Where have all the birds gone? At this time of year our yard should be teeming with nesting sparrows and their offspring, dozens of finches competing for the feeder, and a small variety of others passing through. This year the birdhouses are empty, not a sparrow in sight. Finches are absent, and so is almost every other kind of bird.
We do have our resident squirrels, who are pleased to have the bird feeders to themselves, which is almost true. A few magpies and a crow or two haunt them from time to time. I wonder what’s going on?
One possibility is that the city is tearing up our street to replace water and sewer mains. Work starts by 7:00 a.m. as a variety of heavy equipment fires up. Bulldozers, front-end loaders, jack hammers, dump trucks, pickups, they are all lumbering about making a lot of noise and stirring up dust that penetrates most everything around. Maybe the sparrows and finches decided it was too much. I hope that’s it, and that they come back next year.
In the meantime I keep feeding the squirrels.
I could make something theological out of this, but why?
Not even the dreaded flicker?! JD