I live at 500 feet elevation adjacent to woods. In April I had 2 song
sparrow nests and a Dark Eyed junco nesting in my yard, all three in places
where I could observe the nests. The song sparrow nests each only produced
one egg, one hatchling, both died. The Junco produced 3 hatchlings, all
died. Relative to the past three years, there are much fewer insects of all
kinds, and a noticeable decline in flying insects. I can usually get 6
species of flies on the Viburnums in my yard. One species, few individuals
this year. The cold and wet has taken its toll on the early emergent
insects which I assume has contributed to the breeding bird failures. There
are scant warblers yet, and the Swallows showed up and left. Not quite
silent spring, but unusually quiet, the morning chorus is mostly Robins
still. This is the lowest bird count in the 21 springs I have lived here.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish