Bird Flu & Global Warming Panic
BIRDS are dying. No, it’s worse than that. British birds – our birds – are dying.
Not too long ago, back in the dim and distant past when flu-addled birds were coming to do for us all, we may have cheered this news.
Dead swans? Tis a cruel world. But Better them than us. And don’t get us started on the chaffinches…
But now the death of birds is seen as a terrible thing. “Swansong for our birds,” says the Express. “British songbirds have plummeted to their lowest levels in gardens for five years.”
The Express knows this because the RSPCA operates a Big Garden Birdwatch operation.
Bird fanciers are invited to record sightings of birds in their gardens. There is, as ever, room for human error and manipulation. Bird watchers, a shadowy breed, may claim to see fewer birds in order to create a panic in the greater community. Low numbers trigger a Government-sponsored bird breeding programme. More birds result.
Or it may be that mild winter temperatures in Europe and booming woodland harvests mean fewer birds have to fly to gardens and peck at hanging baskets of peanuts.
In “the vanishing robins”, the Mail bemoans the lack of “cheery song” in the British garden.
Robin numbers are down by more than a third in the past decade; there has been a seven percent drop in the past year. Blackbirds are reduced by quarter. Song thrushes are down by two-thirds.
Global warming is to blame, says the paper.
But might there be another reason? Might it be that those warning stories of killer birds have encouraged some humans to get them before they get us?
Is a Robin’s red breast less a thing of beauty than a moving target..?
Posted: 26th, March 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (9) | TrackBack | Permalink
