Bees VS. Homing Pigeons

There are several threads regarding the demise of Bees. I've read where they think that the bees are becoming disoriented, or blinded.

Does anyone know if this is true with homing pigeons as well? I tried looking up some info, but did not find anything. I would be very interested to see if there is any correlation between the two.

I checked several forums dedicated to racing pigeons (that's what homing pigeons are used for) and there's no mention of any problems like that. So, whatever affects the bees is for bees alone and not (at this point) any problem for pigeons.

(took some time to read the posts on this pigeon forum and found a lot of interesting stuff: www.pigeons.biz...

[edit on 24-4-2007 by Byrd]

Originally posted by Byrd

I checked several forums dedicated to racing pigeons (that's what homing pigeons are used for) and there's no mention of any problems like that.

1,500 of 2,000 homing pigeons were lost in Sweden during a race in 2004. I don't know if they ever found the cause of their disappearence. The weather was fine.

Homing pigeons lost

[edit on 2007/4/24 by Hellmutt]

Maybe there is no common factor in all these cases but i am posting some of the articles i have found about birds dying this year or on December last year.

Some of the cases "could be" because of bird flu, and some could be because of a truck hitting 40 birds at the same time...i kind of doubt the claim in one of the articles that it is possible a truck killed 40 birds at the same time, but anyways.

Thousands of ducks mysteriously dying in Idaho
Wed 13 Dec 2006 8:46 PM ET
(Adds details and background)

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Officials scrambled on Wednesday to determine what has caused the deaths of thousands of mallard ducks in south-central Idaho near the Utah border.

Although wildlife experts are downplaying any links to bird flu, they have sent samples to government labs to test for the deadly H5N1 flu strain, among other pathogens.

Officials with the federal Bureau of Homeland Security have been also called in to help with the probe.

"We think the possibility of avian flu is very remote but we're not ruling anything out at this point in time," said Dave Parish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. "We want to make sure all the bases are covered."

Wildlife officials are calling the massive die-off alarming, with the number of dead mallards rising from 1,000 on Tuesday to more than 2,000 by Wednesday afternoon. "We've never seen anything like this -- ever," Parrish said.

today.reuters.com...

Birds fall from sky over town

By Amanda O'Brien
January 10, 2007 01:00am

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.

All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.

www.news.com.au...

Bird Deaths Shut Down Downtown Austin

Heart of Downtown Austin Closed for Testing After Dozens of Birds Found Dead Overnight

By JIM VERTUNO

AUSTIN, Texas Jan 9, 2007 (AP)— Texas health officials are trying to determine what killed dozens of birds whose remains prompted a temporary shutdown of 10 blocks of downtown Austin.

Police closed a section of downtown for several hours Monday after 63 birds were found dead in the street, but officials said preliminary tests found no threat to people.

Workers in yellow hazardous-materials suits tested for contaminants in a cordoned-off area near the state Capitol and the governor's mansion before authorities finally gave the all-clear in the afternoon.

Dr. Adolfo Valadez, medical director for the Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services Division, said the dead grackles, sparrows and pigeons were to be tested for signs of poison or viral infections. Officials did not believe bird flu was involved.

abcnews.go.com...

Bird deaths being investigated


By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — About 40 dead birds littered a short stretch of U.S. Highway 287 south of the city Tuesday.

Boulder County health officials and the Colorado Division of Wildlife were still coordinating efforts late afternoon to investigate the site, just south Mooring Road.

From an initial description, division veterinarian Laurie Baeten said the birds were likely starlings killed by a passing truck. Considering whipping winds in parts of Boulder County on Monday and the fact that starlings tend to flock at night and in large colonies, Baeten suspects a gust might have thrown the colony into the path of a tall vehicle such as a semi truck.

www.longmontfyi.com...

Monday, 18 December 2006, 20:30 GMT
France testing dead birds for flu

French authorities say they cannot rule out bird flu after 4,000 chickens died on a French farm on Saturday.

Officials have carried out tests on the dead birds found in Sarrey in the northeast Haute-Marne region, but the results are not expected until Tuesday

The farmer says his flock of 7,000 chickens appeared healthy on Saturday morning, but by evening 4,000 had died.

news.bbc.co.uk...

CALIFORNIA
Struggling seabirds
Dead murres, auklets washing ashore with little in their stomachs

Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

West Coast seabirds are dying, apparently from a lack of food -- and some researchers think the phenomenon may be linked to global climate change.

This is the third year that scientists have found unusually large numbers of marine birds -- mainly common murres, but also rhinoceros auklets and tufted puffins -- washed up on beaches in California, Oregon and Washington. In 2005, the first year of the phenomenon, large numbers of Cassin's auklets also died.

Hannah Nevins, the coordinator for Moss Landing Marine Laboratories beach survey program, said 253 dead murres were recovered on 11 Monterey Bay beaches during the first week of March. During the past nine years, an average of nine dead birds were collected on the same beaches during the same week, she said.

www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2007/04/03/BAGJEP0J8Q1.DTL

Anyways, this next case was only one rare bird but still strange. apparenlty it died from the cold wind.

Rare bird evades bird spotters by quickly dying
Tuesday, April 3, 2007

A sighting of a rare red-flanked bluetail sent birdwatchers rushing to catch a glimpse of the little-seen bird.

Unfortunately, it dropped dead before most of them had a chance to unsheath their binoculars.

Twitchers from across the country were alerted by phone to the fact that the bird had been spotted in Easington, East Yorkshire.

www.metro.co.uk...

Posted: Apr 06, 2007 - 08:34:57 PDT

Unusual seabird mortality recorded on the Oregon coast
By Jason Evans Of the News-Times

January through March 2007, more beached dead seabirds than usual have been counted in Lincoln County and elsewhere on the Pacific Coast.

Dead birds found in unusually high numbers include rhinoceros auklet, horned puffin, tufted puffin and marbled murrelet, among others. It is unclear what is causing the prevalence of dead birds, and whether the event is ongoing. "Something is definitely different in the ocean this year for those species," said Roy Lowe, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), "These birds are often the bellwether of what is going on underwater. If you are not out there collecting data on plankton or fish, dead birds might be the first thing you see. Especially when you see birds dying on such a length of coastline, it tells you something is going on."

www.newportnewstimes.com...

Some of those deaths could be normal.

Interesting about the pigeon race losss... but apparently there was another similar case in 1989:
icb.oxfordjournals.org...

And one from 1998:
www.urbanwildlifesociety.org...

I don't know anything about the conditons.

Yes, back in 2004 i reported also some pidgeons being lost in races.

1,500 Homing Pidgeons Get Lost in a Race in Sweden.

Out of 2,000 pidgeons that began a 93 mile race on Thursday, only 500 made it back to their lofts. There were no reports on the other 1,500 pidgeons. These birds are said to use the sun and the Earth's magnetic field to find their way, and they are reputed as never getting lost, only a few are at risk of being caught by some predator.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

In that link other members and myself gave several other links about such strange occurrences happening to other species of bird in different places.

[edit on 25-4-2007 by Muaddib]