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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear neighbors, a new unknown/poorly understood disease is ravaging bird populations on the Eastern Seaboard, and spreading to many states and inland. USGS has put out a call for backyard birders to take down feeders and birdbaths to help stop/slow transmission until more is understood or solutions/help is possible. Rehab places are being overwhelmed with sick/dying songbirds and cannot save them all. Please read the below information/check out other articles and consider taking your birding aids offline till the professionals/scientists let us know what or when to resume. Sadly, we need to help our avian population socially distance too -- before flocking season starts in the fall. Many thanks to our local wildlife certified rehabbers and CLAWS INC. for the heads up. As always, please feel free to share and distribute as you wish, and please forgive any duplicate postings not seen/simply disregard if not relevant or interested. Thank you. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p style='margin-top:0in;background:white'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2A2A2A'>“Birds of the mid-Atlantic are disappearing at an alarming rate, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/interagency-statement-usgs-and-partners-investigating-dc-area-bird-mortality-event?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=facebook&utm_term=0a3f1fb9-caf4-46cb-a52f-e23845585a6c&utm_content=u.s.+geological+survey+%28usgs%29&utm_campaign=biosurveillance-fy21" target="_blank"><span style='color:#CC3333'>says the U.S. Geological Survey</span></a>, which is urging residents to refrain from feeding the animals until more is known about a mysterious disease that causes eye swelling, neurological damage and, ultimately, death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-top:0in;background:white;margin-bottom:1.25rem;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2A2A2A'>In a recent joint statement by the USGS on behalf of a number of state agencies throughout Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and DC, they warned that birds that congregate in feeders and baths are likely to transmit the illness, which has not yet been identified by wildlife experts. They ask residents to disinfect and remove such ornaments from their homes until the “mortality event” has ended and more is known about how the disease can be treated or prevented.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-top:0in;background:white'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#2A2A2A'><a href="https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/mysterious-disease-is-killing-hundreds-of-birds-in-dc-area/?fbclid=IwAR0S7Ru5w5KkvpZe6nuOOPRwtREGfEshKf8nIikThEIq3Td5kfrsGglOy98">https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/mysterious-disease-is-killing-hundreds-of-birds-in-dc-area/?fbclid=IwAR0S7Ru5w5KkvpZe6nuOOPRwtREGfEshKf8nIikThEIq3Td5kfrsGglOy98</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>D in NGP<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>