A dying crow

Filed Under Bird Flu

Perhaps all this research into avian flu is making me paranoid.

I was at the gym this morning, pounding away on the treadmill, when I noticed a crow flutter out of the sky onto the grass in the playing field behind the gym The crow lay on the grass and only occasionally moved a wing when its mate landed a few feet away.

It was the way the crow almost fell out of the sky that had attracted my attention, but as it lay there, motionless, I became convinced that its behaviour wasn’t normal - it was ill, I thought.

It could be suffering from bird flu, I thought, particularly as we only live about 5 miles from the sea on the east coast of the United Kingdom.

With headlines of “second bird found in the UK with bird flu” running through my mind, I went back to look again about half an hour later. It was still lying there.

Although the UK government say that you should only report a case of suspected flu if you find three or more birds of the same species dead in the same area, I thought that the way this bird was obviously dying made this a special case.

I went to find the number to phone the authorities and when I got back, to have another look, the bird had gone!

Yep - I’m becoming paranoid - though it must be good to be vigilent.