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THEY'LL BE 'FLU BIRDS OVER THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER

In our history the British kept out all manner of menacing things trying to make their way across the English Channel.

From French and Spanish warships to V-2 rockets, and submarines, but it was only this week that geese and ducks became an imminent threat to national security.

Thousands of shotgun-wielding British hunters, huddled behind duck blinds and crouching in marshes, have been empowered by the government to play a key role in their country's battle to prevent an avian-flu epidemic from overtaking the country.

The government's veterinary authorities, fearful of infected birds making their way into Britain from flu-prone regions of eastern Russia, have given the hunters, as well as conservation groups and birdwatchers, bird-flu testing kits and asked them to shoot down as many birds as possible, test them for the disease, and otherwise stand guard against these menacing foreign invaders.

Debby Reynolds, who devised the plan to empower hunters as head of Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, urged citizens to keep watch over the skies.

"The risk of avian influenza spreading from eastern Russia to the U.K. via migrating birds is still low," she told reporters. "However, we have said all along that we must remain on the lookout for the disease. This surveillance program is important to maintain vigilance."

Avian flu has killed 60 people in Asia, and governments from Turkey to Britain are using hunters and soldiers to gun down record numbers of birds.

The bird death toll is already in the millions, as Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Turkey have ordered hunters and soldiers to cull as many birds as possible within their borders.