Friday, August 27, 2004; A1, A15

    Tomales may have been hit hard because it is outside the boundaries of the mosquito control district. Prevention techniques, such as mosquito fish and larvacides, which kill the juvenile mosquitoes, have not been regularly used, Canterbury said.
    The district is jumping in anyway because of the potential hazard. ``We'll see if we can get them some immediate relief for this,'' he said.
    The four pine siskins were among 14 dead birds found in the yard of Anna Jensen, 72, who has feeders filled with thistle for the saucy, yellow-striped songsters.
    Other residents since have seen dead owls, crows and finches in other parts of town, all without marks of injury.
    ``I found two dead quail that looked perfectly healthy. They had no animal marks,'' said Holly Browne, who works at Diekmann's General Store.
    Jensen's once-thriving colony of 150 pine siskins and goldfinches has shrunk to about 80, including a small group that just arrived, she said Thursday.
    But the rate of death has slowed, and where she found up to seven dead a day a few weeks ago, she now finds one or two.
    Jensen lives about 100 yards from a small creek, where mosquito abatement teams Thursday found standing ponds and collected mosquito larva.
    They planted mosquito traps to see how many adult mosquitoes are out and to test for West Nile, Canterbury said.
    A crew today will retrieve the traps, and teams will go in Saturday to do more surveillance and distribute mosquito-eating fish, Canterbury said.
    Health officials are recommending that people use mosquito repellent containing DEET, wear long sleeved shirts and long pants at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active and drain any containers with standing water in their yards.

You can reach Staff Writer Carol Benfell at 521-5259 orcbenfell@pressdemocrat.com.