Birds of the Neighborhood (May 1-10)

The “neighborhood” consists of a 9-block rectangular area (my block plus the surrounding 8 city blocks) in a downtown neighborhood in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. But most of my observations are of birds seen in, or viewed from, my yard, an area just shy of 0.25-acres. The period was seasonably cool and relatively wet; very pleasant weather. The following list of 18 species is probably fairly typical of what you would expect to see in many older, small-town urban residential areas in the Mid-Atlantic States at this time of the year (species are listed in alphabetical order, with numbers in parentheses indicating the order in which each species was detected, # symbols indicating species new this period, and * symbols indicating species not native to the area):

European Starling* (1) - very abundant; nesting
Chimney Swift (2) - very abundant at dusk
Rock Dove* (3) - way too common; nesting
House Sparrow* (4) - extremely abundant; nesting
American Robin (5) - common; nesting
House Finch* (6) - quite common; nesting
Gray Catbird (7) - present throughout period; territorial singing
Northern Cardinal (8) - resident and nesting
Carolina Wren (9) - 1 found dead in yard on 5/3, another singing on 5/9
Fish Crow (10) - fairly common
Blue Jay (11) - quite vocal and visible; 4 seen on 5/5
Common Grackle (12) - common; probably nesting
House Wren (13) - heard singing sporadically; territorial
Northern Mockingbird (14) 1 or 2 pairs present
Mourning Dove (15) - fairly common; nesting
Common Raven# (16) - 1 seen briefly on 5/4
Common Yellowthroat# (17) - 1 heard singing on 5/5
American Crow (18) - occasional
Canada Goose (19) - 2 flying over on 5/5

Total Species This Period - 19
New Species This Period - 2
Cumulative Species Since 3/11/2002 - 30