Where I work in Chantilly, VA (western Fairfax County), the wind is
almost always from the west or northwest. This afternoon it was
steadily out of the south. I've never seen that before.
I immediately went to my "local patch", the Cub Run woods near the Cub
Run Rec Center, arriving at 3:30 PM. It was birdier than I've ever
seen it before, even on mornings during spring and fall migration.
I missed many warblers due to the wind and their high activity level.
No one wanted to sit still. Still, I had a Blackburnian and Prairie,
several Scarlet Tanagers, several Downy and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers,
good numbers of all the common locals, and big flocks of Robins and
Starlings. All in a few hundred yards of trail in just 20 minutes.
- Steve Johnson
Fairfax, VA
