Its not well known but 25 years ago there was an outbreak of pneumonia locally (in Bright) that was attributed to bird chlamydia/psittacosis. All of the cases were somehow connected with dead birds or bird droppings. Sixteen people were known to be infected, one died. So I am careful with sick or dead birds.

We have a massive resident bird population. For a number of reasons.

We don't allow cats or foxes to remain on the property.

We have a lot of trees and hedges and provide a variety of habitat.

Our trees provide a lot of food, and that is evidenced by the huge population shifts as the olive cycle progresses. Olives come into ripeness just as winter is approaching, filling the gap as other food sources shut down.

Apart from food-bearing introduced trees, we have some huge remnant native trees that have been here for…centuries. A good food source and staging post for native birds.

We have a protected water source, in the goose pond, within the secure goose paddock, and attract a lot of water birds who can nest safely.

The Ovens River is a perennial water source.

The National Park is across the river.

So, we have lots of birds. And as a statistical consequence, we regularly see birds going through the various stages of their life cycle, including getting ill and dying, and sudden death.

We leave them where they are, if we can. If they are sick and/or dying they are usually there the next day. Or a remnant puff of feathers. But it has been tempting to intervene.

A couple of years back I was horrified to find a large bat hanging from the fence. It has got itself twisted in the wire. Normally I would keep clear, especially from a known disease-carrier like a bat!), but it seemed to be a terrible thing I was witnessing. I went and got some thick gloves and untwisted it. It had ruined one wing and wasn't going to be able to fly. I parked in back in the tree it had been raiding. To my horror it latched onto my gloved finger, bit hard, and punctured the glove and my finger! Never again…..

Two days ago a young magpie was huddled next to the cattle trough. He looked cold, was all ruffled up, but didn't have the energy to take off. He didn't appear to be injured, just ill. I love magpies, we have two big clans of them here permanently, but I left him to recover or not.

He didn't and the powder-puff of feathers marks the spot.

A couple of weeks ago we made the potentially catastrophic mistake of leaving the gate to the goose paddock open all night. (We got distracted, a newly-born lamb and her mum had to be walked into the yards. Mum was tired after giving birth, and I had to kidnap the lamb and slowly lead her in. We drove back to check there wasn't another lamb hiding somewhere…and forgot to close the gate.) When there's a fox in town that would have been a disaster, but nothing happened.

But three weeks later and there is suddenly a local fox, coming out of the remnant bush in the big farm next door. My Kelpie saw it and chased it off, but it will be back. I won't be so lucky again. The fox can have all the dead birds she can find, until I find her, but I need to keep that gate shut!