But online, images of Argentinian coastlines strewn with dead seal pups and researchers lining up rows of dead seabirds on Antarctic islands offered a warning of what could come.<\/p>\n
So when SA confirmed its first case of the deadly H5 bird flu<\/a> strain, just over 200km away at Robe on the Limestone Coast, Turner was prepared to become a different kind of birder.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had this fairytale belief that maybe we wouldn\u2019t get it here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s here and now things are going to get harder and more confronting.\u201d<\/p>\n She is one of more than 120 volunteers who have signed up for the Bird Observers Network<\/a>, which allows birders to contribute to the state\u2019s bird flu response.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The partnership between the SA government, Conservation Council SA, Birds<\/a> SA and Birdlife Australia trains volunteers to identify and report sick birds that may be showing signs associated with H5 bird flu.<\/p>\n Since the network\u2019s first session, Turner has already reported a sick greater crested tern, which was resting at the edge of a flock.<\/p>\n While the other birds shuffled or flew around as she tried to get a better look, the sick animal did not respond.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was standing on the jetty, trembling and swaying a bit,\u201d Turner says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t look well, it just looked really miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n Compared with the non-bird-obsessed general public, birders can offer greater detail when reporting potentially infected birds, says Steven Langley, the president of Birds SA.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n They can often recognise species more accurately, use their binoculars to observe possible abnormalities within a flock, and notice when birds they might see on their routine walks go missing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all just want to be able to do whatever we can to make a difference,\u201d Langley says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see these distressing images from overseas, you\u2019re implanting them into your mind and on to the places and the birds that you have got a great deal of affection for.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Volunteers generally don\u2019t receive further correspondence after they have made a submission but multiple crested terns found on Kangaroo Island have been tested and returned confirmed positive results for H5 bird flu since Turner\u2019s report.<\/p>\n The grim task of reporting dead wildlife is a familiar one to many SA birders after the toxic algal bloom which engulfed 20,000 sq km of coast, killing millions of sea creatures and becoming one of the worst marine mass mortalities in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though Turner says the scenes from the bloom were confronting, she worries bird flu has the potential to be even worse.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782409212_414_2998.jpg\")
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