In western MD, there's virtually nothing flying around.
At this time of year there would normally be huge flocks of birds going overhead as they start migrating.
This year, zip.
The sparrows who've lived in my yard year-round for 15 years vanished in mid-summer and have not been seen since.
I keep putting food out for them as I've always done and nothing is eating it except for a rabbit, now and then.
Normally my yard looks like a Hitchcock movie but it's been virtually empty of birds for months, now.
Thanks for your mail. Yes, the squirrels are "gone missing", too, Normally this is their crazy time of year but now, I've seen only one squirrel. I live by the Chesapeake Bay. So we usually lots of birds, from gulls to song birds. I even had my own cardinal family that has lived in my yard for several years. Now. Nothing. Not even sparrows.
I thought it was the drought, but after a week of rain, only this morning did I hear one distant bird song. Not the usual riot of singing that accompanies rain in my area.
Every morning before I get out of bed, I really listen to bird songs, a promise I made to myself when my son died. So the absence of bird song in the trees around my home...and the absence of all the usual animal life everyone takes for granted...is very noticeable and somewhat eerie given what is predicted. So I wonder if an unannounced cull is underway...I have only seen one song bird carcass but didn't think much of it...until recently.
Soon we should be seeing the "honkers", Canadian geese, flying overhead in huge flocks heading south. Somehow I wonder if we will see any at all.