Another 'Wave' of Avian 'Flu to Wash Over UK Birds in 2023?

Humans don't just create pandemics for their own species. Intensive poultry farming in Asia, seems to have generated the H5N1 strain of Bird 'flu. Ornithologists are predicting a 'grim' 2023, as a new wave of H5N1 virus heads for the UK this Spring. The virus will be carried here by migrating wild birds (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/05/bird-flu-outlook-is-grim-as-new-wave-of-the-virus-heads-for-britain). Bird 'flu has already affected 65 UK bird species. For example, circa 16,000 Barnacle geese died in the Solway Firth of this viral infection in winter 2022. Twenty-five percent of the UK's only Roseate tern colony (in Northumberland) were wiped out by the virus. 1,500 (4% of the world population) Great skuas perished on Foula (the remote Shetland Islands). Thousands of birds died of Avian 'flu on Bass Rock, which has the world's largest colony of Northern gannets (the UK is home to 55% of the global population of this species). All these examples, are relatively large seabirds, whose demise is likely to be recorded. Deaths of large numbers of smaller bird species will be less obvious. So much for the pledge to boost UK biodiversity!