[FRIAM] dead migratory birds

[Steve Smith]

Thanks for the link...   I'm wondering if others are noticing similar in
the SFe area?  Or elsewhere?

Another "Silent Spring" in the making?

We noticed a very large flux in "little yellow birds"  (maybe a lesser
goldfinch?), possibly more than most years, and they have been showing
up dead in unexpected numbers here and there as well.  We noticed
several acting disoriented or weakly, easy to mistake for "distracting
behaviour" as if they had  a nest nearby but I think this is too late in
the season for nesting/fledging, especially since this is the first time
we've seen them this summer?

There has been some buzz in the valley (at the Hardware and the Pub and
the Grocer) trying to attribute this flux/deaths to local conditions
(e.g. blaming LANL, blaming the Aamodt water project, blaming the
Pueblos, reopening casinos,  masks,  Trump Rallies, Sturgis,
Immigration, etc.), but nothing larger in perspective or with more than
a pretense of rationality.

The speculations in the article about "premature migration" and possible
latent health damage from flying through (breathing) a lot of smoke both
seem plausible (esp. compared to the vernacular speculations in my valley).



On 9/15/20 8:07 AM, glen↙↙↙ wrote:
> 'Hundreds of thousands, if not millions': New Mexico sees massive migratory bird deaths
> https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2020/09/12/mass-deaths-migratory-birds-new-mexico-environment/5780282002/
>