Morning walk and avipoxvirus again

Being such a beautiful day, I decided to take a walk down the road. Eastern Meadowlarks are everywhere! Broom sedge is coming back to many of the fields that I used to remember it in. The meadowlarks are taking advantage of it. When I was a child, I remember finding lots of Bobwhite in broom sedge as well, I would love to hear that sound again.

My curse of finding dead or sick birds on my walks seems to be back :-( . This female American Goldfinch landed not too far from my feet in a driveway as I was walking. The bird must have been able to see somewhat, as it flew away when I got closer. Here is a dead bird from avian pox that I found last year on a local walk down my street.


I have never seen avian pox on the birds that visit my feeders. I clean them often and I usually don't feed birds in the spring and summer (a money saving strategy!). My birdbath (cleaned daily) has been empty since I moved it to mow and never put it back. I found this bird near where the grackle was found last year. I really would like to find the source of this, maybe a neighbor's feeders?