Bird Deaths in Edmond Oklahoma

Crow in Eric's Backyard

Edmond Crow

I’m a bird watcher and so is wife Marilyn, our backyard rich in birdbaths and feeders. Since I moved to Edmond, I’ve marveled at the species of bird in the area. One thing that always amazed me was the many crows that live near my house. Crows  are social creatures and you rarely see one alone. They are intelligent and I’ve heard you can even teach them to speak.

A month or so ago, Marilyn went out our front door and noticed a crow in distress. It had fallen to the ground and was struggling to stand. Not long after, she found its body. When I got home, I disposed of it, noting that the bird looked young and healthy—except that it was dead.

Since I’ve lived in Edmond, I can’t remember not seeing lots of crows. Since the bird’s death, I’ve only seen one in our neighborhood. Tonight, when I was leaving a local watering hole, I noticed a crow on the grass in front of my car. As I watched, it walked in circles on the ground, its mouth open wide. When I approached it, it didn’t fly away. I didn’t wait around to see it keel over and die.

My first thought was someone must be poisoning the crows in Edmond, and maybe not just the crows. Thinking about it though, I can’t recall seeing so few birds in the area since I moved here. Is there an environmental pollutant killing our bird population, or someone poisoning them, or maybe some bird influenza rapidly taking down the avian population. I wonder. Am I the only one that’s noticed this?

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