[Tweeters] Wanted to share my backyard encounter with a dead crow, in case anyone else has recently experienced the same....I live in Thurston County close by Steamboat Island Road

[Larry Schwitters]

The blue eyes suggest it was in its first year out of the nest. Don’t know but think perching birds are less likely to have the avian flu in 2023 than some other groups.

Larry Schwitters
IssaquaH


> On Jul 9, 2023, at 12:48 PM, Betty Watson <rocky98502 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> Yesterday morning (July 8) around 6:00 a.m., I started outside to change bird water containers.  Before I even went outside, however, I could hear at least 2, possibly 3, crows squawking loudly and continuously while perched close by--very raucous and loud.  The noisy crows piqued my interest and after changing and refreshing the water containers, I checked nearby and soon discovered a nearly dead crow, feet up, in my strawberry bed. Its visible blue eye stared blankly and blinked slowly once or twice as I observed. In the time it took to go inside to fetch a glove and garbage bag, it had died. Its blue eye was now white-lidded; the body motionless and stiff.

> 

> The crow appeared to me to be a juvenile or sub-adult due to its smaller size though it could have simply been extremely malnourished--it felt pretty light when I picked it up. The crow's exterior appeared intact, undamaged and whole.  Once I removed the body, the adult crows stopped squawking and flew away.  (I had this eerie sense that the crows dropped this sick bird off, because I have never ever seen a crow in my strawberry bed box before.) (Just sayin')

> 

> I reported to WDFW, using their website form.  It's now been 24 hours and I am officially disposing of the body in my garbage can.  Am keeping a keen eye on my visiting feathered friends and so far nobody else appears sick or strange-acting. Also reporting on my community's NextDoor in case this is not a one-off.  

> 

> Betty 

> 

> 

> 

>  

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