dead birds - Stony Brook (neighborhood, university, safe)

[2011littlehouse]

Last 2 days I found 2 dead birds in the yard .
The first - yesterday morning outside the patio door - was a goldfinch, I think.
I thought, maybe my windows were too clean and it hit them...

But this morning, found a dead sparrow on top of one of the bushes in front of the house.

This is in Stony Brook.

Found some phone number to call in Suffolk about dead birds / West Nile, but their pre-recorded information just tells me that they are not picking up the dead birds. I already packed them in the trash.

Disturbing. Not sure what is killing them.

[Peppin0]

Maybe it's the end of the world? When birds start dropping from the sky?

Or it could be spraying for some insect control or something. I remember last year this happened in NJ where all the birds were dying and they found it was from a wide scale repellent spraying.

But more likely its the end of the world.

[OhBeeHave]

Local cat bringing you presents?

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Local cat bringing you presents?

Don't think cats would leave "presents" on top of bushes...

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti

Don't think cats would leave "presents" on top of bushes...

You haven't heard of the infamous Stony Brook Flying Tree Cats?


The patio door bird could be the work of a local cat -- the one on top of the bushes -- who knows?

A couple of months ago as we pulled into the driveway a hawk dive bombed a mourning dove in front of our car. It created an explosion of grey feathers but no body. Perhaps a raptor dropped a bird?

[ocngypz]

You can tell when a cat has been birding........the little bird bodies aren't in the best of shape.

Even a little goldfinch will leave an impact mark on a clean window. For some reason various birds like to fly into the windows under my second story deck. It's not like I keep those windows really clean. Cardinals, catbirds, robins have all died this past summer hitting the windows.

Diseased/poisoned birds.....well they just fall right where they are.

Here in RI, the various authorities will pick up suspect bird corpses.

[2011littlehouse]

Yes, the "on top of a bush" thing precludes the cat-present theory.
Besides, in this neighborhood, I am yet to see an outdoor cat (there were many at my previous house)...
Raptors I see regularly around the university, but have not seen one around the house. Does not mean that they don't pass by. But what are the odds of this happening in 2 consecutive days?

Both birds appeared intact, though I did not want to examine too close.

The only thing I have used recently is "Sluggo" - in addition to the beer fest, wanted to make sure to get rid of the slugs. Sluggo is supposed to be safe for children, pets and wild life, it just contains some very low % of iron phosphate that makes the slugs sick. But it looks like bird feed. Maybe they got iron poisoning, despite the safety claims?

The second crazy observation is that in close proximity to both locations where I found the birds, there is a large spider web. I have seen one of the spiders and it looks to me like a "regular"/barn spider that should not feast on birds... But maybe I am mistaken on the spider type.

Most feasible seems a disease of some sort, like the West Nile, unfortunately.
I would be happy to supply the bodies for analysis but they don't want them .

[OhBeeHave]

Is it possible that the dead birds ingested slugs which had consumed the Sluggo? The info online makes Sluggo sound safe to sprinkle, but doesn't really discuss whether Sluggo'd slug is poisonous to eat.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[deeken]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Local cat bringing you presents?

I actually lol'ed to this post.