[Battle Axe]

At this point and time, the migratory birds are heading North. We have until they migrate back South.

I was just out there along the Pacific flyway, Modoc County, Calif. I thought there were more birds than normal and earlier than usual. Just personal observation.

[OB1kNOb]

That seems to be the consensus opinion I read in most articles.......that it will come to the lower 48 during the fall migration to the south.

I have read where they expect it to arrive in Alaska this spring coming from spring migration of birds in Asia (more specifically eastern Russia). Pertaining to that I came across the following article regarding the Kamchatka Peninsula close to the Arctic Circle in eastern Russia. - OB1

Wildfowl hunting banned on Kamchatka for bird flu prevention -- 03.04.2006, 09.17

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, April 3 (Itar-Tass) - Wildfowl hunting has been banned on the Kamchatka Peninsula as a measure of bird flu spread prevention. The decision to introduce the ban was made by the Kamchatka regional emergencies commission.

Mass migration of birds begins on the peninsula in the middle of April. Up to 10 million migratory birds fly here from countries where bird flu cases have been registered.

Free vaccination of all poultry has begun in the Kamchatka region. Over 40,000 bird flu vaccine doses have been brought to the peninsula for this purpose. The Pionerskaya poultry farm where 205,000 chickens are kept has been transferred to a closed regime of work. A bird flu diagnostic laboratory has been set up in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.