Are birds falling from the sky in Australia carrying avian EBOLA?

Birds Falling from Sky; 

Bleeding from Beaks -- Avian 

EBOLA

HalTurner,

17 July, 2019

Dozens of birds were believed to have been poisoned after animal rescuers found more than 60 "falling out of the sky" near an Adelaide, Australia primary school. But necropsy (an animal autopsy) testing shows the birds infected with a Hemorrhagic Virus similar to Ebola - which CAN spread to humans! When the virus was isolated, officials allegedly issued ORDERS to conceal the true cause to prevent pubic panic.

The birds were found dead or dying near One Tree Hill Primary School, in Adelaide's north, on Wednesday.

Long-billed Corellas — which is a protected species in South Australia — and short-billed Corellas were among those found.

A volunteer from Casper's Bird Rescue who went to investigate reports of the dead birds called for help when about 60 Corellas were found either dead or dying in the area.

Casper's Bird Rescue founder Sarah King said she did not believe any of the birds had survived.

"I got a phone call from that carer quite distressed saying they are literally everywhere falling out of the trees, falling out of the sky," she said.

"It was obvious then that it was a bit more of a situation than we thought … from my understanding none have survived.

Ms King said the animal rescuers had contacted the local city council to make sure it had not used some type of poison which may have killed the birds, and it said only herbicides were used that were not dangerous for wildlife.

One Tree Hill Primary School posted on social media following the find and said there were "no survivors" out of the birds collected.

"The children in vacation care were very upset at the scene of birds falling from the sky and in pain, with blood coming out of their mouths," the Facebook post said.

Hal Turner Commentary

If this is some type of Human-infection-capable, bird-borne Hemorrhagic virus, there will literally be no way to stop it from spreading. Birds go everywhere and we think nothing of it.

Think about the possibilities: They land on water fountains, drink in lakes and ponds, poop . . . on everything. Other animals prey on birds . . . would those predators get infected too? This has "disaster" written all over it.

Folks in Australia should pay close attention to how this is resolved; their very lives may depend on it.

Here is the original report

https://au.news.yahoo.com/children-traumatised-as-corella-birds-fall-from-sky-at-adelaide-school-215744384.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9hdS5uZXdzLnlhaG9vLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGPWwusfeiCwIPMMRkcabwxRajMUh6W68pIXWucBNbScZ8i_p8Yrf93N-fycGqZlXDR6a370vaYKO_aTzNgCO8gEqS25fM_nlfmPkChTKHEZkNVm-vzNWeamhUnMGzh5uq3ZdzUeBQ317Ad_eo1rHtt4C3yUlcu92D3bEONPywHb

A number of children at an Adelaide school have been left traumatised after witnessing ”very sick” birds “fall from the sky”.

One Tree Hill Primary School, in Adelaide’s northeast, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday more than 50 corellas in the area have been poisoned.

Unfortunately, all of them died.

“I received a distressing phone call from a worker at school who was finding the very sick birds all over the school,” the school wrote.

“The children in vacation care were very upset at the scene of birds falling from the sky and in pain with blood coming out of their mouths.

“The children were so caring and wanted to make sure the birds were getting some help.”

The school added the animal rescue took the birds into its care.

“The rescue will continue to ensure our children do not need to see this in their school grounds,” the school wrote.

One woman wrote the news was “very disturbing”.

“I think children could be traumatised by such a horrible thing. And so cruel,” she wrote.

Others called it “terrible” and “horrible”.

South Australia Police has been contacted for comment.

The demise of birds from rapid climate change

Sheer Speed of Global Warming Is Decimating Birds, Say Scientists

Birds turn out to be doubly as affected as mammals from the rate of climate change

By Ruth Schuster
 

Pink-footed (and pink-beaked) goose in Norway are one of the species said to be in decline

Haaretz,

23 July, 2018

Birds are twice as vulnerable to climate change as mammals, an international team of scientists has concluded after checking 481 species in 987 populations around the world.

The vulnerability of the tiger and bald eagle get extensive press, but the fact is that most mammalian and avian populations have been declining for decades. 

There are myriad causes, but a chief one turns out to be the sheer speed at which climate change is progressing.

Simply, they can’t adjust fast enough, concludes the reportpublished by the Zoological Society of London on Monday, in the journal Global Change Biology.

