Posted on 07/22/2021 9:09:18 AM PDT by justlittleoleme
That’s the advice of the Audubon Society, the PA Game Commission, the Wildlife Futures Program (WFP) at The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (SCEE). And if you think their recommendations are for the birds, you’re right.
A mysterious illness has been ravaging songbird populations in the eastern United States. Thousands of afflicted birds have been manifesting crusty discharge from swollen eyes and signs of neurologic impairment (erratic flight, trouble walking, tremors). Rehabbers are helpless; the prognosis is death.
First observed in the DC area in May and spreading into Pennsylvania by mid-June, the “event” is essentially a construct derived from thousands of unique reports of all types of avian morbidity and mortality. Natural resource management agencies in all contiguous, affected states and the District of Columbia are working together with diagnostic laboratories including Penn’s WFP to investigate the cause(s) of the die-off.
By early July, collaborating laboratories have been able to rule out West Nile virus and avian influenza. Both diseases have been known to jump to humans.
Negatives are nice, but the absence of positive identification can fuel speculation.
(Excerpt) Read more at chestnuthilllocal.com ...
Humm. 5g micro wave radiation? Birds do not read the warnings to say clear of the towers do they.
(Just putting it out there.)
Squirrels typically don’t get rabies, they don’t survive getting bitten by a rabid animal.
Consider the possibility yours might have...
Blackbirds matter.
Auto-tune pox.
Now we know the real reason they shuttered Ft. Detrick.
Cicadas were swarming this year. Only happens IIRC less than once per decade.
My birds are fine singing away.
One intriguing hypothesis concerns the possible ecological connection between the bird blight and this spring’s emergence of the Brood-X cicadas. After seventeen years of underground adolescence many of the X-ers emerged carrying a nasty fungus that might be turning aerial adult insects into lethal fare. >>>. How about feeding your birds so they don’t have to eat the infected bugs.
Is there something about the cicada crop that was bad this year?>>> The article mentions cicadas being a possible source. So i’ll feed my birds so they don’t have to eat the infected cicadas. We also had a huge infestation of the “Chinese Lantern Fly” last year in which i proceeded to murder a few million. Not too bad this year. Maybe they carry a disease as well. Birds do not eat them but they do pick them up before dropping them.
Definitely consider the possibility of rabies. I personally would shoot the squirrel and burn its body in a very hot fire, never getting closer to the carcass than the length of a long shovel handle.
Competition to the CDC?
Different research.
“Frederick Disease” (Frederick, MD...ala “Lyme, CT”),
aka “Frederick Flu”
Probably from people using bird seed from China.
We had 17-year cicadas this year, yes. It’s my 4th lifetime experience.
You didn’t fully digest my post.
The birds were not eating from my feeder when the cicadas were out. I feared they didn’t like it anymore, but now they are back.
You can put a feeder in front of the birds, but you can’t make them eat.
Actually, it’s Old Lyme CT.
I’ve lived near each of those a good while. 😁
Blackbird singing in the dead of night....
I stand corrected.
But you get my point...
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