Update on songbird crisis and how a loss of one member impacts an entire community.

I attended a zoom conference sponsored by Connecticut audubon to update all of us on the songbird crisis. Below is a picture of a hummingbird contemplating life. I called this one my buddhist hummer. Anyway, if you click on that picture, you will be taken to the video of the zoom meeting. 

More dying birds have been found in CT, and, as expected, they now believe the illness--whatever it is--has arrived. It looks like no return to feeders until perhaps late fall or winter. They didn't suggest a time frame and didn't offer any speculations. In fact, one ornithologist indicated there were "some" birds that tested positive for pesticides. They also said they were looking into whether this was trich and botulism. We received very little exact data. Or at least no visuals. No charts or details.  

I suppose this is to be expected. We don't know. But we've not known for a long time. The chat box was flooded with questions but the director of the labs spent a long time discussing the efficiency and quality of his lab. When asked if they tested the sick birds for pesticides, he said no because the order of testing had to be methodically adhered to. I.E. they only test for other toxins after diseases have been ruled out. I asked why they could not test for both at the same time, but my question was swallowed up by the plethora of comments, questions.