Phoebes

[Andrea LeBlanc]

I have lived in the same house in Lee fr 53 years and there has always been phoebes nesting on the house. This year on April 8 - right n time - one appeared. It was around for a few days and seemed to disappear. Merlin picked up one this past week , but I haven’t heard one near the house. Louisiana waterthrushes and Chipping sparrows are in full voice, Baltimore orioles, Orchard orioles, Rose-breasted grosbeaks, Catbirds and hummers all have arrived this past week as usual. Merlin tells me there is a plethora of warblers in the woods surrounding me - Magnolia, Black and white, Black-throated blue and green, , Hooded, Yellow-rumped, Common yellow-throat, Northern yellow, Pine, - as well as Yello-throated and .Red-eyed vireos, Scarlet tanager, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned kinglets, Redstart, Ovenbirds, Wood thrushes, Pine siskin,Carolina and House wrens. All this to say it seems especially odd that phoebes are particularly few or absent..