The scientists wanted to check how the double whammy of climate change and human encroachment affects birds and mammals. What they found is that climate change matters more, and especially to birds.

That absolutely does not mean human encroachment, and habitat devastation, aren’t huge problems, the team clarifies. They are. They confined their examination to land-use and climate. But clearly the changes happening so rapidly to the planet are more than many species can cope with, even if their favorite tree is still there.

One problem birds have is that their mating season is triggered by temperature changes, explains lead author Fiona Spooner. “We think this could be leading to a desynchronization of their reproduction cycle, leading to the negative impacts we’re seeing. Mammal breeding seasons are a lot more flexible, and this is reflected in the data,” she says.

Arctic tern populations have declined in Canada in areas where climate has warmed rapidly. Leejiah Dorward

Their research shows that in areas where the rate of climate warming is worse, bird and mammal population declines measured over at least five years are more rapid, says co-author Robin Freeman. "The arctic for example has experiences quite high rates of warming and we have seen simultaneous population declines. 

We also see rapid rates of warming in central and northern Africa where many mammal populations are in decline," he told Haaretz.

Black-tailed godwit's are also one of the species in decline in Germany and Senegal

Black-backed Jackal near Wolfsnes, Western Etosha, Namibia.  Hans Hillewaert / Wikipedia

In some places, such as Europe, the declines in  populations are less rapid, he says. "This may be because many of the impacts occurred historically. However, threats such as climate change are pervasive and continuing."

Godspeed, godwit
 

The truth is that many birds, leaving sheltered poultry out of it, are in trouble. A 2017 report in Scientific American warns that changing temperature patterns are causing birds to mistime their migration: “Bird species trace their migratory paths based on where they can find the most resources, but changes to the climate might soon make their knowledge outdated,” the report said.

Birds become accustomed to certain routes that pass over lush lands swarming with food, usually insects. But green land today could be desert tomorrow, the study points out. Species that travel the farthest are particularly vulnerable.

Everywhere they look, scientists are observing changes in the patterns of life – from germs to insects to birds to ocean animals.

The new ZSL study specifically names a few species of birds and mammals in marked decline, such as the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) in Germany and Senegal; and Senegal; the pink-footed goose in Canada (Anser brachyrhynchus) and black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) in Tanzania.

Heat map of world showing areas of warmth along with population distribution \ ZSL

Germany, for instance, has been experiencing more extreme weather. Also, while the Middle East gradually dries out, Germany has been soaked, with an 11 percent increase in rainfall since 1881.

Black-backed jackal populations declines in Tanzania have been recorded. Leejiah Dorward

However, certain areas have become drier, especially in summer. Alpine snow is melting earlier. Canada has a tough young prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who instated aggressive policies that horrified big business: two years later, the jury is still out. Meanwhile, it’s getting pretty hot there: average temperatures in Canada have been increasing faster than in most other places and have already risen by 1.7 degrees Celsius since 1948. It’s rainier, too.

The impact of climate change on Tanzania and neighboring countries has been hard, and they lack resources to cope with the worsening droughts and flooding.

"There are a variety of bird species that are in warming places that are declining rapidly," Freeman told Haaretz. "For example, burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia), a are a nationally endangered owl in Canada that are declining quite rapidly. Similarly, we also see corncrakes (Crex crex) declining rapidly in Central Europe."

In Asia, the decline of the mountain sheep is marked. "Red colobus monkeys in Uganda are endangered and we see them declining rapidly with associated warming, he says. 

It is hard to say from the ZSL study which specific aspect of warming is to blame for the declines, Freeman says: It could be that the timing of seasons is changing while daylight isn't, temperature extremes, or some other factor.

"We have found that in places where warming is rapid, declines are faster but the mechanism of this remains unclear. It may be that, as others have found, with climate change, peak food availability is earlier that usual and therefore less associated with peak breeding times. This makes it harder for annual breeders to maintain their populations," Freeman says.

The data is not clear-cut but it seems that larger mammals, for example, may be declining less rapidly, Freeman says. For the time being.

Bearded Dragon lizards, a species that could theoretically face extinction through temperaure-driven feminization Wikipedia

Sometimes, the effects of climate change aren’t exactly what we expected. Australia brings us an example of a completely different type of problem. Among the bearded dragon, in temperatures between 34 to 37 degrees Celsius (93 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit), male embryos turn female. The outcome can be a gender ratio of 16 females to one male. That is unfortunate.

