Steve Hersey of D.C. asked me to post the following message (thanks Steve!):

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[Steve wrote:] Jim, many many thanks for your posting on MDOsprey about 
the Anhinga at Lily Pons.  I saw the posting about 30 minutes after you 
posted it, jumped in my car (in DC) and flew up there.  The bird was 
exactly where you said it was.  Luckily, two ladies (in my excitement I 
forgot their names) showed me exactly where it was - many thanks to them 
for their kindness.

They left, and about 10 minutes later I started following likely the 
same Prothonotary Warbler you did, got about 20 feet and an enormous 
part of a tree broke off with an extremely loud crack about 30 feet away 
from me (just down the trail from the bike).  Once my heart started 
beating again Imy first thought was "oh %@#$, I'll bet that scared the 
Anhinga away".  I jumped back over there and sure enough the bird was 
gone.  But, at least I had had 10 great minutes of viewing.

Then, on my walk back to my car a Virginia Rail flushed from one of the 
marshes and flew about 30 feet and settled back in.  Never ever thought 
I'd see a Rail do that.  It started making some noise about 10 minutes 
later and it was absolutely a V.R.
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Jim Moore
Rockville, Maryland