It’s almost November and the leaves are finally getting some color in Northern Virginia.  It’s been a relatively dry summer and early fall.  As a consequence, the leaves aren’t really colorful – dull red, dull yellow, dull orange, dull brown.  Still, you will find the occasional brightly colored leaf or two.

Fall is a beautiful time of year here in Northern Virginia.  The weather is relatively mild.  A warm spell can appear like a punctuation mark, like a comma in the middle of a sentence.  On such a day in late October, the sun was shining and Huntley Meadows beckoned.

The birds are no longer plentiful, though they are certainly still flying around at Huntley.  The mallards have returned, but the swallows, egrets, most of the warblers and most of the herons have migrated southward.  Just when the thinning leaf cover makes looking for birds easier they migrate away.  The leaf covered trails, a clean boardwalk (the geese are in much decreased numbers), the cool but comfortable weather, the canopy of colors make for an irresistible invitation to spend a few hours outdoors