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Re: Ride to Wake Audubon walk; Re: house finches with sore eyes



on 9-20-01 at 12:27, josh wrote:

>The disease has periodic outbreaks, and seems to be the main control on
House Finch populations in the eastern US; the finch population booms, then
the disease wipes many of them out, then the finches boom again... It
occasionally gets into other related finches, like Purples and Golds,
too, but much less often, and usually in association with feeders that
haven't been cleaned in a while.<

    For three consecutive years here, afflicted birds begin to show up in
August.

    The affected birds do seem to spend more time on the seed feeders, and
also appear to visit the hummer feeders more frequently. I s'pose if you're
nearly blind and dying, might as well sit there and eat.
    Might want to keep your birdbath scrubbed as well as the feeders.

gary

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC
 Zone 8
walela@sccoast.net
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get
better. It's not." (Dr. Seuss, "The Lorax")
-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
To: carolinabirds@duke.edu <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2001 12:27 PM
Subject: Ride to Wake Audubon walk; Re: house finches with sore eyes


>Hi C-birders,
>
>I'm leading Wake Audubon's dragonfly walk this Saturday, meeting at the
>NC Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh at 8 AM. However, a
>complication's come up: my fiance needs our car that morning. Is anyone
>driving from or through the Durham area that could give me a lift? I'd
>gladly buy lunch for my rescuer...
>
>On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Elayne and Michael Kodroff wrote:
>>
>> Is anyone out there seeing alot of house finches with
>> swollen or closed eyes?  I'm seeing probably 2 out of 10
>> like this at my feeder, here in Manteo, N.C.
>
>My cats have been paying much closer attention to the feeders lately than
>I have. However, even with my brief glances, I've noticed that nearly all
>of our finches have misshapen-looking heads consistent with that
>infectious eye disease that they keep getting. Or maybe the diseased ones
>are just spending more time in the feeder than the healthy ones. The
>disease has periodic outbreaks, and seems to be the main control on House
>Finch populations in the eastern US; the finch population booms, then
>the disease wipes many of them out, then the finches boom again... It
>occasionally gets into other related finches, like Purples and Golds,
>too, but much less often, and usually in association with feeders that
>haven't been cleaned in a while.
>
>Good birding,
>
>Josh
>
>
>Joshua S. Rose
>Duke University
>Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
>
>jsr6@duke.edu
>http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
>