<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/11/south-australian-volunteers-help-sick-birds-avian-flu>
"Bird enthusiast Jean Turner hoped avian flu would never arrive at her
doorstep.
At her home on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, bossy fairy wrens chirp at
her from the deck, grey currawongs clumsily fall into her bird bath, and
fluffy, hooded plover chicks emerge from speckled eggs in front of her
binoculars.
But online, images of Argentinian coastlines strewn with dead seal pups and
researchers lining up rows of dead seabirds on Antarctic islands offered a
warning of what could come.
So when SA confirmed its first case of the deadly H5 bird flu strain, just over
200km away at Robe on the Limestone Coast, Turner was prepared to become a
different kind of birder.
“We had this fairytale belief that maybe we wouldn’t get it here,” she says.
“But it’s here and now things are going to get harder and more confronting.”
She is one of more than 120 volunteers who have signed up for the Bird
Observers Network, which allows birders to contribute to the state’s bird flu
response."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
