Birds in My Backyard: March 27, 2006

A ten-minute point-count this afternoon (5:15-5:25 PM) in my modest alien-infested backyard in downtown Martinsburg, West Virginia, yielded 19 individuals of six species (* denotes non-natives):

Rock Pigeon* - 4
Mourning Dove - 1
American Robin - 1
European Starling* - 8
Northern Cardinal - 2
House Sparrow* - 3

Fifty percent of the species (3 of 6) and 84 percent of the individuals (16 of 19) observed this afternoon are aliens