Bizarrely, the converted male lizards produce more eggs than genetic females, the paper reports. This “super-female” (as the scientists called the bearded lady lizard) goes more boldly to places where other regular bearded lizard males go. Go figure.

In any case, the real problem isn’t sexual frustration in the female bearded lizard, but that temperature dependency of sexual determination will ultimately lead to an all-female population, which will then promptly go extinct.

“Our research shows that in areas where the rate of climate warming is worse, we see more rapid bird and mammal population declines. Unless we can find ways to reduce future warming, we can expect these declines to be much worse,” said Freeman.

The ZSL also made news in April for reporting on the approaching extinction of a turtle that grows algae on its head and has gills in its cloaca. Which means, it breathes through its genitals. The Mary river turtle also sports bumps that look like proto-tentacles under its chin and lives exclusively in the waters of the Mary river in Queensland, Australia.

Catastrophic drop in the numbers of seabirds in the Shetland Islands

Eerie silence falls on Shetland cliffs that once echoed to seabirds’ cries

Climate change has caused a catastrophic drop in the numbers of terns, kittiwakes and puffins

the Observer,

3 June, 2018

Sumburgh Head lies at the southern tip of mainland Shetland. This dramatic 100-metre-high rocky spur, crowned with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather, has a reputation for being one of the biggest and most accessible seabird colonies in Britain.

Thousands of puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars gather there every spring to breed, covering almost every square inch of rock or grass with teeming, screeching birds and their young.

Or at least they used to – for this year Sumburgh Head is a quiet and largely deserted place. Where seabirds once swooped and cried in their thousands, only a handful of birds wheel round the cliffs. The silence is uncanny – the result of a crash in seabird numbers that has been in progress for several years but which has now reached an unprecedented, catastrophic low.

One of the nation’s most important conservation centres has been denuded of its wildlife, a victim – according to scientists – of climate change, which has disrupted food chains in the North Sea and North Atlantic and left many seabirds without a source of sustenance. The result has been an apocalyptic drop in numbers of Arctic terns, kittiwakes and many other birds.

“In the past, Sumburgh Head was brimming with birds, and the air was thick with the smell of guano. The place was covered with colonies of puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars, and guillemots,” said Helen Moncrieff, manager of RSPB Scotland’s office in Shetland.

“There were thousands and thousands of birds and visitors were guaranteed a sight of puffins. Today they have to be very patient. At the same time, guillemots have halved in numbers. It is utterly tragic.”

This grim description is backed by figures that reveal the staggering decreases in seabird numbers in Shetland, the most northerly part of the British Isles. In 2000, there were more than 33,000 puffins on the island in early spring. That figure dropped to 570 last year and there are no signs of any recovery this year, although it is still early in the season.

Similarly, Shetland’s kittiwake population plummeted from over 55,000 in 1981 to 5,000 in 2011, and observers believe those numbers have declined even further in the past few years. Only the lack of a properly funded census has prevented ornithologists from putting precise numbers on the devastation that is occurring.

“I went to check our sites at Dalsetter and Troswick last week to compare numbers of Arctic terns with those we counted during Seabird 2000, the last national seabird census carried out across Britain and Ireland,” added Moncrieff. “I found there were around 110 Arctic terns there last week compared with around 9,000 that were counted in the same area in 2000. That is the kind of loss we have sustained here.”

This point is backed by Euan Dunn, principal policy officer for the RSPB. “These are apocalyptic numbers,” he told the Observer. “We are seeing something very dramatic happening, something that has never occurred in the history of ornithology up there.”

The causes of these devastating declines are many, according to scientists – though most agree that the disappearance of food sources is the main reason. Seabirds rely heavily on sand eels for food, and this supply was severely depleted in northern waters by fishing – though this was eventually halted, allowing stocks to recover. However, these have now been disrupted again by global warming, triggered by rising carbon dioxide emissions from factories, cars and power plants that burn fossil fuels. Temperatures in the North Sea and North Atlantic have risen significantly as a result.

“This warming seems to be affecting the availability of plankton at the time when sand eels produce their larvae,” said Dunn. “There is less plankton and the larvae grow less well and survive less well.”

