Subject: where have all the migrants gone?
Date: May 3 10:26:47 2003
From: B&P Bell - bellasoc at isomedia.com


Good Morning Dennis and all -

Things have been slow this year in our yard also - although it is not a
bird friendly as Dennis'. We usually have a good sampling of birds
moving thru, but so far the resident birds including Black-capped and
Chestnut-backed Chickadees, the occasional Song Sparrow and the hill
American Crows. The Violet-green Swallows are back, I did see one
Band-tailed Pigeon, and this morning we had a Steller's Jay start to
bring nesting material into the light outside our patio door. The Jay
did this last year and had a nest almost completed before it realized
that there was regular activity using that door - at that point it
wisely moved on to some other place.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia.com

Netta Smith wrote:

>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
>
>