Your Thoughts on Thousands of Dead Blackbirds

[AlabamaNomadRider]

BEEBE, Ark. — Environmental service workers finished picking up the carcasses on Sunday of about 2,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town.

Mike Robertson, the mayor in Beebe, told The Associated Press the last dead bird was removed about 11 a.m. Sunday in the town about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock. He said 12 to 15 workers, hired by the city to do the cleanup, wore environmental-protection suits for the task.

The birds had fallen Friday night over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area. The workers from U.S. Environmental Services started the cleanup Saturday.

Robertson said the workers wore the suits as a matter of routine and not out of fear that the birds might be contaminated. He said speculation on the cause is not focusing on disease or poisoning.

Several hundred thousand red-winged blackbirds have used a wooded area in the town as a roost for the past several years, he said. Robertson and other officials went to the roost area over the weekend and found no dead birds on the ground.

"That pretty much rules out an illness" or poisoning, the mayor said.

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said Saturday the birds showed physical trauma, and speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

Robby King, a wildlife officer for the commission, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.

[Dave]

I think we need a new federal agency to protect us from suicidal birds. And how about some more gun laws.

[BudMan]

Cloud to cloud lightning would be my guess.

[boomerang2120]

BEEBE, Ark. — Preliminary autopsies on 17 of the up to 5,000 blackbirds that fell on this town indicate they died of blunt trauma to their organs, the state's top veterinarian told NBC News on Monday.

Their stomachs were empty, which rules out poison, Dr. George Badley said, and they died in midair, not on impact with the ground.

[bobzinger]

Hailstones

[Top Cat]

Extraterrestrials perfecting their death ray before using it on us to take over our world.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

I'm also thinking hail or lightning. I have never heard of anything like that. What about all the dead fish?

[jasonc32amg]

Bush lied...birds died.

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by AlabamaNomadRider

I'm also thinking hail or lightning. I have never heard of anything like that. What about all the dead fish?

The Extraterrestrials practiced on the fish before moving on to flying targets.

[BudMan]

I think TC may have this thing figured out :)

[Loafer]

Smells like pie...

[glwilson]

Didn't see anything about fish... where was that? I would like to know more about that.

Without the dead-fish info... lightening would be ruled out. It is too sporadic, and typically would leave tell-tale signs as to it occurring. Besides; that much electrical activity would be easily seen on Doppler, and other equipment in the area -- and other issues would have occurred with lightening that widespread.

I am a bit surprised that hail couldn't be ruled "in" or "out" because that is fairly easy to determine from Doppler as well.

If I were to guess; if it cannot be confirmed there was a hail storm; I would suggest a rare wind-shear scenario where impacts from changing wind of high speeds can tear a plane apart in seconds. Given the fact that birds are rather delicate... these types of wind-shears could easily cause impact injuries to birds over a wide-spread area.

That does leave the question as to why only red-winged blackbirds though.

Just guessing... but that it my thought. ;)

[Loafer]

Originally Posted by AlabamaNomadRider

What about all the dead fish?

Bait...

[blowndodge]

I think TC must have yawned outside???

[Cajunrider]

Boudreaux and Thibodaux planned a gumbo and jambalaya for New Years Day. They went to Arkansas and shot all of those birds at night in their roost. The weather got too bad for them to pick up all of the birds with just a headlight. Now, dat's what happened.