Linum: In a spot outside Berlin that’s usually a paradise for birdwatchers, volunteers have recovered nearly 2,000 dead cranes in recent days as bird flu has hit the migrating birds hard.
Linum, a small village about an hour’s travel from the German capital, is known in summer for its many nesting storks.
In the fall and spring, it’s a popular resting spot for thousands of cranes as they migrate between the Baltic and Nordic regions and southern Europe. But this month, many of the birds’ journeys have ended in the ponds and fields that surround it, as well as at other spots in Germany.
Bird flu has flared up early and quickly in the country this year. Since early September, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany’s national animal health authority, has recorded 30 outbreaks at poultry farms as well as cases among wild birds in various parts of the country, and more than 500,000 chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys so far have been slaughtered as a precaution.
Over the past week the majestic gray-and-white cranes, unusually, have been at the centre of attention. It’s not clear where they were infected. Norbert Schneeweiss, an expert with Brandenburg state’s environment office, said that such a severe impact from bird flu hasn’t previously been seen in cranes on this migration route, though there was an outbreak among cranes in Hungary two years ago. This week, volunteers in full-body protective overalls waded through the water and reeds outside Linum and stuffed the limp, floating bodies of the large birds into sacks. agencies