More Than 1,000 Dead Red-Winged Blackbirds Fall From The Sky
The town of Beebe, Arkansas, had a nasty surprise this New Year's Eve. By midnight, more than 5,000 dead red-winged blackbirds had fallen out of the sky on to city streets.
Streets Covered With Corpses Of Dead Birds
From The New York Daily News:
Dozens of lawns, streets and rooftops for more than a mile in Beebe, Ark., were covered with the corpses of red-winged black birds. An aerial survey showed that no other dead birds were found outside that area.
Beebe residents describe the scene as something out of an Alfred Hitchcock film, and the town's mayor, Mike Robertson, said he and other officials initially thought news of the birds was a New Year's prank.
"I thought the mayor was messing with me when he called me," Milton McCullar, a town street supervisor, told local television station KATV. "He got me up at 4'oclock in the morning and told me we had birds falling out of the sky."
Lightning Or Hail?
What on earth could have caused such an event?
As first reported by the BBC, according to Arkansas Fish and Game ornithologist Karen Rowe, the birds could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.
Or Maybe Fireworks?
Then again, it was New Year's Eve. Could setting off fireworks have something to do with this bizarre occurrence?
"Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky, it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin," Ms. Rowe stated, explaining why 65 dead birds had been sent off for scientific analysis.
Last Year It Was Dead Starlings
Similar events have happened before: last March, in a quiet British town, about a hundred starlings dropped out of the sky, dying; and in January of 2010, the same thing happened in Franklin Township, New Jersey.
However the mystery is resolved, this is not an auspicious beginning of the new year for Beebe, AK, which was one of the cities declared a disaster area just a year ago, after severe storms and flooding.
Streets Covered With Corpses Of Dead Birds
From The New York Daily News:
Dozens of lawns, streets and rooftops for more than a mile in Beebe, Ark., were covered with the corpses of red-winged black birds. An aerial survey showed that no other dead birds were found outside that area.
Beebe residents describe the scene as something out of an Alfred Hitchcock film, and the town's mayor, Mike Robertson, said he and other officials initially thought news of the birds was a New Year's prank.
"I thought the mayor was messing with me when he called me," Milton McCullar, a town street supervisor, told local television station KATV. "He got me up at 4'oclock in the morning and told me we had birds falling out of the sky."
Lightning Or Hail?
What on earth could have caused such an event?
As first reported by the BBC, according to Arkansas Fish and Game ornithologist Karen Rowe, the birds could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.
Or Maybe Fireworks?
Then again, it was New Year's Eve. Could setting off fireworks have something to do with this bizarre occurrence?
"Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky, it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin," Ms. Rowe stated, explaining why 65 dead birds had been sent off for scientific analysis.
Last Year It Was Dead Starlings
Similar events have happened before: last March, in a quiet British town, about a hundred starlings dropped out of the sky, dying; and in January of 2010, the same thing happened in Franklin Township, New Jersey.
However the mystery is resolved, this is not an auspicious beginning of the new year for Beebe, AK, which was one of the cities declared a disaster area just a year ago, after severe storms and flooding.
100,000 Dead Drumfish Wash Up In Arkansas
An estimated 100,000 dead drum fish have washed up in the Arkansas river, reports CNN.
From CNN:
Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.
Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Thursday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.
Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.
Ozark lies about 125 miles west of Beebe.
Drumfish are a bottom-feeding fish, not a game fish, and as you can see in this video, Arkansas officials are encouraging people to keep fishing.
I wonder how well they are succeeding?
Wildlife Deaths Around The World
Here are just a few of them:
* Two million small fish dead in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA
* Hundreds of snapper fish found dead in New Zealand
* 50 to 100 jackdaws fell dead on a street in Falkoping, Sweden
* 450 red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings found on a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
* 1,000 dead turtle doves rained down in Faenza, Italy
In the latter case, according to The Daily Mail:
Official results on the Italian birds are due tomorrow, but Rodolfo Ridolfi, a director at the regional zoological institute, said:'We are fairly confident the birds died as a result of massive indigestion brought on by over-eating.
The most likely cause are discarded sunflower seeds that were found on an industrial estate close to where the bodies of the turtle doves were found.
'In essence the birds were greedy, ate too many of the seeds - which we have found inside them during autopsies - and this brought on the indigestion that led to their death.'
Why Did They Die?
Interesting - overeating and indigestion as cause of death?
Other experts have given New Year's fireworks, thunderstorms, disease, cold weather and poisoning as possible reasons for the deaths.
Is Wildlife Mortality Normal?
The Economist last week provided an interesting link to a USGS survey of wildlife mortality for 2010, showing that incidents of wildlife deaths are actually quite common.
