Many people are still feeding birds since influential organizations believe that it is safe to feed birds as the bird flu does not commonly infect songbirds. But those same groups also state that we should remove feeders if a local health agency advises taking them down.
The Dukes County Emergency Management Association issued a press release on March 6 recommending the removal of feeders as birds are close to other birds and so could facilitate the spread of the avian flu. This advice seconds the Edgartown Board of Health’s Feb. 14 recommendation to remove feeders.
I visited the Federal Center For Disease Control’s website and found a list of 10,726 wild birds that have tested positive for avian flu. Here I briefly summarize that data, but for those with math-phobia, be prepared because this column seldom uses numbers, fractions and per cents.
Ducks have 61.9 per cent (6,619 birds) of all the positive tests, with mallards and blue-winged teal having about half of those positives. Geese and swans were the next largest group, with 17.9 per cent (1,917 birds) of the positive tests; Canada geese and snow geese account for 1,501 of the positive tests.
Thus waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans) combine to account for almost four fifths of all the birds that tested positive for the bird flu. There are two reasons why this dominance is not surprising: almost 40 per cent of the birds tested came from waterfowl hunters, and many of the other birds were probably found dead. Waterfowl are easier to find in the wild because they are larger than many other birds.
Hawks, eagles and owls account for 10.8 per cent (1,155 birds) of all the wild birds that tested positive for bird flu. They are not hunted but tend to be larger birds and thus easier to find. Slightly over four fifths of this group were bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. These are all predators that possibly contracted avian flu because they hunt for birds or scavenge dead birds.
This leaves only 9.4 per cent (863 birds) of the positive bird flu tests unaccounted for. Here are the remaining positives: seabirds 229, gulls and terns 208 (including 48 herring gulls), crows 163, quail and doves 124, shorebirds 54, and herons and egrets 39, leaving only 46 positives from 19 species of songbirds.
We can conclude from these data that a lot more ducks, geese and predators have tested positive, and that relatively few of the positive tests are of songbirds that might utilize our feeding stations. But these data do not show that songbirds are less susceptible to the avian flu, as some have suggested. To show that, we also need the negative test results to calculate the proportion of tested birds that did not contract avian flu, and we would need a much larger sample of songbirds.
Until we have more data, the Edgartown Board of Health and the Dukes County Emergency Management Association have both recommended we take down our bird feeders. It remains up to each of us to determine whether we think the risks of spreading avian flu from feeding birds outweighs the benefits of attracting birds.
Three new species for the year were found this week. Matthew DeGulis found a ring-necked pheasant at Katama Farm on March 4. The state releases pheasants every fall for the hunting season and it is nice to know that some survive the hunting season and the winter. Shea Fee heard two American woodcocks peenting and conducting their elaborate whistling courtship flights at the state forest headquarters on March 5, sounds that are worth hearing.
The most unexpected sighting, however, is Bob Shriber’s sighting of a semipalmated plover in Aquinnah on March 7. This is likely the first time this shorebird has been seen on the Island in March.
The overwintering Barrow’s goldeneye and northern shoveler are still present. On March 9, Janet Woodcock and Nancy Weaver spotted the Barrow’s at the drawbridge and the shoveler at Crystal Lake, while I spotted a Barrow’s at Crystal Lake (maybe a second bird) the day before.
Migrant red-winged blackbirds and common grackles continue to stream in. Many observers reported them across the Island.
Short-eared owls, northern harriers and an American kestrel are frequently spotted in Katama. Also in Katama, Luanne Johnson located an eastern meadowlark on March 8.
Great blue herons will soon be leaving for their nesting colonies, but for now they are still here. Jennifer Sepanara found one at Blackwater Pond Preserve on Feb. 25, and she spotted another at Long Point on Feb. 26. On March 1 Chris Scott observed one at Long Point and I spotted one on Norton Point. Bethany Weise and CJ Walsh found two great blues at Long Point on March 3.
Loons (both common and red-throated) are also lingering before they head north. On Feb. 25, Bridget Dunnigan and Sea Williams found one common at Mud Creek, and Isabella Colucci located a red-throated in Vineyard Haven Harbor Feb. 25. I observed one common at the Sepiessa Boat Ramp on Feb. 27, the MV Bird Club spotted two red-throateds from the Gay Head Cliffs on March 1, and the duo of Janet Woodcock and Nancy Weaver saw both one red-throated and two commons in Menemsha Harbor on March 4.
Also lingering are both dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows. Most amazing is the large flock of at least 20 juncos that Lanny McDowell flushed from his yard on Feb. 26.
March 3 was an active day. Janet Woodcock found one chipping sparrow and one white-throated in her yard, Cynthia Bloomquist and Thaw Malin watched three juncos and one white-throated at their home, the duo of CJ Walsh and Bethany Weise found six white-throateds off Litchfield Road on Chappaquiddick, and Nancy Nordin found two juncos and one white-throated at Tashmoo Springs.
Please email your sightings to birds@vineyardgazette.com.
Robert Culbert is an ecological consultant living in Vineyard Haven.
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