hello everyone,

as many of you know, april is the peak of the spring bird migration. if you've followed the news at all, then you are aware that a volcano has been erupting in south-central iceland and has sent an ash plume over much of northern europe, including where i live with my parrots. the frankfurt airport was just reopened a few hours ago, but the ash clouds are thickening once more, obscuring the nearby hills, so who knows how long aircraft will continue flying into germany. anyway, all that said, one of my readers emailed about how volcanic ash affects birds. i have spent the past two days researching this question because there are no studies about this issue in birds (that i was able to find), and i am sharing my thoughts and findings in the hopes that i can help others who are faced with this problem now, or might be faced with it in the future (i was a kid when Mt St Helens erupted and dumped eight inches of ash onto the area i lived in, for example).
here's the essay;

http://bit.ly/cnCXH3

if anyone knows of studies in birds of any species on this topic, i'd love it if you send the reference, or better yet, send me the PDF!

cheers,

GrrlScientist
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/
http://blogs.nature.com/grrlscientist/
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http://profile.to/grrlscientist/
American Expat living in Frankfurt, Germany