Read this on Yahoo news today:- "Hundreds of birds have dropped dead from the sky in Louisiana just days after a similar mysterious incident left scientists baffled in Arkansas. Skip related content Related photos / videos New Mystery As More Birds Drop Dead In US Enlarge photo The carcasses of around 500 red-winged blackbirds were found littering a quarter-mile stretch of road in Pointe Coupee, The Advocate reported. The state borders Arkansas where some 3,000 blackbirds died in unexplained circumstances three days ago. The remains of some of the birds found dead in Louisiana are being taken away for testing. A woman several hundred miles away in Kentucky has also reported finding dozens of dead birds in her garden. The mass deaths in Beebe, Ark, Arkansas, have puzzled scientists and wildlife experts. Witnesses reported seeing the birds falling from the sky late on December 31 into early January 1. Around 100,000 fish were also found dead along a river 125 miles away although scientists are not linking the cases. Officials are looking at various possibilities as to why the birds dropped dead - including being startled by fireworks, stress or hit by hail or lightning. Tests on the birds found in Arkansas showed they suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots leading to their deaths, The Associated Press reported. US scientists believe New Year's Eve fireworks may have forced the birds to fly low to avoid explosions, leading them to collide with objects. High winds and tornadoes also struck Arkansas on December 31, with the hardest-hit area more than 150 miles to the west of Beebe."
Hi Eileen, i watched this on the SKY News,very strange happenings,lets hope they can really put their finger on the cause.
The bad weather had already left that area, there was no hail at that location according to residents and the lightening was way too far off to be the cause. The incident in Arkansas is believed to have been caused by excessive amount of fireworks set off by residents around town celebrating the New Year. Black birds do not fly at night because they can't see in the dark any better than humans, they normally roost on telephone lines, in trees, on the roof of various buildings. The fireworks spooked them and sent them flying off in a panic, they were flying low to avoid the fireworks high in the sky and since they can not see well at night they collided with each other, houses, cars, trees, etc. Breaking necks, wings and legs and falling to the ground. In the incident in Louisiana it is believed that at least some of the birds died after flying into or landing on a power line. They are doing tests to rule out other possible causes.
Latest on the news this morning... was not caused by fireworks. There was some sort of signs of internal damage that caused their death.
Also on Fox news this morning, there was a report of similar burd deaths in Sweden also. Really weird.
I hope that it is not another strain of avian flu or something to that effect. It is sad and creepy as it stands now.
i've been followig this closely too. now blackbirds dying in Kentucky, Louisiana, east Texas, Sweden, and crabs dying on England beaches... Hundreds More Dead Birds Fall From Sky In Kentucky http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/0 ... 04952.html New mass bird die-off in La.; scientists still baffled http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. ... 013844087& Now East Texas also reports hundreds of dead birds http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-ne ... dead-birds First blackbirds in Arkansas. Now jackdaws drop in Sweden http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2 ... mmon-cause 40,000 crabs join slew of animal-death mysteries http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... -mysteries
Found this somewhere http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...d=201817256339889828327.0004991bca25af104a22b This is getting even creepier!
Just thought I would offer an opinion on these stories. The Arkansas bird story was pretty strange no doubt about it, but now it seems all the rage for the media to report mysterious animal death stories. I would bet 100 bucks that these stories have been happening all of the time, but were not newsworthy enough to get reported. So now that the media has jumped on the bandwagon it's natural to think this is some sort of phenomenon has jumped from the pages of a science fiction novel into real-life. My guess is that the media will get bored of this in about 2 weeks.
Here is my ramblings on the die-offs. Frank I think you are probably right. I remember huge die off of common and not so common birds quite a few years ago reported in one of the nature magazines I read (can't remember which one). Don't think the animal die-off was mentioned much in the media. Most of the media seemed more focused to spook people about getting the West Nile Virus. As I remember it was fairly detrimental to huge sections of the east coast of the US and moved across the continent. They talked about a quiet spring/summer with huge drops in the numbers of birds of all species. The concern in the article was that the populations of some birds fell to numbers that were risky for the populations to rebound with a healthy genetic diversity within some species. Interestingly enough within two years the populations were back to their previous numbers according to follow-up articles. Here are a couple of old reports of die-offs. (Wish I could remember which mag. I had read the article from) 2000 report on WNV on the east coast that I believe might have been what sparked a previous article I mentioned. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol9no3/02-0628.htm 2007 report of eastcoast US bird die off http://myfwc.com/newsroom/07/statewide/ ... rwater.htm One of the things that bothers me the most is the lack of articles on critters that are slowly dwindling in numbers due to loss of habitation, pollution, etc. But then again we are getting more invasive critters that we never had like those darn gray squirrels, and possums. Don't even get me started on rats! They are even predicting we will have armadillos in the Pacific Northwest within the next ten years. What's with that.:-? So much for my weird perspective.
Animal die-offs happen quite frequently but generally go unnoticed by the public. It is usually the normal cycle of life. West Nile Virus was a real fear down here between 2002-2010. There were several incidents of blackbirds of all species falling dead and some dogs/cats/horses,etc. Between 2002-2010 in Texas alone there were around 2036 confirmed cases of WNV in humans with 122 deaths. From what I have read, the Armadillo is becoming over populated down here so it is moving north for more room. Don't worry, you won't ever see a live one, they are usually only found dead on the roadside in the morning.
Animal die-offs are fairly common, according to scientists in fields related to animal/bird study. Frank is right--this is a media frenzy at a time of year when news is generally pretty slow. I just hope there isn't a reporter around when the lemmings decide to go for a group swim!
