Not long time passing, as I understand from reading tweeters this morning,
but merely not passed yet. As I wrote earlier, I've never seen so few birds
in my yard. It's got to the point that it's hardly worth looking out into
our lush, bird-friendly yard, with its plantings, food, and water, as there
won't be anything there! Every year for the past 11 years there have been
migrant warblers and Golden-crowned Sparrows, at least, in the yard, and at
least a few Hermit Thrushes and Lincoln's Sparrows, and we haven't seen a
hint of any of them so far this year. But I'll admit that most of the
warblers don't come until May, so perhaps I'm just being impatient this
year. But what happened to global warming and earlier migration?

Even some of the resident species, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Spotted Towhee,
and Song Sparrow, seem to have deserted us. We occasionally see a towhee or
sparrow, so they're not entirely gone, but they've shifted from regular to
rare visitors, and the nuthatches seem completely absent for the first time
since we've lived here. At least the arachidophilus jays haven't abandoned
us.

Dennis
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Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115