Dopers - in my suburb north of Chicago, ALL the crows have been decimated by the W.N. Virus. An Audubon count here last week found zero crows - remarkable since there are usually throngs of them. There are hardly any cardinals, few mourning doves, I haven’t heard a blue jay in weeks, and the sparrow population is very low. It’s eerily quiet in the mornings - just a few sparrows in the trees outside our house. And, I think - but I’m not at all sure - that the sparrow calls sound more like the ones we hear in the spring - more musical, more warbly. So, my question is this: is it possible that the low populations of sparrows is provoking spring mating songs? Or, is there really no difference in spring and fall songs (although it seems so). Am I actually hearing something different, and could it be related to the population problems? Birders?