A couple weeks ago a neighbor mentioned finding a dead bird in the yard. There had been a storm so I thought nothing of it. Yesterday she mentioned picking up another dead bird. This time the first thing that came to mind was West Nile Virus. You don’t find dead birds often and to find two in two weeks is unusual.
West Nile is very serious and it has been found in northern Illinois this year. Please, if you find dead birds or even one dead bird in your yard contact the Boone County health department at 815-544-2951 , The Pride through our email address, or call the CWL office so we can have the health department check this out. Please do not dispose of the bird. All you can do if this is West Nile is protect yourself from mosquitos as far as I know but we need to find out if it is here.
Again, this probably is nothing but coincidence but I would rather see us careful than not knowing. Thank you, and I hope there are no reports coming in so we can forget this.
Ken Dillenburg