern facing stone of the World War I Memorial are starting to peek over the construction fencing. The memorial is being constructed on the Pershing Park site bounded by 14th and 15th Streets NW and the northern and southern chunks of Pennsylvania Ave NW in front of the Willard Hotel. A rendering of the final memorial can be found here and the current construction cam can be found here. The park formerly had a small skating rink that didn’t get a whole lot of use and lots of trees for shade. It will remain as a nice resting place when the memorial which includes a water feature is completed.
WWI Memorial Virtual Tour and Construction Update from WW1centennial on Vimeo.
MLK Library Construction Continues…Looking Good! (901 G St NW)
We wanted to share positive news from the neighborhood and noticed that the MLK Library’s construction activities continue. We walked by the east facing room on the ground floor recently and it is looking good. The overall project is expected to complete in the fall of 2020.
