Watching The Birdies

‘THE first uncomfortable swallow does not mean you’ve got bird flu. But the Times would like you to know that the illness has just claimed its 67th victim.

A man in Thailand has died after eating an infected chicken, bringing the total of the number killed in his country to 13. As Uncle Joe Stalin was wont to say, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”

But millions of people are not dead…yet. But lots of birds are. The Times reports that the Chinese have killed almost 100,000 birds. And the body count is rising.

But it’s not all grim news for birds, on whom humanity has declared war.

The Telegraph says that the decline of British farmland birds has been halted. Though the numbers are only two thirds of what they were in the 1960s, according to a Government study.

And the biggest success story is the goldfinches, which the paper says have recovered from sharp falls in the 1980s.

That’s good to know. Christmas is coming. And though a little bony, goldfinches will, if carved in the correct manner, provide a decent and colourful chicken substitute.’

Posted: 21st, October 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink