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Sick, dying birds perplex officials, animal lovers

By CARIE L. CALL Environment Writer, Feb. 12

DAYTONA BEACH - A sea gull just "dropped out of the sky" dead Friday while other gulls and four sandpipers were found wandering aimlessly on the beach and showing signs of illness.

Mary Keller, dubbed "The Bird Lady" for her care of injured birds, said she took in four sandpipers and two sea gulls Friday that were sick. Two sandpipers and one gull died by Friday afternoon and one sandpiper "was just hanging on by it's teeth," Keller said.

The birds were found just south of the Main Street Pier. Keller said a beachgoer told her about the gull that fell from the sky and landed on the beach, dead.

Keller said all the birds are lethargic and look as though they have ingested poison. "I would say they got it from the water or someone throwing something out," Keller said.

One of her friends also took in a number of sick birds Friday, but Keller did not know how many.

Julie Hovis, regional nongame biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said she also has gotten calls from hotel maintenance workers in Cocoa Beach who said they found sick and dead sandpipers and sea gulls. The report was vague, Hovis said, and she does not know how many birds were found.

Though Hovis does not know what is causing any of the birds' deaths, she said the sandpiper deaths are particularly odd.

"We usually see larger birds such as pelicans and loons die this time of year because of the cold and lack of food," Hovis said. "We don't usually see the smaller birds die."

If Hovis receives additional calls from bird experts or if the deaths become more widespread along the coastline, she will ask the state to perform necropsies on the birds to try and determine their cause of death.

"It's hard to decide if we are observing a natural phenomenon or if something is really occurring," Hovis said.

If beach-goers find any sick or dead birds, call Keller at 252-2794. Keller will pass along any information she has to Hovis or other Conservation Commission officials. ) 2000 News-Journal Corp. . news-journalonline.com

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 15, 2000

Answers

Keller said all the birds are lethargic and look as though they have ingested poison.

They probably got caught in a chemtrail.

-- Y2kObserver (Y2kObserver@nowhere.com), February 15, 2000.

Maybe they've been infected with the West Nile encephalitis from birds migrating down to Florida from New York City. That was the big concern when the virus outbreak was traced to birds in NYC.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 15, 2000.

I do not have an opinion about the cause of this...however, I do know that any time dying birds are discovered it is taken quite seriously. The old Coal Miners were pretty smart.

There was one case over the last year where a man poisoned birds on purpose because he wanted them off of his land. It's very sad.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 15, 2000.

Yep, WNEncephalitis. Why didn't the article remind folks not to touch the dead birds? The state will do some autopsies, and you will see more chemtrails and fewer insects and small rodents, that's IMHO anyway. That's how it went down here in VA.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 15, 2000.

Hokie,

You make a good point about not touching the dead birds. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the article. Hopefully, there will be some answers quickly.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 15, 2000.

What ever happened on that blue algae spill reported on the Forum last month. Florida's had enough spills and overflows in the last few weeks to make more than a few life forms function at less than optimal levels (translate "dead"). Be interesting to see the toxicology reports. Will FFWCC post them?

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), February 15, 2000.

[Born Killer STOP IT! --Sysop]

-- Born Killer (bornkiller@blood.feast), February 15, 2000.

Oh no! How terrible. Thankfully at our neck of the coast, the gulls and sandpipers seem happy as... clamis.

Can someone please ban or delete that Born Killer, please???

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 16, 2000.

Mara, I agree the above post should be deleted...but don't worry...lots of folks are LQQKing out for comments like that. =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 16, 2000.

I recently did a study on birds dying, I found that 99% of bird deaths are caused by living. I don't belive in posioning birds because how can you be sure they will eat enough to kill them. I perfer the good ole 12 gauge.

-- denden (denden@hotmail.com), February 17, 2000.