Your blog is packed with good information. Seems your involved in many cool things.

Thought you might me interested in this blog post about a deformed black-capped chickadee that I followed last fall. The biologist in Alaska has been documenting these guys and this was the first one reported to her in NY.
Deformed Chickadee

So yes, the development pressure near your house may have been the reason you didn’t hear the birds–or not. But watch and listen next year, as it may have been a “blip” on the radar screen.

Have you ever considered submitting your bird observations to a citizen science database such as eBird.org? It’s a fantastic way to make scientific sense over time of our casual observations as birders.