Community | January 04, 2011 | 19 comments

U.S. Scientist's: Fireworks May Have Caused Bird Deaths In Arkansas

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US scientists believe fireworks may have caused thousands of birds to fall from the sky over an Arkansas town on New Year's Eve.
Karen Rowe, of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the red-winged blackbirds probably flew low to avoid explosions and collided with objects.
However, she stopped short of declaring the mystery solved, saying further tests on the dead birds are planned.
Officials say more than 3,000 birds fell over the city of Beebe.
The few that survived their fall stumbled around like drunken revelers, witnesses said.
Birds were "littering the streets, the yards, the driveways, everywhere," said Robby King, a county wildlife officer.
"It was hard to drive down the street in some places without running over them."
Initial laboratory reports said the birds had died from trauma, the AGFC said.
Residents reported hearing loud fireworks just before the birds started raining from the sky.
Tornado damage, Arkansas (31 December 2010) Severe weather over Arkansas could also be the cause of the mystery deaths
"They started going crazy, flying into one another," said AGFC spokesman Keith Stephens.
The birds also hit homes, cars, trees and other objects, and some could have flown hard into the ground.
"The blackbirds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid explosions above, said Ms Rowe, an ornithologist.
"Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."
Beebe police chief Capt Eddie Cullum said they were inundated with calls from residents who saw the birds fall.
Poisoning has been ruled out after several cats and dogs that ate the dead birds suffered no ill effects, he added.
However, another theory is that a violent thunderstorm could have disoriented a roost of blackbirds.
Tornadoes swept through Arkansas and neighboring states on 31 December, killing seven people.
City authorities have hired a specialist waste disposal firm to collect the dead birds from gardens and rooftops, and remove them
Via BBC news and no word on the Fish!?
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19 comments // U.S. Scientist's: Fireworks May Have Caused Bird Deaths In Arkansas

  • Bahai144
    • -1
      Bahai144  
    • In the U.S. media they're actually saying: 1.That there's no connection at all between the dead fish and the dead birds. and 2.That it was fireworks that made the birds fly into buildings! The people who are at the front lines of putting out these asinine statements clearly think that the public is completely without intelligence and willing to swallow any absurd "explanation" if it's repeated incessantly for a time and attached to the lips of some so-called "experts". Hmmmm...could they be right about that?

      I've been saying, since I heard the first thing about the redwinged blackbirds and fish in Arkansas, that there are now toxic clouds not too far up that are gathering from all the burning and evaporation they encouraged to happen in the spill and getting more dense. I figured that just like their chemicals cause congealing of the oil in the water its also combined in the air for a gaseous congealing of sorts so now theres the same kinds of toxic clouds in the air that there were/are in the water. Then when it rains through those gas clouds it precipitates out and poisons the inland fresh water and some species are more immediately killed off than others. I've heard also that this is not just happening in the U.S.

      Of course this will be denied and possibly several such mindbendingly stupid explanations as "blunt trauma" and fireworks displays will be spat out by various "experts" until the corrupt, junk science establishment can come to a consensus about what idiotic party line they feel comfortable getting behind as their official pronouncement in an effort to provide culpable deniability for their corporate masters.

      16:3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

      16:4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

      16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

      16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

      16:7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

      (King James Bible, Revelation)

    • 1 year ago
  • skeeter87
  • Sheeva
    • 0
      Sheeva  
    • The same thing happened four years ago in nearby Texas. They feed the media some bunk back then as well and shortly afterwards millions of bees died suddenly without a clue as to how causing a crop callaspe in America. Will 2007 history repeat itself and if so at what scale? And come on just 360 something miles away 500 more birds fall dead? Where did they get those fireworks?

    • 1 year ago
  • jj2010
  • EmperorThan
    • 0
      EmperorThan  
    • So the birds flew low because they heard fireworks and collided with 'objects'?

      What objects would instantly be obstructing the path of 5,000 birds all at once over a large area?

      I bet the LHC opened up a "Schrödinger's cat scenario" to a parallel universe where the birds were already dead.

    • 1 year ago
  • eden49
    • +1
      eden49  
    • EmperorThan:

      ...heard a guy interviewd last night...apparently there are massive flocks of the birds, and they were consequently spooked by the fireworks, causing them to swoop in fright, and run into obstacles, buildings, trees, whatever, in the dark...makes sense to me, and bloody tragic...

    • 1 year ago
  • Sheeva
    • 0
      Sheeva  
    • EmperorThan:

      One local reporter has a city worker saying he started picking up dead birds as early as 7 o'clock... people in the area claim they heard them falling up till midnight.
      "I think we're getting that weather balloon sytle brush off here people."

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +1
      Vierotchka  
    • With regard to your question about the fish:

      "Adding to the mystery is an apparent fish kill 125 miles away in the same state. A day before the bird die-off, a tugboat operator near Ozark, Ark., spotted thousands of dead drum fish floating in the Arkansas River. Biologists say the two events are probably not related and suggest that the fish kill – a much more common event than a bird rain – is likely linked to a disease that affected only one species."

      http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2011/0103/Search-for-clues-is-on-after-bird...

      In other articles I read on the subject, it was written that the fish kill affected drum fish only, and that these fish gather in very large numbers in deep waters in the winter, and this proximity allowed the pathogen (virus or bacteria) to spread rapidly to a huge number of these fish.

    • 1 year ago
  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  
    • That sounds unlikely. Fireworks look impressive, high and huge from the ground but in reality they don't go that high in the sky and they don't cover a very big area.

    • 1 year ago
  • noxidereus
  • Vierotchka
  • bike10
  • EmperorThan
  • danitassin
    • 0
      danitassin  
    • Fireworks? Seriously? Like I commented on the other post of this same story, if it were fireworks, then why didn't they die last new years eve or the 4th of july for that matter. I hope most of us are smart enough to know better.
      Fireworks have been happening for 100's of years. They would have been killing birds and such a long time ago.
      Bats have poor eyesight too, why didn't I see any bats falling dead from the sky during our block's fireworks display? (that's a rhetorical question)

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
  • Vierotchka
    • +1
      Vierotchka  
    • danitassin:

      Because red-wing blackbirds do not flock in the summer, they flock only in the winter. Bats don't rely on eyesight, they rely on sonar, so that is why they have not been crashing into trees and buildings at night, and since they are nocturnal animals, they are not suddenly woken and frightened by loud noises. I'd have thought you were smart enough to know all that.

    • 1 year ago
  • figgdimension
    • 0
      figgdimension  
    • The funny thing I guess is that they thought it was some Apocalyptic sign and it was their dumb fault probably (hmphf whatbout those fishes)

    • 1 year ago
  • KSirys
  • eden49
    • +1
      eden49  
    • ...damn bloody fireworks...millions spent on sheer bloody hedonistic BS...cost Sydney millions to put a flamin' big O on the bridge for Oprah...sorry, got carried away...but they should be banned...

    • 1 year ago
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