In response to Susan Collicott's question about the salmonella outbreak here -
in Anchorage - yes, it appeared first among the redpolls at feeders. People were
seeing puffed up birds, too lethargic to fly, or finding dead ones lying in
their yard, maybe even 5 or 6 in one day. Our vet did some necropsies and
suspected candida, but when the bird-eating cats started getting sick
(heh-heh-heh), samples were sent to a pathologist and the baddie turned out to
be salmonella. Apparently such outbreaks and their spread to cats have happened
on the East coast from time to time and the affliction in pet animals is called
"songbird fever." It's a first for us.

After some detailed newspaper and TV coverage of the topic, most people have
taken down and sanitized their feeders, scrubbed their decks, paid their vet
bills and stopped feeding birds for the time being. We had a bumper crop of
redpolls this winter and they lingered at feeders longer than usual. Now the
flood of dead and dying redpolls to Bird TLC has slowed to a trickle, so I hope
the spread of salmonella has slowed proportionately.

Chris Maack
Bird Treatment & Learning Center
Anchorage, AK
73201.3124 at compuserve.com