Loose Feathers #39

News and links about birds, birding, and the environment.

• H5N1 has been confirmed in a dead swan in Scotland. It marks the first time the poultry flu has been found on the island of Great Britain. So far the flu outbreak has been a disaster for birds, but a minor health threat for humans. Most likely this individual was a migrant whooper swan.
  
• Here is a website on the natural history of Assateague Island. It includes a nice selection of bird photographs taken on the island.
• A green-winged teal unwittingly caused an engine fire in a plane landing at SeaTac in Seattle. The solution? Shooting off pyrotechnics in a greater area of the wetlands surrounding the airport.
• In eagle injury news, a bald eagle got stuck in the crotch of a tree after aerial wrestling with another eagle; it was rescued, apparently without serious injury.

Carnivalia

• My post on red-shouldered hawks has been included in this week's Carnival of the Vanities.
  

When I write for this blog, I try to write primarily about things that are of interest to me because it is hard to predict what will become popular. Sometimes a piece that I put a lot of work into will get little response, and other times something that did not require a lot of effort will draw a lot of readers and comments. One thing I did not anticipate was how much interest there would be in the story of the eagles at the Wilson Bridge. About a third of the visits this blog received since Friday were from people looking for news about George and Martha.

Tags:

• Bird News