Odd Days: Bird Perils

I cannot drop the critter thread without a brief blog on birds.

When we first moved to CO, we learned that although we had protected ourselves from death-by-earthquake, we had traded one hazard for several others.

One of the new hazards was west nile virus (our county and our neighboring county led the state in WNV cases). Another was avian flu. And in fact, an article in the local paper advised us to call the health department if we came upon a dead bird.

Within a week of the time I read that article, I found a dead bird on our porch. Naturally I called public health, but the woman who answered the phone told me to put the bird in the garbage.

Huh?

I was indignant that she had so little regard for my (and Durf's) health, but what could I do? So I put on my HAZMAT suit and dropped the bird into a plastic bag. Then I nested that bag within 14 additional plastic bags and tossed the entire bundle in the garbage.

A few days later, Durf and I were reading the newspaper in the living room when we were both thrown from our chairs by what sounded like a sonic boom right outside the house. We dashed out onto the porch and found...yep, you guessed it...a bird. It had flown into our front window. I headed toward the garage with the intention of retrieving my HAZMAT suit when Durf asked what I was doing. I said, "Two words: Avian flu."

After he was done laughing, he said, "That bird just flew full speed into our picture window. What do you think killed it?"

"Why," I asked haughtily, "would a bird fly directly into a window unless he was impaired by some deadly disease? Duh!"

Well, over the last six years, we have learned that birds are drawn to our picture window like Florida lovebugs are drawn to windshields.

Colorado score: +1 (birds safer than earthquakes)