In the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on America, Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist of the National Wildlife Federation, wrote from his home outside Washington, D.C: "In the mid-Atlantic states, the passage of a front on Tuesday evening brought rapidly clearing skies Wednesday morning. In recognition of Tuesday's horrific events, my employer had given us the day off to catch up with friends and family and to overcome some of the shock of the terrorism. My wife and I attempted to do that and started the day slowly, going out to our deck with our coffee and appreciating the phenomenally beautiful day that had been given us. "We live in extreme southwestern Loudoun County, VA, and our house overlooks Mt. Weather, one of the Federal Gov't's emergency preparedness centers, located atop the Blue Ridge just 4 miles away. The sounds of Tuesday evening's helicopter ferries from the mountaintop were replaced with silence, except for a stiff breeze through white pines, at 9:30AM. "At about 10:25AM, with brilliant blue skies dominating and winds from the NNE at about 10-15mph, small groups, and then kettles of broad-winged hawks began amassing about 1000-3000 ft above our house. Ten minutes later, the kettles of hawks peaked. We had counted over 400 broad-wingeds that flew past in that brief burst. For the next hour, smaller groups and individual hawks streamed past, higher and closer to the mountain ridge as noon approached. During the entire time we watched, monarchs, as individuals or apparent loose clusters of 2-5 individuals, followed the same path south, often flapping upward in circles but mostly riding the winds. At about 11AM, I counted for just a minute or two and estimate that by focusing in and out with 10x binoculars directed toward the ridge, I was seeing about 1 monarch every 2 seconds. This went on for at least an hour and may have been occurring even before I first saw the hawks. Many of the monarchs were flying at an estimated 2000-3000 ft above the ground. "Seeing and recognizing that some wonderful aspects of life on this planet go on, no matter how frightening and uncertain other parts of our lives may seem, helped steer things back towards whatever normal might mean for us in the months ahead."