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Mosquitos, West Nile Virus and Birds
Just an extension of the nice background info John posted on the
mosquito machines. I have lived in the same place for nearly 30 years, just west of Loop 360 and Bee Caves Road. Over the years, I supported a nice population of Scrub Jays that lived in my neighborhood. I put Purina Cat Chow out for them and they were healthy, possibly comprising 4 to 5 nesting pairs. Last year there seemed to be fewer of them and this year I only hear one rarely off in the distance. Similar results for a tract of land off RR 2222 I keep up with and Wild Basin WP seems empty of them. The only explanation I can see is that Jays, like American Crows are very susceptible to West Nile and their populations have been adversely affected. Affects on other species of birds is not as apparent. I always had problems with Blue Jays but this year even they are largely absent. This situation has been studied. http://westnilevirus.nbii.gov/birds.html So, I think I will become more serious about mosquito control, mostly in the area of providing shelters for bats and swifts. Rusty Mase |
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Mosquitos, West Nile Virus and Birds
In article ,
Rusty Mase wrote: Just an extension of the nice background info John posted on the mosquito machines. I have lived in the same place for nearly 30 years, just west of Loop 360 and Bee Caves Road. Over the years, I supported a nice population of Scrub Jays that lived in my neighborhood. I put Purina Cat Chow out for them and they were healthy, possibly comprising 4 to 5 nesting pairs. Last year there seemed to be fewer of them and this year I only hear one rarely off in the distance. Similar results for a tract of land off RR 2222 I keep up with and Wild Basin WP seems empty of them. The only explanation I can see is that Jays, like American Crows are very susceptible to West Nile and their populations have been adversely affected. Affects on other species of birds is not as apparent. I always had problems with Blue Jays but this year even they are largely absent. This situation has been studied. http://westnilevirus.nbii.gov/birds.html So, I think I will become more serious about mosquito control, mostly in the area of providing shelters for bats and swifts. Rusty Mase Unfortunately, I have also noticed that there aren't nearly as many jays around as there were a few years ago. I, like you, attribute this to WNV. I'm in Gatesville. -- 8^(~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~ "I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson http://home.earthlink.net/~sme617 |
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