Editor, The Commercial:
It’s hard to attract birds that aren’t there. That sad fact was brought home recently as I put out feed that would normally attract an array of feathered creatures, only to see it go untouched, until perhaps some nocturnal scavenger devoured it.
I first noticed the quill dearth at Regional Park, which in recent years has played host to an ever-increasing number of Canada geese as they crowded the ponds and nested near the water. Their numbers have drastically decreased this year, though, and I had almost given up on goslings before they finally appeared.
Granted, geese are migratory, and as such are prone to seeking greener pastures (or, in this case, golf course greens, where they had become a nuisance). Not all migrated, though, and a number had taken to wintering at Regional … had.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Grackles don’t seem to be suffering as much, judging by the flocks I’ve seen descending on my yard, but their numbers could well be down from those years past when dark clouds of blackbirds swarmed on the river. Even the ubiquitous crows seem to have dwindled.
It hasn’t been exactly a silent spring, but I miss the usual serenade to songbirds calling from trees and shrubs. I rather dread to think what warm weather holds if we also are devoid of the flycatchers and other feathered friends upon which we rely to reduce the number of mosquitoes and other insect pests.
Farmers will be able to tell if this is a problem, or just a phase. If fall comes and Stuttgart has hunters with no targets, we shall know for sure there is a serious problem. (Poultry farmers already feel the pain.)
If the cause is, as I’ve read, a pandemic-like bird flu, it can only be confirmed by folks who study birds full time. Any that perish in the wild soon feed scavengers; if those scavengers are raptors, in short order they are scavenged as well.
Normally, critter flu only harms critters, seldom threatening any human other than those who work closely with them. If this one goes covid on us, though, with the same punch it’s been throwing at birds, well, it could be hello again to masks — and mass graves.
D.H. Ridgway,
Pine Bluff