No English house sparrows to speak of this summer. Maybe a pair. We typically have a dozen or more, fighting over the birdseed.

Chipping sparrows trilling everywhere, all the time, audible dawn to dusk. Flitting around on the ground, picking over the seed leavings, squeaky-wheeling all the day. We typically see one pair.

A rose-breasted grossbeak couple in the area, making melodious improvements on the robins’ normal tunes. Much more professional-sounding. Never seen one.

Not one house or purple finch to be seen. Crowless. Notably so. We used to have streaming night-flights of them, even in summer, heading to the roost of the day. Starling shortage, too.

Double the normal number of bluejays, and the distinctive sounds of squalling babies from the nesting tree. New development, there.

No flickers.

Carolina wren couple, bobbing about and pulling at the weed piles I leave around. Never seen one before this April.

Only constant: mourning doves. Same three, far as I can tell, that have been here for a decade.

What gives?