Waiting at the starting line for the Army Ten Miler race to begin, I looked up and saw a flock of 6 Rooks slowly flying over. These are the first ones I've seen since this spring. Soon hundreds more will follow to spend their winter in the fields around our base and picking through our dumpsters looking for food.

My visit to the Laundry pond yielded only a few birds, a single little egret, a coot, a pair of little grebes, several ferruginous ducks and a small flock of mallards.

I saw 5 or 6 species of dragonfly. There were a couple of large blue Aeshnids the size of a Green Darner, smaller red dragonflies, and a tiny gray species with a wingspan of about 2 inches.

I saw a migrating Red Admiral flying near the pond. Like the Painted Ladies that I saw this spring they are found throughout the northern hemisphere in both Eurasia and North America.

Since the weather got colder a few days ago the geckos have not been out. Last night I did find more macro moths than usual at our lights. Small crambids, a small green noctuid and a large moth that looked like a catocaline noctuid.