Rain of 4,000 dead birds

NYT: "About 10 p.m. Friday, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this town about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and scaring anyone who happened to be outside."

A City Councilwoman remarked, "Looks like some sort of phenomenon happened"

(Via Tim O'Reilly)

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Anonymous

“Looks like some sort of phenomenon happened”
No sh!t Sherlock
GeoffreyJellineck

I’ve read a couple of articles regarding this incident stating that preliminary results indicated no poison. It strikes me as strange that the reports have also indicated internal hemorrhaging. I would wonder if the birds, as a flock, might have found some poisoned grain on a nearby farm. A common type of rat poison uses Coumadin or an analog thereof (anticoagulants)and might not show up on preliminary toxicology testing.
- Ceronomus
  
  No poison ehh? That is a bit premature.
  
  “The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.”
  - GeoffreyJellineck
    
    There are a couple of articles out that have played down the poison angle. For one example, from an NBC report, “According to Dr. George Bradley, their stomachs were empty, so they weren’t poisoned…” Anticoagulants do take quite a while to kill (days, not hours). The empty stomachs could have been explained by the birds being too sick to eat again after the lethal amount of poison was consumed. Given the feeding patterns of birds, I think it’s plausible that they could have encountered some grain that had been poisoned (to kill pests such as rats), eaten their fill of the grain and a lethal ammount of poison as well and went on their merry way, only to die days later (within a short time of each other) from internal bleeding caused by the anticoagulant poison. These poisons are pretty common in our area (the mid-west). It’s just a hunch; I’ll be interested to see what the actual cause is determined to be.
Inventorjack

This makes me sad. Red-winged blackbirds are my favorite birds!
Anonymous

Area bleed in Arkansas 6.
urbanspaceman

Me too. They used to hang out near the lake at my summer camp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPC_Mp0Y9WM&feature=related
RadioGuy

I’m surprised no one’s made a Magnolia reference yet.
- jackie31337
  
  That was the first thing that came to mind for me, too. My initial working theory was that perhaps they got caught up in one of the tornadoes that night and gravity eventually took its course and they dropped out of the sky somewhere else. Then I put on my tinfoil had and noted the close proximity to a military base.
pinehead

I hadn’t read that bit about earthquakes before. The USGS notes a string M2 quakes in the area 1-3 mi east of Guy, AR.

Quake list for the region:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/34.36.-93.-91_eqs.php

The fish die-off took place well away from Guy, near the town of Ozark, AR. The only link between those two locations is a trade route – I-40 runs most of the way from Ozark to Little Rock, then AR-25 runs right through Greenbrier and Guy.

Could a leaky hazmat truck be responsible?
Anonymous

Hey guys, let’s get a seance together and summon the shade of Charles Fort and see what his take is on this. I’m going to re-read Eric Frank Russell’s “Sinister Barrier”–it had stuff like this in it—in 1939!
Bamalama

How come everyone freely disparages the southeastern portion of the U.S.A.?

Please afford us the same respect and understanding you would show to other developing parts of the world.

(I fear that my first post will be a triple re-post. Something stange is happening. Again, sympathy and understanding, please ;)
penguinchris

Why do ideas like the new years fireworks thing get spread around so quickly? We can all tell immediately it’s ridiculous. If one traced the source of that idea, it’s probably a random guess someone put out without thinking about it too much. As long as we’re putting out random, ridiculous ideas in news articles, why don’t they put some effort into it and come up with their own ideas? It wouldn’t make any difference, since we’ll have to wait for the official results to know for sure, and if you happen to randomly be right then you get kudos (I guess).
Anonymous

wow thats really scary
huntsu

Either Satan walks the earth, or God is unhappy with the pious jerks in the South.
Wingo

Actual quote from City Councilwoman: â€œLooks like some sort of phenomenon happenedâ€

WIN
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  That deserves to be on a T shirt. I added it to my post. Thanks, Wingo!
Andrea James

Apparently caused by some dicks with guns or fireworks celebrating New Year’s. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-01-03-dead-birds_N.htm
- user23
  
  (doffing his aluminum foil hat)
  
  I don’t think so. It also happened to coincide with a few tens of thousands of dead fish along 20 miles of river.
  
  http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136401&catid=2
  
  If the death of the birds were due to fireworks, it doesn’t seem likely that men in hazmat suits would have shown up to clean them up.
  
  http://www.infowars.com/is-mass-bird-and-fish-die-off-connected-to-government-testing/
  
  Yes, yes. It’s Alex Jones. However, he’s bound to report at least some truth some of the time.
  
