What caused these blackbirds to die?

The Apocalypse is coming?

I would not be surprised if a friend of mine who lives in Arkansas is at the least partially responsible for the death of the birds.

My serious answer/guess would be there was some chemical or gas in the air. Perhaps strong electromagnetic waves gave them all heart attacks.

They collided with a cloaked space ship. I will not apologise, though.

I thought the stories I read said they were hit by lightning or high altitude hail or something???
because the bodies were damaged…

what about the 100,000 fish washing up on shore?

There will be many reasons why it happened and more and likely none of them will be the truth. (IMHO)

@coffeenut There have been lots of theories but nothing conclusive. Would lightning strike 5,000 flying birds? and do blackbirds fly high enough to be struck by high altitude hail which didn’t reach the ground? They don’t think the bird deaths are linked to the fish deaths but who knows?

I have no idea, but it would sure make for an interesting segment on Unsolved Mysteries.

What’s more interesting about this is that according to Unsolved Mysteries, stuff like this happens every now and then but it never seems to gather much attention. There’s a small town in Washington called Oakville that was pelted with gelatinous “rain” in the summer of 1994 that caused residents to become sick. Look how small and insignificant the entry in Wikipedia is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakville,_Washington

I hope this story gets more attention than that one did…either way, strange goings on…

Maybe, like the Oakville story is rumored to have been, it’s a sinister government experiment. :)

@DominicX You are right in saying these sort of events happen more often than we think. Charles Fort devoted much of his life going through old newspapers and journals to find examples and he found lots.

I was under the impression that the necropsy showed that these birds died from blunt trauma, and that the most likely scenario was that they had gotten caught in a thunderstorm. Lightning being the most likely cause of death.
As for the fish, it was only one type of fish that had died, so I thought they were considering some sort of illness to explain the death of the fish.

@TheOnlyNeffie I think they are still investigating. Would lightning injuries show as blunt trauma? I wouldn’t have thought so.

Well, last I read they were suggesting lightning. Hail was another possibility. That makes even more sense.

I heard they weren’t getting the study results back until next week.

I’ve been waiting to hear how the Republicans blame it on the President.

—@zenvelo LOL! Especially if it turns out to be some kind of terrorist attack.

I had heard they were hit by fireworks, but I like the hail theory.

There was also a fishkill of 100,000 drum fish within 100 miles within 24 hours.
must be related. I think

Hail??? No hail fell to the ground at the time. Blackbirds don’t fly very high so I don’t see how it could be high altitude hail either that subsequently melted.

The answer is still out on this one. Many speculations over fireworks starling them and dying from stress to hail and lightning. Certainly is odd, but I a suspect in time we will know.

“they were only waiting for this moment to arise”

=)

High-altitude hail that doesn’t fall to the ground? Who has the imagination to invent stuff like this, anyway?

I’ll wait for lab results to get the true answer but until then, here’s my guess. A farmer put down a rodenticide consisting of cracked corn doped with 3% Zinc Phosphide. He covered about 20 acres. The birds flew in and ate the corn and the CNS poison did the rest. It acts quickly so the field will be within 5 miles of the peak drop site. If it was a recent purchase there are taggants in the pesticide so they can tell who bought it.

It was not the Apocalypse.

It happened in Arkansas for a reason. :)

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center will be doing further analysis on the birds.
link
Interesting site for all you wildlife lovers.

email from a friend
The fish were infected with a unknown infectious mutated disease…..and wile the fish mutation was occurring they washed up on shore and died before the mutation was complete….then along comes a couple of flocks of redwinged blackbirds to feast on the semi-mutated fish….after the feast the birds start to mutate into the flying undead and attack the local population to feast on their flesh…..But because of the media being flooded by Zombie movies/T.V shows/Books ect…The public was prepared and took care of the zombie flocks without much trouble… The world was saved…..for now

That’s why they are in a localized area and have trauma on the bodies…..And now we enter the cover up stage…..false witness statements, false toxicology report…..and so on

until wikileaks gets the real report….

Please no zombies!! Although I do have a semi zombie Apocalypse plan, I guess I better get to work on the details if I want to live!

Fish kills are usually much easier to explain.. most often, it has to do with algae blooms consuming all the oxygen in the water. Things are fine while the sun is out, but get a day or two with no sun and the oxygen is depleted and the fish die.

More reported dead birds in Louisiana. There goes the lightening theory.

According to Fox News, internet searches for “dead birds apocalypse” and “dead birds Bible” are up. Oh noes!!!

In looking for some sort of pattern, I’m wondering if it has something to do with the oil spill… both states border on the Gulf.

@MissAnthrope how would that explain the organ trauma shown in the necropsy of the birds?

@MissAnthrope Could be, but why has it taken this long? Early necropsy’s mentioned blunt force as cause of death. Of course, that’s from falling from the sky, but what caused them to fall?

@chyna has it been established that the fall is what caused the trauma?

@TheOnlyNeffie I don’t think they know for sure, yet. Especially since this new incident has happened. I think they wanted to believe it was the heavy winds and lightening, but I don’t think that has been confirmed now.

Oh, I didn’t even notice the new incident. This is a little crazy, I have to admit.

What kind of organ trauma?

Redwing blackbirds’ diet consists of about 75% seeds, but the remaining 25% is insects, grain, carrion, worms, etc. I was thinking that it was possible that something got tainted by oil-water. There are chemicals and toxins in oil that get into everything, the air, plant material, the ground, etc. and they don’t degrade easily. So months going by doesn’t necessarily mean the toxins aren’t in the atmosphere, water, or ground.

@MissAnthrope but these animals seem to be dying really rapidly and really suddenly, no? Within the last week or so, overall. Would something like that affect the population so suddenly, or would that cause a more gradual decline? Interesting stuff. Makes my gears turn.

I’m only guessing/theorizing here, so keep that in mind. I could be way off-base. But it would make sense to me if these bird colonies got into a tainted stock of something. Or it may be something like there was a sudden release of tainted water or whatever it is that is tainted.

Nah, not a bad theory. Granted, I have no idea if that’s realistic – I wouldn’t be the person to ask. But, it makes sense to me. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if that were the cause. Definitely makes you wonder.

I just realized (based on your FB link) that I had mis-remembered where the first incident occurred.. I was thinking Alabama, but it was actually Arkansas, which is inland. So, so much for that. Haha.

Oh! Me too! Ha, I really had Alabama in my head. Oops.

These kinds of things always happen just before a sighting of Godzilla.

Well, this group of evil pigs stole their eggs and the birds threw themselves against the wood, glass, and stone structures the pigs were hiding in (hence the blunt trauma).

@filmfann It also happens right before sightings of mothman.

@chyna Are you sure you’re not confusing him with mothra?

@filmfann I think they are cousins.

@chyna Depending on incarnation, the mothman is weak against either Ice or Electricity, so bring appropriate demons to deal with him quickly.

Just saw this , for those who might still be interested. Looks like there was a pronounced and highly localized temperature inversion in the atmosphere above the flock that would have amplified the sounds of the fireworks that night. The theory is that this would have caused more panic than usual among the birds.

I have been wondering about this since it occured. Thanks @thorninmud