Thread: Bird and fish deaths in Arkansas grow to Biblical proportion

Bird and fish deaths in Arkansas grow to Biblical proportion
January 3rd, 2011 2:25 pm ET.Do you like this story?
On New Year's Eve, some 4,000 birds fell out of the sky dead, in Beebe, Arkansas. Preliminary reports show no evidence of poisoning, so their deaths remain a mystery to officials. Now there are reports of the unexplained death of more than 100,000 fish in a nearby river, about 100 miles away in Ozark, Arkansas.

Some people are now suggesting that the fish and bird deaths are part of a Biblical plague, according to MSNBC News.

While officals have suggested that the massive fish kill and dead birds are not realated, they have no explaination for the deaths.

Due to the close proximity of the two deadly occurences, the disaster may not be a mere coincidence. Officials are awating conclusive scientific data that will either tie the two events together, or prove that they are unrelated.

Neither the White House, nor governement officials in Arkansas have released a statement on the 4,000 dead birds or 100,000 dead fish.
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http://www.examiner.com/political-spin- ... proportion

Falling birds likely died from massive trauma

By the CNN Wire StaffJanuary 3, 2011 5:50 p.m. EST

No signs of disease found in birds

(CNN) -- The thousands of birds that fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve in Arkansas likely died from massive trauma, according to a preliminary report released Monday.

The birds -- most of which were dead when they were found -- were red-winged blackbirds and starlings, and they were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the commission, said the birds showed evidence of trauma in the breast tissue, with blood clots in the body cavity and a lot of internal bleeding. All major organs were normal.

He cited a preliminary report conducted by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission.

"Further tests will be done to rule out other causes, but the birds suffered from acute physical trauma leading to internal hemorrhage and death. There was no sign of any chronic or infectious disease," the report said, according to the game and fish commission.

As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 birds had been found dead, said Stephens.

Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the game and fish commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail.

A strong storm system moved through the state earlier in the day Friday. Officials also speculated that fireworks shot by New Year's revelers in the area might have caused severe stress in the birds.

"It's completely indescribable how many birds were here. I've never been anything like it," said Melissa Weatherly, a Beebe resident.

Blackbirds do not normally fly at night and it was not immediately clear what caused the odd behavior. Loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began falling, according to the game and fish commission.

"The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages," said Rowe.

"Initial examinations of a few of the dead birds showed trauma. Whether or not this trauma was from the force of hitting the ground when they fell or from something that contacted them in the air, we don't know," she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01 ... -drilling/

Disease suspected in mass kill of 100K fish in Ark. River

05:45 PM

Busy days for the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission. In addition to determining why between 4,000 and 5,000 blackbirds died New Year's Eve (apparently by flying into things during fireworks), the agency is trying to pinpoint what killed nearly 100,000 fish in the Arkansas River.

Because 99% of the fish were bottom-feeding drum, not a sport fish, disease is the likely culprit, an official told The Associated Press. Pollution or another toxin would have killed more species.

The kill was reported Thursday along a 20-mile stretch of the river. Some fish were alive but sick and were sent to the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff for testing.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... as-river/1

Massive bird deaths likely caused by loud noises

Updated 1h 5m ago
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

A mysterious event that caused thousands of red-wing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year's Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe most likely occurred when loud noises and fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to die when they flew into buildings and other obstacles, a state ornithologist said.

Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma. The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. Beyond that, all the birds were healthy. The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.

Neighbors reported "five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of town. They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding," but officials are still investigating to find out what the noises were, Rowe said.


ON DEADLINE: Arkansas tests dead birds

The blackbird flock then rose from its roost and tried to fly away, but possibly because of fireworks in the sky "they naturally wouldn't want to go up high," Rowe said.

"They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls," she said. Blackbirds have very poor night vision.

The first calls about the incident came in at about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, said Keith Stephens, with the Game and Fish Commission.

"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," he said.

Large flocks of blackbirds are very common in Arkansas, Stephens said. "It's not uncommon to see hundreds or thousands of them in a field feeding. Once they're startled they can almost completely blacken the sky."

