Avian Flu

Anybody seen any dead waterfowl or odd behaving birds in the last few weeks? Was watching some hunting videos from the Central and Atlantic flyways in Canada and USA and they're seeing lots of odd behaving birds and fields of dead geese/cranes/ducks.

yes unfortunately I believe I have. Two weekends ago my friend and I blew up two snow geese who were just standing there as we floated up to them and made no attempt at escape even as we got within 10m of them. While I've had that happen before with juveniles and these certainly were greys, this year I can't really discount that it might be avian flu. We did not surprise them, they just stood blinking at us. I shot one and the other one didn't even panic at the sound.

BTW mine was delicious.

Ok thanks for confirming. Most likely it's around since the valley poultry farms are getting hit hard. It's all over Asia, Europe and North America now that the wildfowl migration has started.

Most of the videos online show birds lacking fear of humans, letting them come right up, swimming in circles, or walking around with their necks canted.

I guess one just has to handle game and process with appropriate PPE and dispose of properly.

I use gloves to pluck but usually need to doff gloves to do the actual butchering. So far no ill effects. And I don't visit farms so won't be spreading anything.

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago, floated up to a single juvenile snow just sitting on his own in the weeds. Didn't spook or anything. I actually wondered if he was crippled or otherwise injured, Avian Flu didn't occur to me. From what I understand plucking is where you have to be careful, once the birds are butchered and broken down there is less risk.
Also delicious lol.

Probably wearing a mask or N95 and eye protection would be a good idea too given it is a respiratory virus and previously has jumped species to affect humans.

Outdoor Life has posted an article about mass die offs in all flyaways https://www.outdoorlife.com/conserva...d-ducks-geese/

https://youtu.be/LRlGJ1TtyeY

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClpI6...d=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClmGZ...d=YmMyMTA2M2Y=