A couple of days ago there was a crow moping around the birdbath seen in some of my movies. It got up on the birdbath for a drink then wandered around on the ground and the ash tree's roots. It didn't look happy. I stuck my head out the door and it hopped a little way away. It spent the evening hunkered down on the ground.
Yesterday morning when we got up it was dead.
The San Diego County Vector Control Program wants us to report dead birds so that they can test them for West Nile Virus. The newspaper this morning reported that 29 birds have tested positive for WNV while only 5 had by this time last year. None of this year's birds had been found in Escondido.
I filled out the county's online form and they called to make sure that the bird had been dead less than 24 hours. It was gone by the time we got home last night so I guess they picked it up.
I wonder if it was a victim of that disease. Or maybe it was just an youngster who hadn't learned to find food on its own and had been abandoned by its mom and dad.
Poor little bird.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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3 comments:
I certainly hope it wasn't the W.N.V. That's scary! Will they let you know what the test showed?
I doubt that they'll tell me about this particular bird, but we'll see.
I'm sorry to hear about your bird...West Nile Virus killed a lot of birds around here last year. I saw dead ravens a lot and it just about wiped out the magpies. I like magpies. They are loud, but they are so pretty and they love their babies. They make very cool sounds when talking to babies. I have my horse inoculated for W.N.V. it is BAD!
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