"It was Annandale Virginia, just inside the evil beltway of Washington, D.C.
When my wife spotted the male and female in our yard, we had no idea what they were. Before they left, we had identified them in our guide book."
I'm laughing out loud now as I think of what that guide book is today, and what a couple spotted in our back yards might be today. It probably hasn't been written, but If it had It might sound like this.
Was the van windowless, all white and littered with papers all over the dash? Did they have young with them? Were their matresses on the ground, or were they elevated? Was it clear whether they were a breeding pair or just migrating?
Did they seem industrious, or were they robbing the nests of other species who had built before them?