Klamath bird deaths overblown, blogger says

Liz Bowen, editor of the Siskiyou County-based Pie N Politics blog and a Scott Valley Protect Our Water activist, asserts that news reports about a bird die-off in two wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin are overblown.

She writes:

Contrary to all the news articles, I didn’t see one dead bird on my drive through the Lower Klamath Refuge on my way to Tulelake.

And there were lots of live birds. All colors and sizes.

I was shocked, cuz the news articles make it sound like they are all dead.

Oh, there was also lots of water. At least the birds I saw were floating on a sufficient amount of water.

Didn’t see any birds wading in ankle-deep water.

As I've written before, partisans will try to equate this bird die-off with what they see as farmers' hogging the water supply, just as the AP and other news organizations now routinely blame the salmon die-off in 2002 on farms even though the cause was very much a matter of debate. That's why it's best to wait until you've seen multiple reports about something before judging.