Can’t really call it “wildlife” because nothing in the DC suburbs feels wild. Even so…
We went to the movies a week ago, and came back through the patch of undeveloped land that (let’s be frank) hides the oil refinery from the mall and the townhouses. I stopped and bent down at a corner-of-the-eye motion, and sure enough! it was one of the tiny spring peepers I used to hear coming back from chorus rehearsal at night. Cute little thing, grayish-brown and maybe half the size of my littlest fingernail. We saw some raccoon tracks in the muddy ground, too.
Last night my husband asked me to come out on the balcony to look at something. I guessed it was something astronomical, knowing him, but I was wrong. Turns out that at night, the trees behind our apartment come alive with fireflies, dozens of little lazily-glowing lights in the branches. It’s beautiful to see, especially with a crescent moon hanging in just the right spot to be seen through a hole in the canopy.
This evening we walked to the noodle place for dinner, and noticed a footpath we hadn’t noticed before behind the strip mall it’s in. Further investigation turned up a young rabbit browsing alongside the path, the first rabbit I think I’ve seen in Fairfax. (I seriously doubt we have any near our complex, because there are feral cats about, not to mention the raccoons.)
It’s hard to live here and not feel suffocated by the sheer inescapable weight of humanity sometimes. Honestly, that’s the biggest psychic burden about this area, and I can understand why people live far out to escape it (though I don’t necessarily approve). Of the places we could have ended up living in around Fairfax, though, I’m glad we found one with birds and bats and lightning bugs and toads and butterflies and spring peepers and the occasional raccoon or rabbit. It does help.
