The Cardinal Outside Your Window

At 40 years of age, I moved back in with my mother to the Washington, DC suburban jungle I was raised in. Within a week, I saw birds I had never seen in nearly three decades I had lived in the area—northern cardinals, blue jays, crows, house wrens, and gray catbirds. Was it possible that the birds were completely new to the area or had I been totally blind to them for so many years?

There is a family of cardinals that live across the street from my mother. I would hear them every day, and if I s...