Free Republic

CHICAGO (STMW) – A bizarre scene is evolving on the Chicago lakefront, with Canada geese and mallard ducks gulping down dead or dying gizzard shad. A major die-off of what appears to be the 2010 class is happening in Chicago harbors. Thousands, perhaps far more than that, of dead gizzard shad in the 3- to 5-inch range are frozen in the ice of Chicago harbors or floating around in open patches of water. “Gizzard shad are pretty sensitive,’’ Lake Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas said. “On the toughness scale, the herrings are pretty soft.’’ Gizzard shad, members of the herring...

Over 1,000 mallard ducks die in Idaho By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 13, 7:37 PM ET BOISE, Idaho - More than 1,000 mallard ducks have died along a single creek in southern Idaho, and officials on Wednesday tested tissue samples to find out why. ADVERTISEMENT The symptoms — lesions in the lungs and hemorrhaging in the heart wall — likely point to a bacterial infection, not avian flu, said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. State wildlife biologists and U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigators were not ruling out any...