The End of the World?

[TotallyOz]

For Arkansas Blackbirds, the New Year Never Came

Around 11 that night, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this small city about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and terrifying anyone who happened to be outside.

“One of them almost hit my best friend in the head,” said Christy Stephens, who was standing outside among the smoking crowd at a party. “We went inside after that.”

The cause is still being determined, but preliminary lab results from the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission revealed “acute physical trauma” in samples of the dead birds. There were no indications of disease, though tests were still being done for the presence of toxic chemicals.

Karen Rowe, the bird conservation program coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the prevailing theory was that the birds had been startled by New Year’s Eve fireworks and suddenly dispersed, flying low enough to run into chimneys, houses and trees. Pyrotechnics are used to scatter blackbirds for bird control, though only during the day, given the birds’ poor vision.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/us/04beebe.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

I have no doubt that if I were in the city and once again immersed in religion, I might be wondering about the 2nd coming!

[RA1]

I have to say this is similar to the ducks going into clouds, getting iced up and falling by the "flocks" into fields, DOA. It might be an urban legend or it might be a freak of nature but until something definitive comes along to explain it, I think it is an urban legend.

Best regards,

RA1

[KYTOP]

It has also now occurred in Sweden:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12118839

Plus smaller groups of birds have fallen in Northern Louisiana and Western Kentucky on New Year's Day.

http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2011/01/hundreds_more_birds_found_dead.html

[Guest Hoover42]

If you'd like to keep up with the latest wildlife mortality events in the USA, check here:

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/ongoing.jsp

[AdamSmith]

More from The Wall Street Journal...

Bird Die-Offs? Not that Rare

By GAUTAM NAIK

Birds are dropping in droves. The thing is, it's perfectly normal.

In recent days, 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead in Arkansas. Dozens of jackdaws in Sweden fell from the sky as well. So did a few hundred turtle doves in Italy.

"Large mortality events in wildlife aren't that uncommon," says Paul Slota, spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., which has been tracking mass animal deaths since the 1970s. "In the last 10 years we have logged 188 cases just involving birds with mortality exceeding 1,000 animals per event."

The causes vary. Some animals starve. Others eat toxic food or get poisoned by people. Many die in severe weather, or succumb to pollution or bacterial and viral illnesses. In many causes, though, the cause remains a mystery.

For example, one prevailing theory holds that the blackbirds in Arkansas were startled out of their roost by fireworks set off on New Year's Eve, which disoriented them and caused them to slam into buildings, trees and the ground. But some scientists say fireworks aren't the likely cause; if so similar bird deaths would be reported every New Year's Eve, but they aren't.

On average, between 160 and 200 such "mass death" events in wildlife are reported to the federal government each year, according to the USGS.

The Associated Press also noted that there have been much larger die-offs than the thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas; twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.

So why the sudden surge in public interest, plus the accompanying fear in some quarters that something sinister might be afoot?

"There's much greater exchange of information nowadays" thanks to the Internet, says Mr. Slota. "The more such events get reported, the more people take interest" and see links that aren't necessarilythere.

Some wildlife declines are truly worrisome but aren't as attention-getting, says Mr. Slota.

For example, in the past three years or so, more than one million bats in the U.S. have died from a fungal affliction called white nose syndrome.

The bats are important pollinators for several plant species, and "the mortality is astoundingly greater" than the blackbirds, says Mr. Slota. But public interest is meager.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704055204576068252659717470.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

[RA1]

The bats seem to be only second in seriousness to bees dying. There are strange diseases abroad in the land and we must do something to "cure" the situation.

Best regards,

RA1