Central Valley flooding offers birds bountiful water. Will it also poison them?

Photo: Sunset over the Tulare Lake Canal. Farmers fear the canal is inadequately built to hold off the inevitable surge of snowmelt charging the Kings River. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After struggling through years of punishing drought, California waterfowl and flocks of migrating birds are now enjoying a rare bounty of water as winter storms and spring snowmelt submerge vast tracts of Central Valley landscape.

But even as birders celebrate the return of wet conditions along portions of the Pacific Flyway, experts worry that this liquid bonanza could ultimately poison tens of thousands of the avians as temperatures rise and newly formed lakes and ponds begin to evaporate.

The concern: botulism.

“Botulism occurs naturally in the soil and in the Tulare basin,” said John Carlson, president of the California Waterfowl Assn. “When the water temperature heats up during the summer and gets stagnant, the botulism really kind of booms, and you can have multi-thousand-bird die-offs.”

Carlson estimates there is a “high probability” of a die-off this summer.

That grim prognosis has added to the emotional whiplash bird lovers and wildlife officials have experienced in recent years as extreme climate […]

Full article: www.latimes.com