Photos of 1000's of Bird Flu Deaths on Bird Island Qinghai China



Henry L Niman
Recombinomics Commentary
June 3, 2005

The latest report from Abundant News has two photos of dead or dying birds on Bird (Naio) Island in Qinghai Lake. In the close shot, few birds are standing and most that are not standing appear to be dead or dying. There are no birds flying. In the longer shot there appear to be thousands of birds on the ground and none in the air. It seems likely that the number dead or dying is in the thousands.

The photos are dated May 27, and if accurate, would indicate that the die-off is continuing because the birds in the picture appear to be of recent deaths or birds that are suffocating. The initial reports indicated 150 bar headed geese were found dead on May 4 and another 28 were found in the following few days. Thus, it would seem that birds have been dying for three weeks and the number in these two pictures would suggest that the reported 8000 dead birds is a low number that may still be increasing.

The massive H5N1 die off is without precedent and suggests that the H5N1 is quite infectious and is killing water birds that are normally not affected by H5N1.

The large numbers of dead birds, verified by photos, indicate that an updated report to OIE is warranted. The report of May 21 describes 519 bird flu deaths, and the number dead in this one picture far exceeds that number.

Thus, the report on over 8000 bird deaths was quite specific with regard to the number of dead birds as well as the large number of species. The newly released pictures appear to back up these numbers.

Investigations by third parties on the ground in Qinghai Province appear to be long overdue. These investigations should focus on the claims of massive bird deaths as well as deaths in domestic animals, tourists, and residents near the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. 

thanks for the pics, .06 

I tried enhancing the pictures to get a better idea if the geese are dead or alive. It think that adjusting the contrast shows shadows cast to the left. Sun appears to be low on the horizon to the right. As the geese die, they hunker down and get lower to the ground and can go belly up when they die. The shorter the shadow, the deader the duck. A few geese are standing, most are sitting, and many appear to be quite close to the ground, based on the length of their shadow.

Anyone with photoshop who can play with picture and get a better idea on variation in shadow length? 

Henry, they're dead.

Do you know anyone in China that you can talk to about current events? 

I'll give it a go. 

__________________
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. “Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”” The Count of Monte Cristo 

Okay - disregard the import question....



I am attached the file, but wanted to import it. Can anyone explain how to import a picture?

I converted to B&W to emphasize the contrast, darkened, increased contrast.

Any suggestions are welcome, I'd be more than happy to do it.

If this is what you had in mind Dr. Niman, I will do the other. 

__________________
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. “Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”” The Count of Monte Cristo 

I just tweaked it a bit. I can't help but wonder why they didn't get closer when taking the photos. 

Attached Images

 

Is this a picture of ducks nesting and at rest?
Photoshop would eliminate all background images; with a few keystrokes, all the flying birds could be cleared away.

Yet the political reality that there's a quarantine, that all the parks (nature reserves) are closed and that nobody's talking would be enough illogical info given a few thousand fowl deaths to wake Rip Van Winkle. 

There is a significant color variation in the upper left quadrant. I noticed it on the original too. Not sure if it meaningful.

On the Agonist.com they discussed the other photos that appear touched up. One of them definitely was (building). Wouldn't even hazard a guess as to why, or if it is current. Penguinzee has good eyes.

http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/i...;threadid=21597 

__________________
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. “Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”” The Count of Monte Cristo 

Only the two bird shots are from boxun (says boxun on the print). The others are from the official China site, so it is unclear why they would be altered. 

Bird Island is one square kilometer in size and habitat to 100 000 migrant birds. May and June being the best time to visit this tourist attraction. The amount of flying birds blots out the sky.


This photo taken in January. Notice the birds facing the same way.
http://www.chinawestnews.net/gb/wes...t1ai401962.html

Another photo with birds densely packed.
http://www.warriortours.com/china-p...ing/0010403.htm

These photos are an idea of the birds on the island. 

Attached Images

  

In those photos, they are almost all standing. Sharp contrast with the boxun photos. 

This site has a number of tourism photos where almost all of the birds are standing or sitting on the ground (mostly standing).

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/pic...g/birds_island/

But the new new photos seems to have few standing.

http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/ch...506032331.shtml

carolyn 

But where are the predators? Even one?

Also, I'd like to know what the weather was like on that day. Birds will hunker down and not fly much in the cold and rain. 

Checking the weather might not be a bad idea. The wide angel shot shows blue skies. Based on the shadow length, I would say the shot was near sunrise or sunset.

The difference between the pre-H5N1 and post H5N1 looks like the Tsunami shots before and after. In the after shot, I think many of the white smudges are belly up birds, but I can't get a clean enough close up to say for sure.

I am not sure the birds were nesting in the photo. An enhancement of the closer shot seemed to show a large number of feathers on the ground in the foreground. Its not clear if birds stayed there and then took off, or the feathers represented an earlier die off and the bodies had already been collected.

As seen in the government May 5 photo, the birds land, sit (the less than happy goose next to the dead goose), and then fall over dead.

This sounds much like reports from Vietnam where the flock is fine in the morning and by noon they are all dead. H5N1 effects can appear quite suddenly. 

Seeing as how this is an island in the middle of a lake, is my understanding, and totally given over to birds I wouldn't expect there to be many if any predators - they would have to swim the lake to get there wouldn't they? 

Because the sun is low on the horizon, can they be getting ready for sleep? Anyone here raise geese?

Chickens start to roost right before the sun goes down, is this the geese equivalent? 

__________________
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. “Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”” The Count of Monte Cristo 

There is now a third picture with very short shadow indicating it was shot around noon. A few more standing birds, but most look like the sitting goose in the official 180 bar headed geese die but not of bird flu story. The goose was suffocating. 

Third picture at

http://news.google.com/news?q=qingh...lr=&sa=N&tab=wn 

Noon, or dusk/dawn? My first thought was dusk/dawn because of the lighting. But it could just be a dark picture.

If it is dusk/dawn and geese have similar sleep habits to chickens they could be roosting (or the geese equivalent).

Are chickens go to roost way before sunset. I've been told it's because they cannot see at night. Don't know how similar geese are though.  

__________________
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. “Until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’”” The Count of Monte Cristo