Day 211: That, my friends, was the absolutely worst Big Day I have experienced in my long years as a birder. Let me enumerate the species, and trust me, this won't take long to read: Evening Grosbeak, Steller's Jay, Band-tailed goddamn Pigeon, American Robin, Tree Swallow (exactly one), Purple Finch, Mourning Dove, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-headed Grosbeak and finally, right before dinnertime, a solitary Crow, bringing my Big Day total to 10. No Rufous hummer (one showed up this morning, doesn't count), no sparrows of any sort, no blackbirds or starlings. Terrible, horrible, no good very bad Big Day. But why? The weather has been good this week, so they weren't put off by that. There was food out, although admittedly not in the quantity I have laid on board in previous years. The only factors I can consider as possibly leading to the paucity of birds are avian influenza and/or climate change and the associated devastation of vast forested areas by fire. Ten species, when I should have had two dozen or more. Ten. That's all. And damned few of each.
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