Dead Birds Don't Smoke...

I took this picture yesterday morning before entering the local government administration building to pay my property taxes.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/54bff343d411.jpg[/atsimg]

On my walk towards the entrance I noticed many more ahead of me. Not one person seemed to notice this dead bird less than a foot away from the door handle resting on top of the ashtray/trash can. The height was up to my chest and I am 5'3. It instantly grabbed my eye, and almost like a bad car wreck I had a hard time looking away. There were no visible injuries on the bird that I could see.

The first thing that crossed my mind was the news coverage at the beginning of the year about mass animal die offs. I suppose that is why I could not believe no one else seemed to notice.

When I got to the teller inside I asked her if she had seen it yet. Figuring someone may want to get it up before a small child grabbed it...

Her words - "Again"? She asked was I sure there was only one. I told her that I did not search the premises, but 1 was all I noticed. I then asked her why she said "again". She said for the last few weeks it seemed that they were dropping out of the sky around this building dead by a dozen or more every day/other day. She said they didn't look injured either.

Now I know animals die, and this bird may have flown into the window and died (right behind the trash can) that way. But the teller's words clearly explained that there have been many birds drop dead out of the sky all around the building for a few weeks. None of this has been reported in the local news or papers for whatever reason.

The animals still seem to be in some kind of danger. Whether it is disease or something else it is concerning. Is this still happening in anyone else's neck of the woods?

I sure would like to know what is causing/caused this...

Nope nothing here in portsmouth, Va.

Im listening to the birds singing as i type.

California had a fish kill today though.



What state are you in?

Now that is a poignant picture my friend!

You could probably sell that pic to Anti-Smoking groups.

This is strange indeed. Maybe you should call Animal Control or an Ornothologist(is that right?) Maybe they could shed light on it. Or perhaps cover it up?

I could think of a hundred captions to put on that picture. Some funny, some serious. So if you see your pic posted somewhere on the internet with captions.......SORRY! It was probably me.

It is possible the birds could be eating the cigarette butts? Maybe the weather is a factor in their deaths? I would be concerned with was is going on in that environment.

Ive seen birds use cigarette butts and the cotton inside the butts for nest building......Im sure its ok though since that portion of the cigarette catches all the stuff thats....not bad for you?........(insert sarcasm here)

i had a dead red tailed hawk in my yard the other day and there huge with no real predators i found it really odd.

Originally posted by AOA2012
Nope nothing here in portsmouth, Va.

Im listening to the birds singing as i type.

California had a fish kill today though.

What state are you in?

I am in VA. as well. A pretty good jump from Portsmouth though.

It is sad that all of these animal deaths are occuring. It would be nice to know what is going on...

Originally posted by CastleMadeOfSand
Now that is a poignant picture my friend!

You could probably sell that pic to Anti-Smoking groups.

This is strange indeed. Maybe you should call Animal Control or an Ornothologist(is that right?) Maybe they could shed light on it. Or perhaps cover it up?

I could think of a hundred captions to put on that picture. Some funny, some serious. So if you see your pic posted somewhere on the internet with captions.......SORRY! It was probably me.

The irony did not escape me when I took the picture. I suppose it is possible someone picked it up and layed it there, though I don't know anyone who would willingly pick up a dead bird to sit it elsewhere. The mites alone make me cringe at the thought.

This is the same building that controls animal control. They house an agricultural extension office for Virginia Tech along with public water utility, voter registration, and the school board. A bunch of government entities in one place. So if they know anything, they aren't telling the other employees in the building... or she isn't telling me. Who knows.

Help yourself to the pic unless you make millions... then I want my cut!

Originally posted by FeraVerto
It is possible the birds could be eating the cigarette butts? Maybe the weather is a factor in their deaths? I would be concerned with was is going on in that environment.

At this rate that could very well be possible. And it is slightly concerning. That is one reason why I asked if others were still seeing this in their areas. Even with all the reported deaths of other animals earlier in the year, this is first I have heard of it here. While these deaths are not as massive as others it is still right many more than one bird accidentaly flying into a window hard enough to kill it.

Originally posted by rinowilli
Ive seen birds use cigarette butts and the cotton inside the butts for nest building......Im sure its ok though since that portion of the cigarette catches all the stuff thats....not bad for you?........(insert sarcasm here)

I have seen them do that too. Not only are they filled with toxins it is my understanding that some filters contain fiberglass as well. That certainly can not be beneficial...

That's weird. Here in MD, I've seen just an explosion in the population of large predatory birds like hawks and even, according to others who seem able to make identifications, eagles! Okay I guess that's no huge deal given that I live adjacent to agricultural lands that might be hospitable to these birds. But I've got family in crowded noisy suburbs outside of Washington DC that report the same thing. What we have so far been seeing less of is the smaller songbirds. We see them but not as many. I am not seeing as many robins yet, for example, as I am used to seeing this time of year. I don't know if the hawks and eagles have been preying on the smaller birds or not. I've yet to see a bird of prey actually catch a meal. We had a bunch of crows in February but I see fewer of them, now, too. I haven't seen the ones who normally hang out in my backyard in weeks. I have been trying to figure out what's been happening to the smaller birds around the world, knocking them dead out of the sky, and so forth. Yet the big predator birds seem to be thriving...minus that account of starving emaciated eagles that was in the news a while ago. Several years ago there was a bad outbreak of West Nile virus that knocked a lot of birds dead. But it's not mosquito season yet. That shouldn't have affected your poor little ashtray bird, at least I don't think so. Maybe some of them are just old and keeling over of natural causes this time of year?