I’ve always loved birds. Ever since I saw Ann Margaret in “Bye, Bye, Birdie” I’ve appreciated their grace, beauty and the fact that they have the ability to fly. What a trip that must be. If you’ve spent any time along the central coast you see birds in the travel mode 24 hours a day. These are mostly gulls, cormorants and pelicans although you can occasionally spot an eagle with a full head of hair.

Today we will check out some birds in flight. The first shot features some pelicans who had just been cleared for takeoff from a very crowded runway at Natural Bridges. Next we move on to Four Mile Beach-when these mud hens saw me they took off faster than Colin Powell leaving Bush’s cabinet. We then venture on to the westside of Santa Cruz where this group of red-winged black birds were flying in the strawberry fields forever. Then there’s a couple of snowy egrets heading to a driving range and an elegant great egret in flight. I took the final shot last Tuesday during at a very low tide day down at Its Beach. It was so low that I was able to walk around the arch and caught this white wonder settling in to watch the sunset.

So here’s news from the bird front. A disease introduced into the wild in the 1940′s from U.S. domestic poultry has killed 15,000 birds around Utah’s Great Salt Lake over the past month, some literally falling dead from the sky. The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center said the birds were killed by the avain cholera, which caused some birds to try and land a foot or higher above the water, fly upside down or swim in circles when they eventually hit the lake. Just like Curley would do when he hit the floor in an episode of the Three Stooges.

The disease is caused by bacterium Pasteurella multocida, currently the most prevalent infectious disease among North American waterfowl. While it doesn’t affect humans, wildlife officials warn that people shouldn’t pick up the birds or let their pets chew on them. The disease flourishes in the cold weather, and this past November was the coldest on record. Even colder than Ted Kennedy bypassing his longtime Clinton buddies and endorsing Barack Obama.

And good new for you Bob Crane and whooping crane fans. The United States Fish and Wildlife service announced that a record 262 cranes just arrived at the Aranas reserve on Texas’ Gulf of Mexico coast. Four more birds are said to be still on route as they caught a later flight. The critically endangered birds will winter there before returning to their summer nesting sites in Canada’s Northwest Territory. Their immune systems are vulnerable to disease and you know what comes along after a whooping crane develops a cold-yup, it’s the whooping cough.

So that’s it for our last photo blog for January 2008. I hope you enjoyed this month more than quarterbacks Tony Romo or Peyton Manning did. Coming up on Friday is a sunset I think you’ll find visually appealing. I know my camera did. Shot a beautiful sunrise this morning that we’ll take a look at next Monday. So enjoy the birds and we’ll catch you in February.