Not every coastal area of the UK is affected to the same degree, as has been highlighted in a recent project carried out by the RSPB. Groups of puffins, one of the seabirds worst affected by the current crisis, were tagged at two different locations: Shetland and the Shiant Islands, in the Inner Hebrides, where numbers have remained relatively stable in recent years. In the latter, the birds were found to travel on very short journeys of a few kilometres before they returned to their young with plenty of plump fish.

However in Shetland, the picture was found to be starkly different. One of its puffins was found to have to fly more than 400km (248 miles) to find food. “That is more than 10 times further than we thought they were flying,” added Dunn. “Journeys like that are hugely energy consuming and leave the birds very weakened. Not only that, they bring back fish that are much less nutritious than the ones they caught in the good old days when Shetland had plenty of puffins.”

A similar story is provided by trackers fitted to guillemots and razorbills from nearby Fair Isle, which has also suffered serious seabird population losses. They too are having to travel hundreds of kilometres to find food. “It explains clearly why our colonies have foundered,” said Dunn.

In addition to the sand eel crisis that affects coastal areas of Scotland, there is the problem of plastic which builds up on beaches and is ingested by seabirds, with fulmars being particularly badly affected.

“We believe there is plastic in the stomachs of every Shetland fulmar,” said Moncrieff. “If you scaled up what you find in a fulmar’s stomach, it is the equivalent of having a lunch box full of plastic inside your own stomach. There would be no room left for proper food.”

The catastrophe that has struck Shetland’s seabird population has been revealed just as similar crises are being reported from other islands round Britain. Puffin numbers have dropped dramatically on the Farne Islands, it was reported last month, while on St Kilda, one of the most significant seabird colonies in the North Atlantic, there has been a 99% reduction in kittiwake nests since 1990. Two years ago, in all the island’s monitored sites, only one pair bred –and that single chick died.

Yet as these crises have unfolded, the government has declined to fund a new national census, along the lines of those organised in 1970, 1985 and 2000, even though it is supposed to instigate one every 15 years. “Fortunately, it has now agreed to proceed with one, which we hope should be completed by the end of next year,” said Dunn. “Then we should have a better overall picture of what is happening and why these striking declines are happening in particular places.”

For Shetland, the catastrophic decline in many of its key seabird populations is an issue of real concern. The islands are famed for their bleak beauty and have become an important eco-tourism destination. The loss of many of its seabird colonies does not help that cause – though it still has many special attractions: its prehistoric houses and iron age towers, called brochs; a large population of otters (more than 10% of Britain’s otters live here); and increasing numbers of visits by killer whales.

As Moncrieff said: “There are still good reasons to come here, but equally the crisis that has hit so many of our seabirds is not something that we can continue to ignore.”

• Turtle doves used to arrive in large numbers in April to breed in the British Isles but have now disappeared from large areas of the countryside for a variety of reasons: lack of seed from arable plants; the parasite that carries trichomonosis; and hunting during their migration through southern Europe. As a result, the turtle dove has become the UK’s fastest declining bird and is now considered at risk of global extinction.

• Wader populations are declining worldwide thanks to the loss and degradation of habitats, increased predation, and a changing climate. In the UK, this has produced dramatic declines in curlew populations over recent decades – the species has been proposed as the UK’s most important bird conservation priority.

• Nightingales and pied flycatchers have declined in large numbers since monitoring of these woodland species began in 1994, leading to their appearance on the red list of endangered bird species in the UK. In total, there are now 16 woodland birds on the red list.

• One of five upland bird species that were moved on to the red list recently, the dotterel has declined severely in numbers since the 1980s. Causes for the drop include changes in grazing practices and atmospheric pollution, as well as the effect of climate change, to which mountain-dwelling species are especially vulnerable.

Sources: the British Trust for Ornithology; the State of the UK’s Birds 2016.

Bird populations collapse in France

French countryside sees alarming 'collapse' of bird populations

Bird populations across an eerily quiet French countryside have collapsed, on average, by a third over the last decade-and-a-half, alarmed researchers reported on Tuesday.

the Local,

20 March, 2018

Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists detailed in a pair of studies, one national in scope and the other covering a large agricultural region in central France.

"The situation is catastrophic," said Benoit Fontaine, a conservation biologist at France's National Museum of Natural History and co-author of one of the studies.

"Our countryside is in the process of become a veritable desert," he said in a communique released by the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which also contributed to the findings.

The common white throat, the ortolan bunting, the Eurasian skylark and other once-ubiquitous species have all fallen off by at least a third,

according a detailed, annual census initiated at the start of the century.

