Birds Fall Dead From The Sky In Arkansas

[Steve Kroenke]

Here is a link to an article on Fox News about birds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas! At least they weren't purple martins!

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/ ... latestnews

Steve

[Louise Chambers]

For those who are curious, the news articles say the dead blackbirds are being tested and they doubt they were poisoned. The bodies show signs of trauma and could have been caught in a bad storm with hail. Another theory is that stress from fireworks killed them.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Louise,

I visited the website of a TV station in Arkansas and looked at a short video of the situation. Most of the birds appear to be red-winged blackbirds. Some of birds were still alive but had broken wings. Perhaps hail did this or the birds collided with each other when bolting in the air.

Steve

[M.Stephens]

Hey Steve KTBS news is reporting on this within the hour. Just seen it as I was reading your post.

[akp]

They had severe thunderstorms in Western Arkansas a couple of nights ago. Had a tornado close to the Oklahoma state line that killed three people. Beebe is more central though.

[phillip26r]

Now why couldn't they have been Starlings???

[RC Moser]

Also found in Ozark Ark. 100,000 dead drum in the ark. river(drum is a fish something like carp, but it you ever caught one they have rattle in their head)

Weird, to say the least. Stuff like this happens usually around Volcanic vents before an eruption? In the birds case odds are it was hail beings a few was found with broken wings.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

The following link gives an update on the red-winged blackbirds that fell from the sky dead in Beebe, Ar. last week. The estimate has been raised to between 4,000 and 5,000 dead. No poison was found on the first 17 to be examined. Mid-air collision or possibly flying into the ground after becoming disoriented appear to be the cause of death.

Tim

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40885546/ns ... ?gt1=43001

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Just looked at the link, looks like some starlings in there too.
I think something else is going on here. Coincidence? I don't think so.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

On the national news yesterday, while reporting on the dead birds in Beebe, AR., they also reported the same thing happened with blackbirds in Louisiana a couple of days ago. They said they were going to compare the results in Louisiana with the birds recovered in AR.

Tim

[stan davison]

I hope the first Martin arrivals didn't experience the same fate.

[Guest]

I think it's the government testing an EMP ( electromagnetic pulse ) prototype weapon. That would explain both the birds and the fish.

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

Seems to me the verdict is in on the RWBBs and others killed on N.Y.E. As is typical it's humans driving this wildlife to their deaths. All sources I could find are stating that the birds were driven-off their roosts into a headlong dash at low altitudes where they collided with trees, powerlines and other structures where the most seriously injured died instantly and others managed to fly on for a few hundred more yards before dropping out of the sky. Only the Wall Street Journal (predictably) is leaning away from the fireworks explanation and wants to pooh-pooh humanity's negative impact on nature and blames the deaths on an unfortunate coincidence of the birds suddenly going for a spontaneous "joy-flight" over and through area marshes that just-then decided to belch an unprecedented amount of deadly swamp gas that lead to the bird's deaths. It conveniently helps provide an alternate explanation for the sulfur smell noted by those area residents who were outdoors at the time (probably watching the fireworks) duh! I know that many Martin enthusiasts worry about their colonies on and around the fourth of July for the very same reasons.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0106-morg ... kills.html

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Fred, I have never seen any spooked martins during fireworks season. The neighbors, and even our grandchildren, were on the street shooting fireworks a few years ago, and I was concerned about the martins. It all turned out ok, no martins abandoned the nests, or to my knowledge, even exited the gourds..

About the RWBBs, its very possible that someone was shooting under their roost, thinking it was funny.

About the fish, that is really strange. We occasionally have large fish kills around here in the summer. The term that is used is that the "water turns over" and that depletes the oxygen. It does kill the scale fish and the fish are all along the banks of these small shallow lakes, but this always happens in the hottest part of the year. Its related to hot water increasing its density which depletes the oxygen...so I dunno!

[terrapincove]

We've been having a fireworks display on the 4th each year. The martins are tucked in before we start. The martins have not abandoned the site because of this activity. I'll be sure to be more careful or perhaps avoid using the fireworks altogether. Maybe fire them off to celebrate a successful season.

[Linda Reynolds]

The bird and fish kill is more extensive than originally thought. A good friend of mine sent me the following link from the UK:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... d-bay.html

[M.Stephens]

Linda this same site was posted on the "Bird Kills" thread. Hopefully nothing like this will happen to any martins....starlings and sparrows need to have this luck upon them.

[Linda Reynolds]

Malcolm, thanks so much for calling that to my attention. I missed reading the other thread and specifically the post made by Kathy F that provided the same link.

Thanks to Kathy for posting, and so sorry that I missed the information on the other thread, and posted repeat information.

[M.Stephens]

Sorry Linda not trying to be smart or anything I just remembered seeing it over there. I think we are all just needing warmer weather and some martins to show up