(One should use a new year as impetus to try new things. Here’s one I’ve been pondering for a while…)
Looking for a place to initiate discussion or share something random yet compelling related to birds, birding, nature, or conservation? You’ve found it. Welcome to our first Open Thread!
Don’t be too rude, crude, or commercial. Otherwise, have at it. Use the comments section to tell everyone what’s on your mind today.
I’ll start the proceedings: Any theories about that rain of blackbirds in Arkansas and Louisiana?
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
Blackbirds,
I’m assuming the birds were dead before they hit the ground. (is that right? )
Red-winged Blackbirds are known to move/migrate together in huge numbers. My first theory would be this. A large flock moving at altitude encountered some freak atmospheric anomaly which sucked them up to an altitude where they died either from lack of oxygen or cold. The phenomenon then dissipated, dumping them, en mass back on to the ground.
Either that or some passing aliens hoovered up a flock, found they weren’t worth eating and flushed them out again. 🙂
Obama did it.
Jochen, surely shot by Palin more likely?
No, Obama did it, certainly not Palin: blackbirds are near-impossible to hit from a helicopter.
Okay, more seriously (I’ve now finished my cup of tea):
I don’t think atmospheric anomalies are likely. Not that it isn’t possible (I’ve hear it has rained dead fish after a tornado), but that could be investigated easily by checking the local weather. And I’d guess it would take quite some weather to accomplish this, nothing that would go unnoticed.
In a recent post, Sharon of Birdchick fame has – in my opinion – pointed out the most likely explanation: the flock was flushed from a night roost and the birds collided with something in the darkness. Which is why Obama did it: the birds were flushed from a night roost, flew up just a few feet beyond the tree tops and immediately hit the US debt ceiling because Obama brought the nation so close to it.
“And I’d guess it would take quite some weather to accomplish this, nothing that would go unnoticed.”
I wasn’t talking about something local like a heavy rain shower or a twister.
More along the lines of a sudden and dramatic change in pressure or perhaps, clear air turbulence, as encountered by pilots.
Which could quite easily go un-noticed by us poor earthbound, flightless mortals. 🙂
I only saw the headlines and images of dead birds on the road. I assume they “fell from the sky”. Which means they could have fallen from any height, from a few metres up to many thousands. If witnesses saw them flying along normally then saw them drop dead that would be even harder to explain using my atmospheric theories 🙂
Martin, if I remember the details from the article correctly, it happened at night, and blackbirds don’t fly/migrate at night. But then again, a flock could definitely have been sucked into some weird weather during the day (as you state), was then unable to land/stop flying until nightfal and then the birds died of whatever.
So I genuinely retract my statement that atmospheric happenings are unlikely. 🙂
If they died of exhaustion or lack of oxygen and fell from a great height, I would expect the remains to be scattered over a comparatively large area as the birds would not have all died simultaneously but over the course of many minutes (half an hour+?), during which the survivors would have flown on.
Is the area described in detail (acres, squaremiles)?
Having said all that, I increasingly think your alien theory might be worth further examination. After all, the birds could have been sucked by a weather system to an immense hight where alien UFOs are likely to orbit and were thus hoovered up and taste-tested. 🙂
Are there any bite marks on some birds? And if so, maybe we can analyse the saliva? 🙂
This is far more shocking If the alleged actions are true –
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/01/04/worse-than-fireworks-deaths-government-blackbird-poisoning/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet
Just saw this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110105/ap_on_re_eu/eu_sweden_dead_birds
The plot thickens! Only what is Obama doing in Sweden when he only just got back to Washington?
I find this all very interesting..but I think cats are the culprits….I think Rob is right… see here http://birdchaser.blogspot.com/2011/01/cause-of-bird-kill-in-arkansas.html
I don’t buy any theory that involved poison. Arkansas Fish and Wildlife says the toxicology reports came back negative and the birds had empty stomachs. Neither are consistent with poisoned food. That USDA poisons blackbirds is obviously an issue (especially with regard to Rusty Blacbirds), but it’s a red herring here.
The fireworks theory is the most likely, but I think it’s even more likely to be sound cannons deployed by angry landowners trying to scare away a huge flock of blackbirds. Perhaps they thought they could get away with it on a night when everyone is shooting fireworks.
I just like saying flockpocalypse. Flockpocalypse. Flockpocalypse.
FLOCKPOCALYPSE!
I’ve got a theory, it might be bunnies….
Speaking of other things, did anyone see this article?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12115776
Club-winged Ibis! Awesome right there!
I just knew Club-winged Manakins were wee murdering beasties.
The bit about this story that is amazing to me – birds die all the time – is how the Arkansas residents were so upset about seeing dead birds in the streets. Easy to ignore the 45 million + turkeys killed each Thanksgiving, the millions of wildfowl gunned down each year by hunters, the tens of thousands of alcids starving to death etc when you don’t have to see them, but drop a few Blackbirds in the road and people react like the world is ending…
Back to the Blackbirds.
Latest reports from the “Experts” say most if not all the birds examined had suffered internal hemorrhaging. Possibly caused by external collisions with eachother. My question for the experts would be this
Supposing the birds died of heart failure whilst in flight.
“could these internal injuries have been sustained due to a sudden impact with the ground ?” ! 🙂
Back to the blackbirds indeed 🙂
But I’ll bet the only thing that links any of these deaths will be the fact that most humans are incredibly casual about the way they treat other living things, and that these are isolated incidents, typical of the way we treat the environment and most people treat most birds, and that most non-birders will soon forget this and move on to the usual far more destructive habits of a lifetime without a backwards glance (which was the point I was trying to make).
And I thought I was cynical….
Duncan: and you thought I wasn’t? Time will tell if I’m correct though:)