A migratory song bird, the meadow pipit, has declined by nearly 70 percent.

The culprit, researchers speculate, is the intensive use of pesticides on vast tracts of monoculture crops, especially wheat and corn.

The problem is not that birds are being poisoned, but that the insects on which they depend for food have disappeared.

"There are hardly any insects left, that's the number one problem," said Vincent Bretagnolle, a CNRS ecologist at the Centre for Biological Studies in

Chize.

Recent research, he noted, has uncovered similar trends across Europe, estimating that flying insects have declined by 80 percent, and bird

populations has dropped by more than 400 million in 30 years.

In France, data crossed from the two studies -- one national, one regional -- also suggested industrial-scale agriculture was to blame.

"What is really alarming, is that all the birds in an agricultural setting are declining at the same speed, even 'generalist' birds," which also thrive

in other settings such as wooded areas, said Bretagnolle.

"That shows that the overall quality of the agricultural ecosystem is deteriorating."

Figures from the national survey -- which relies on a network of hundreds of volunteer ornithologists -- indicate that the overall decline intensified in 2016 and 2017.

1 billion birds disappeared in N America since 1970

A third of birds in North America threatened with extinction

State of North America's Birds report finds ocean, tropical birds most threatened

CBC,

18 May, 2016

A billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, and a third of bird species across the continent are threatened with extinction, a new report says.

The first State of North America's Birds report finds that of 1,154 bird species that live in and migrate among Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, 432 are of "high concern" due to low or declining populations, shrinking ranges and threats such as human-caused habitat loss, invasive predators and climate change.

Steven Price, president of Bird Studies Canada, a member of the North American Bird Initiative behind the report, says that since 1970, "the estimate is we've lost at least a billion birds from North America…. The trend lines are continuing down. They have to be turned around or will fall below a threshold where they can be recovered."

Ocean birds like northern gannets are among the most threatened, a new report suggests. Many that nest in Canada migrate to the Gulf of Mexico and were hard hit by the 2010 oil spill.

Most threatened, with more than half the species of "high concern" are ocean birds such as northern gannets, tropical and sub-tropical birds, including many that breed in Canada and the U.S., but winter in Mexico.

There are also steep declines in coastal shorebirds like semipalmated and western sandpipers and red knots, which have lost 90 per cent of their population; grassland birds such as the greater sage grouse, Sprague's pipit and chestnut-collared longspur; and aridland birds.

Once one of the most common forest birds in eastern North America, the wood thrush has decreased by almost 70% in the last 40 years. Wood thrushes and many warblers breed in Canada's forests, but winter in tropical forests of Mexico that are threatened by logging. ((Isaac Sanchez))

The North American Bird Conservation Initiative is a collaboration of conservation groups and scientists, in all three countries. The report was released partly to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the U.S. Information in the report is based on data collected by citizen scientists through bird surveys and counts since the 1970s and analyzed over the past 18 months.

It follows a similar report that focused on Canada in 2012 and found a 12 per cent drop in bird populations since 1970.

But because many birds make very long migrations, Canada's birds are "not really Canada's — they're shared across three nations," said Price.

For example, northern gannets nest in four colonies on Canada's East Coast, but migrate to the Gulf of Mexico, where they "got hit very hard by the Gulf oil spill" in 2010.

Waterfowl such as wood ducks are making a big comeback due to wetland habitat protection and hunting restrictions. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Wood thrushes and many warblers breed in Canada's forests, but winter in tropical forests of Mexico that are being logged.

Many grassland birds rely on habitat that run from Canada's Prairies down to Mexico's Chihuahuan grasslands — nearly 70 per cent of birds that migrate between the northern and southern grasslands have disappeared since 1970.

"It's our North American Serengeti," Price said of the region. "We have so many endangered birds or birds in decline because we have really dissected and divided the grasslands and prairies."

Some birds also face domestic threats — many coastal birds on the Haida Gwaii islands on Canada's West Coast are threatened by invasive predators such as raccoons and rats. They include species like the ancient murrelet, Cassin's and rhinoceros auklets, the fork-tailed storm petrel and the black oystercatcher.

The report did have some good news. Populations of waterfowl such as wood ducks and canvasbacks and birds of prey such as the osprey and peregrine falcon continue to rebound. Wetland habitat protection, hunting restrictions and bans of pesticides such as DDT have helped bring them back.