My free Butterfly Patterns
More of my free Hummingbird Patterns
My Free Southwest Patterns
Free Card Patterns
Free Mother and Daughter Fairy Pattern
View my Free Cross Stitch Pattern links organized by subject
(angels, bears, birds, cats, Christmas, dragons, flowers, etc.)

    Last year, prompted by concern about the spread of West Nile virus, New York State asked counties to report dead birds to its wildlife pathology laboratory.  After receiving more than 80,000 birds, Dr. Ward Stone discovered that although the virus was a factor in some of the deaths, the leading cause was pesticide poisoning.  Common lawn care chemicals were among the most common toxins (excerpt from National Audubon Society).  Some pesticides are much more toxic to birds than to other species—diazinon is 100 times more acutely toxic to birds than mammals, for example.  Granular forms of lawn pesticides are most dangerous to birds, and ingestion of even one granule (which they mistake for food) can kill a small bird.  Most often the bird retreats to a sheltered area to die or is weakened enough to be eaten by predators which then also suffer from the pesticides in the small bird's body.

The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. - Rachel Carson