NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Some residents in Ocean View are concerned about dead birds washing ashore. Local rescue groups say there is a higher number of birds dying on our shorelines than normal, now they’re working to get them tested for dangerous diseases like avian flu.
Tidewater Rehabilitation and Environmental Education, or TREE, is asking people if they walk the beach a lot to help them track down a cause. They say if they do have a disease like avian flu, they want to stop it from spreading.
“They’re really important,” said Tidewater Rehabilitation and Environmental Education President Lisa Barlow. “Their numbers are decreasing every year and so we want to make sure that we can … keep as many as we can out there.”
Barlow said they’ve received an increased number of calls about dead birds over the past week, and it’s not just happening in Ocean View. They’re washing up at the Oceanfront and Sandbridge too.
“These birds are migrating now, though they’re coming back up from Central and South America and up the East Coast,” Barlow said. “Sometimes … they have problems with finding enough food, that kind of thing.”
Barlow said most of the birds are sanderlings, but they’ve also received calls about other seabirds and shorebirds, as well as crows and some gulls.
“Without knowing exactly what it is, it’s really hard to say,” Barlow said. “It’s just, it could be nothing. It could be a bunch of birds that just didn’t find enough food. It could also be a disease process, like a high pathogenic avian influenza.”
Barlow said if it is a disease, it could be concerning because they’re migrating and mingling with other birds.
“Then if birds do happen to pass away,” Barlow said, “there’s scavengers to be concerned about, things like gulls and crows and eagles. Those birds, if they pick up potentially infected carcasses, could be infected themselves.”
Barlow said that in order to find out if they have any diseases, they’re asking people who walk the beach a lot to carry an extra bag and some gloves along to pick them up so they can be tested, whether they’re dead or look sick or injured, and call a rehabilitator as soon as possible.
“Obviously, if we’re working with deceased birds or injured or sick birds,” Barlow said, “you want to be careful yourself, since we don’t know what this is. If this is potentially just a migration thing or if it’s a disease process, we want to make sure that everybody is safe. Use gloves, pick up the bird, they can bury the birds, but we are trying to get samples, so we would like to have people contact us about those, too, not just the live ones.”
The Department of Wildlife Resources is making arrangements to pick up the samples and test them.
If you do see a bird who is injured or has died locally, text 757-235-3189, to arrange to pick up or drop off the bird.
If you find dead wild raptors, upland game birds, avian scavengers, or five or more dead waterfowl, shorebirds, or seabirds in the same area within one-to-two days, please notify DWR via the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline at 855-571-9003 or at wildlifehealth@dwr.virginia.gov.