The wildlife agent sent to Beebe wasn't able to tell how many blackbirds took wing. "It was pitch black and they are black," Stephens said. But "they were just raining down."

The Department of Emergency Management did testing of the air and found nothing amiss, so the state isn't putting out any health warnings, Stephens said.

The number of dead blackbirds is more than 3,000, Rowe said. They were mostly found in the Windwood neighborhood of the town of 4,500. "Environmental Services says they picked up approximately 2,000 birds," she said. There were others they couldn't reach, and "scavengers probably carried off quite a bit — if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."

Over the past several weeks "there have been swarms of blackbirds flying over" the neighborhood, according to Ginger Pearson, owner of Beebe Tees & Things, a clothing store. "There's a wooded area back behind it."

The subdivision was previously agricultural fields and a nearby forested area has long been home to the blackbird flock, Rowe said. The birds have been enough of a nuisance that in previous years the town has asked the state Agriculture Department to disperse them.

Red-wing blackbirds are native to North America and gather in large flocks in the winter, generally settling near food sources for weeks at a time, said Mike Parr of the American Bird Conservancy in Washington D.C.

The number of birds that died is high, he said, but "to put the number in perspective, windows, communication towers, power lines and wind turbines kill tens of millions of birds each year, probably hundreds of millions."

In an unrelated event, a major fish kill was reported on the Arkansas river, also on New Year's Day, Stephens said. About 80,000 to 100,000 dead freshwater drum were found along a 20-mile stretch of the river.

State officials believe the fish kill was disease-related, as it only affected one species, and it was during a cold spell when the fish would have concentrated in deep water, allowing "the disease to spread fairly quickly," he said. Specimens have been sent to state labs for testing.

While this is an extremely large fish kill, they're not that uncommon, and can be caused by disease, changes in water temperature or low oxygen levels.

There's no reason to think the blackbirds and the freshwater drum deaths are related. "They're 200 miles apart," Stephens said.

The incidents — coming during a traditionally slow news period — made for a wild weekend for state Game and Fish staffers.

"It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced and I've been doing this for 25 years," Stephens said. "I'll bet you I've had 100 calls today, I've done 25 interviews. I did al-Jazeera live last night."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... irds_N.htm

Even domestic animals know to refuse GMO corn. Very few animals will eat something with odd cause of death, wild or domestic. Determining if any animals did eat the fallen birds could be a huge clue as to what really happened.

Originally Posted by sarum

Even domestic animals know to refuse GMO corn. Very few animals will eat something with odd cause of death, wild or domestic. Determining if any animals did eat the fallen birds could be a huge clue as to what really happened.

if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."

No poison found in birds that fell on town

First tests suggest midair collision, but why still isn't certain; number raised to at least 4,000

updated 1/3/2011 3:23:17 PM ET 2011-01-03T20:23:17

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.

That evidence, and the fact that the red-winged blackbirds fly in close flocks, suggests they suffered some massive midair collision, he added. That lends weight to theories that they were startled by something.

Earlier Monday, the estimated number of dead birds was raised to between 4,000 and 5,000, up sharply from the initial estimate of 1,000.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, provided the new numbers.

Residents of the small town of Beebe awoke Saturday to find thousands of dead blackbirds littering a 1.5-square-mile area. The birds inexplicably dropped dead, landing on homes, cars and lawns.

Violent weather rumbled over much of the state Friday, including a tornado that killed three people in Cincinnati, Ark. Lightning could have killed the birds directly or startled them to the point that they became confused. Hail also has been known to knock birds from the sky.

The director of Cornell University's ornithology lab in Ithaca, N.Y., said the most likely suspect is violent weather. It's probable that thousands of birds were asleep, roosting in a single tree, when a "washing machine-type thunderstorm" sucked them up into the air, disoriented them, and even fatally soaked and chilled them.

"Bad weather can occasionally catch flocks off guard, blow them off a roost, and they get hurled up suddenly into this thundercloud," lab director John Fitzpatrick said.

Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday, but the worst of it was already well east of Beebe by the time the birds started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

If weather was the cause, the birds could have died in several ways, Fitzpatrick said. They could easily become disoriented — with no lights to tell them up and down — and smack into the ground. Or they could have died from exposure.

The birds' feathers keep them at a toasty 103 degrees, but "once that coat gets unnaturally wet, it's only a matter of minutes before they're done for," Fitzpatrick said.

Lightning or hail are also possibilities.

Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the state commission, noted that in 2001 lightning killed about 20 mallards at Hot Springs, and a flock of dead pelicans was found in the woods about 10 years ago. Lab tests showed that they, too, had been hit by lightning.

Moreover, in 1973 hail knocked birds from the sky at Stuttgart, Ark. Some of the birds were caught in a violent storm's updrafts and became encased in ice before falling from the sky.

Rowe noted that birds of prey and other animals, including dogs and cats, ate several of the dead blackbirds and suffered no ill effects.

"Every dog and cat in the neighborhood that night was able to get a fresh snack that night," Rowe said.

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

Robertson said the workers wore the suits as a matter of routine and not out of fear that the birds might be contaminated.

It started at 7 a.m., picking up birds on the street, in the yards, been run over. It's just a mess," Beebe Street Department supervisor Milton McCullar told WISC-TV.

Video: In Arkansas, it rained dead birds
Several hundred thousand red-winged blackbirds have used a wooded area in the town as a roost for the past several years.

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.

But some residents voiced concerns.

"I've been to Iraq and back and not seen nothing like this," Beebe resident Jeff Drennan told local Fox16 News on Sunday.

"You know my kids are out here playing and you don't know, is it safe?" he added. "They're walking around with chemical suits picking them up with gas masks and everything."

The birds will not be missed. Large blackbird roosts like one at Beebe can have thousands of birds that leave ankle- to knee-deep piles of droppings in places.

Nearly a decade ago, state wildlife officials fired blanks from shotguns and cannons to move a roost of thousands of blackbirds from Beebe, but in recent years many of the migratory birds returned.

Red-winged blackbirds are the among North America's most abundant birds, with somewhere between 100 million and 200 million in the U.S., Fitzpatrick said.

Near Ozark, a town 125 miles from Beebe, up to 100,000 fish were found dead along the Arkansas River, leading to speculation of a connection.

David Lyons, the head of a local chapter of the Sierra Club, told msnbc.com that he was "waiting for the results of the pathology and toxicology tests before I make any judgments about the bird and fish kills.

"So far, the evidence does not suggest that pollution contributed to either the bird or fish kill," he added. "If the test results indicate that contaminants were responsible, then local environmental groups will likely have several questions and concerns about the two events."

MAYBE THEY RAN INTO ONE OF THESE:

http://www.metatech.org/07/drones_milit ... ology.html

It seems most likely that our standard testing has no way to determine cause - outside all their known causes.

I've heard things on the radio that are not duplicated in the articles. For example that the inside of the birds are pulverized - not cooked as in microwave technology. Perhaps very strong magnetic force could do that?

In article posted below a local resident states that these redwing blackbirds fly at night - every night millions of them blackening the sky. Huh? Im' no ornithologist but that alone sounds really unusual - the night is reserved for predators like bats and owls.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/sto ... yid=136195

This wiki states that this breed feeds on seeds and insects. A possibility of night-time insect swarms could cause them to feed at night I suppose but no mention of them flying at night is made. This breed is believed to have originated about 65 million years ago so I don't think lightening or hail is something that bothers them much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird

Could be this too:

http://viewzone2.com/haarp00x.html

Eastlund's first patent (US #4,686,605) was for a "method and apparatus for altering a region in the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere, and or magnetosphere." (quoted from 2nd page of above article.)

Over the years I have even read of the great tsunami being blamed on this HAARP. I really can't claim to understand it but at least I try. I feel like a Neanderthal trying to understand a light bulb. Logically, practicing useage of targeted weaponry would most likely be done in a rural area with a population of less than 5,000.

Alex Jones has a video of the fish in his article:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/is-mass-bir ... sting.html

Sorry but this kind of stuff really bugs me.