Anonymous wrote:I agree the chemicals are horrifying. But they wouldn’t cause spread like what they’re seeing with this bird thing - sort of trickling slowly along the east coast. They seem to have started appearing a lot more in our neighborhood in nwdc again in the last two or three days. Anybody else feel like the bird bodies slowed down for a bit and then resumed showing up?

I’ve posted above, but my point wasn’t that the chemicals are directly to blame, probably more indirectly. Like how DDT didn’t kill the birds themselves but made their eggshells too weak to avoid adults crushing them. And it wasn’t just the chemicals, as I said above we’ve removed their food and their habitat for decades, in agriculture, undeveloped areas and in suburban areas, too. The populations are smaller and weaker and any virus is going to spread like wildfire.

I agree the chemicals are horrifying. But they wouldn’t cause spread like what they’re seeing with this bird thing - sort of trickling slowly along the east coast. They seem to have started appearing a lot more in our neighborhood in nwdc again in the last two or three days. Anybody else feel like the bird bodies slowed down for a bit and then resumed showing up?

Anonymous wrote:Unless you’re licensed to spray/ apply pesticides, you shouldn’t. Harry Homeowner dousing his yard in pesticides is the problem with those chemicals.

No, it’s not just Harry Homeowner. It’s the millions of lawns sprayed by licensed businesses. I know people have gotten it into their heads that a weed free lawn of just one grass species is the ideal, but it’s not and it’s killing us.

Unless you’re licensed to spray/ apply pesticides, you shouldn’t. Harry Homeowner dousing his yard in pesticides is the problem with those chemicals.

Anonymous wrote:I found three adult dead birds on my Sunday walk. The cicadas are gone. What is going on? If this is due to residential pesticide use I am terrified at what these chemicals are doing to our eco-system.

Birds have no habitat, no food. Their numbers are so incredibly reduced from what they were even in my lifetime, even in the last ten years (to say nothing of what they were historically). People coating their yards in pesticides and herbicides, and that’s to say nothing of what goes on in our agricultural systems. So what might have been nothing more than a curious virus (fungus? Bacteria? I don’t know what’s killing the birds) in a limited population is going to have an outsized effect. There just aren’t big enough margins to ensure their safety.

And about the agricultural side: I come from small family farmers and am still friends with a few of them so I hate to speak ill of farmers, but this isn’t so much about the little guys as it is about Dow and Monsanto and their friends. Did you know that glyphosate actually accumulates in the soil, and that it continues to disrupt the whole life system in the soil? Did you know that some farmers are using Enlist Duo - glyphosate and Agent Orange. The defoliant that still wreaks havoc on the bodies of exposed Vietnamese and Vietnam Vets as well as the environment in Vietnam is used to treat fields, acres and acres and acres of them.

Go chemical free in your yard and plant natives.

Many wildlife organizations are trying to figure this out right now. It is spreading up the east coast. Wildlife orgs are asking people to take down their bird feeders for now.

I found three adult dead birds on my Sunday walk. The cicadas are gone. What is going on? If this is due to residential pesticide use I am terrified at what these chemicals are doing to our eco-system.

Some disease spread at bird feeders and bird baths. Don’t feed the birds right now and clean baths and feeders.

I hate feckin' booirds anyway

I mean, bird flu?

Anonymous wrote:Cuba syndrome. They are testing the large scale attack.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dead-birds-blind-arlington-dc/2021/05/26/8bac705c-be36-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html

I don't think so.

Anonymous wrote:Cuba syndrome. They are testing the large scale attack.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dead-birds-blind-arlington-dc/2021/05/26/8bac705c-be36-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html

Sorry Havana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome

Cuba syndrome. They are testing the large scale attack.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dead-birds-blind-arlington-dc/2021/05/26/8bac705c-be36-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html

Anonymous wrote:If the cicadas were poisoning the birds, we would see dead squirrels and rodents. This is a bird specific issue, not cicada related, according to reports I have read.

Fair. But I can’t imagine that all the poison is helping anything, either. If anything, it’s adding another stressor.

If the cicadas were poisoning the birds, we would see dead squirrels and rodents. This is a bird specific issue, not cicada related, according to reports I have read.