West Nile virus.....

has reared it's ugly head here in Virginia, Fairfax County I believe. 10 birds!! 9 crows, one bluejay found infected. The threat seems to be coming closer and we must be more vigilant regarding standing water. My birdbaths are replenished every day and are scrubbed out about every three weeks.

Louisa:

I'm not familiar with this virus. I'd appreciate any information you could give abou this.

I'll present to the local Audubon chapter, here in Colorado Springs, CO.

Thanks so much.

Debra -

If you go to http://www.google.com and click on "advanced search", you will find lots of good info. Search for the phrase west nile virus and indicate whether you wish for the search results to only include those with .edu extensions, which are university sites.

HTH!

:o) Kimberley

Thanks Kimberley my friend :-) Debra I'm surprised you haven't heard of it and yet not, because I think it's only affecting the East coast. Obviously it's a mosquito with a virus. There have been a few deaths, not in Virginia yet I don't think, but in Washington!! Flu like symptoms, affecting mostly older people or those with health problems. I did also hear that this was not such a big threat but I can hardly give credit to that. Anything that kills ours wild life and human beings is a threat no matter how big or small the virus.

There have been excellent articles about WNV in the last two issues of Audubon magazine, specifically about the hysteria that is perpetrated by the companies that spray communities for mosquitos. Maybe those articles or info can be found at the Audubon website.