Since last weekend DFG has collected more than 3,600 dead birds, most of them ruddy ducks, although grebes and some other birds have been found as well, DFG Game Warden Lynette Shimek said Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday alone they picked up 1,075 dead birds, she said.

DFG veterinarian Pam Swift said Tuesday that they were making a “presumptive diagnosis” that the bird deaths were caused by avian cholera, the same disease that killed more than 7,000 ruddy ducks and wild birds on the lake in January 2004.

Ruddy ducks are a small wild duck that migrates to Lake County to winter on Clear Lake. The ducks like to stay out in the open water huddled together during the cold weather, Shimek said. For that reason, she added, ruddy ducks were the hardest hit in the 2004 avian cholera die-off, with the die-off this time following a similar pattern.

Avian cholera also has appeared a likely culprit to DFG officials who have found lesions similar to those caused by the disease on the livers of ducks they've tested in their lab, Swift said Tuesday.

However, on Wednesday Shimek said DFG still hadn't made an official statement on the animals' cause of death.

Shimek said DFG staff, nearly a dozen people from different part of the agency, will continue working “full force” today to continue the cleanup effort. The work has been helped, she said, by three air boats and two jet boats that are used to canvas the lake and shoreline.

She reported that they are starting to find fewer birds each day. “It's very encouraging that the numbers are dwindling,” she aid.

She said DFG staff are judging how long the collection must continue on a day-by-day basis.

DFG continues to ask that area residents not touch or pick up the birds themselves until a definite diagnosis is reached.

In the meantime, residents who find dead birds are encouraged to call Shimek's office at 275-8862 to report dead birds for pickup.

 

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

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