  (removes aluminum foil hat)
  - Anonymous
    
    there were no hazmat suits. there were guys picking them up by hand one by one….
  - Anonymous
    
    “Electromagnetic scalar weapons that can artificially manipulate the environment could be responsible for the mass die offs. We know for a fact that over a decade ago the U.S. Military Industrial Complex was aware of and involved in the testing of such technology.”
    
    Note that meaningless, context-less use of “scalar” (and it does not mean anything in the above context, not least because electromagnetic fields are vector fields), is one of Feedback’s (the New Scientist column) indications of “fruitloopery”.
    
    Also, usage of “we know for a fact” without a hyperlink is a very bad sign indeed.
  - user23
    
    derp! meant to say “donning”
    
    of interest…is that the dead fish were bottom feeders…implying, possibly, some heavier-than-water contaminant.
    - mdh
      
      mmmm, doesn’t imply that.
      
      theories involving Ball lightning and/or giant Tesla coils however, are appealing.
  - bob d
    
    Sadly, unlike a stopped clock, people can be wrong all of the time.
    - user23
      
      I might have to agree with you on that one. Alex Jones is pure cheese. Generally, I tend to despise people who profit from FUD.
  - Anonymous
    
    i think it’s more likely that the entire flock made a dinner stop at a bad diner. all of those birds didn’t fly into all the other birds, that seems like a lazy explanation. it is also possible that the cloud of sulphur-laden smoke from the fireworks display overcame them while they were roosting, red winged blackbirds aren’t usually active at night.
- Lobster
  
  What’s worth more, some idiot’s right to be loud on New Years, or thousands of animals who died horrified out of their minds?
  
  User23, your tinfoil hat is aptly donned. Crews wear hazmat suits because 1) they’re dealing with dead animals, which are hazardous no matter how clean they are, and 2) they didn’t know what the cause was at the time and were taking precautions. Clean-up crews are nothing if not safe. If they weren’t, they’d be dead.
  
  Secondly, if you need to qualify your source with, “he’s gonna be right one of these days,” he is not actually a source.
  
  Third, what, precisely, is the government testing? Something to kill off blackbirds and drums, to the exclusion of all other species?
- Anonymous
  
  um, no … just no. especially not now that it’s happened a second time. and that fish die-off was probably NOT unrelated either. too much coincidence here, and too much coincidence generally means NO coincidence.
  - Jerril
    
    There is no such thing as “too much coincidence”. Sometimes Shit Happens At The Same Time.
- sally599
  
  That’s so sad, it’s peak migratory season so bird types are already negotiating buildings to turn out the light and such, it reminds me of all the birds that got stuck in the two light beams set up to commemorate the twin towers. We’re so unaware of the nature that remains.
jenjen

Even master scientist Kirk Cameron didn’t understand it. The cause is therefore unknowable. (I’m not making that up – CNN had him on hoping he would say it’s the apocalypse. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/even-kirk-cameron-has-no-idea-why-cnn-brought-him-on-to-talk-about-those-dead-birds/)
Anonymous

Every time you masturbate, God kills a red wing black bird.
Teller

Now in Louisiana?
Restless

Perhaps it’s a publicity stunt to bring back the series FlashForward.
grikdog

There’s a perfectly reasonable alternate explanation involving drive-in movie theaters. The birds caught a private party showing of Zombie Strippers and died laughing.

Either that or alien technology….

My own earlier guesses that the dieoff was caused by Lake Nyos-style outgassing or a quake precursor from the New Madrid fault obviously require an extra layer of tinfoil.
Jake0748

Sorry, I’m just feeling grouchy tonight… but “Looks like some sort of phenomenon happened”, is the fucking stupidest thing I’ve heard in weeks.
JM

I’m leaning towards some sort of kamikaze scenario…
Elton

You’d think Angry Birds was popular enough without having to resort to a tasteless publicity stunt based on avian genocide.
Swampdog

“Let’s just call it ‘The Phenomenon’ ” – Ha! Firesign Theater beat the city councilwoman to it by decades!
- Swampdog
  
  Found a link of the Firesign bit – I never knew there was a video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V6z0OxuAzY&feature=player_embedded#!
Jack

â€œLooks like some sort of phenomenon happened … You’re gonna need a bigger boat.â€
Anonymous

phenomenon? DOOT DOOOO DOO DOO DOO!
phenomenon! DOOT DOOOO DOO DOO DOO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Mc55P1i9g
emo hex

Possibly the same phenomenom that creates the crop circles,
these poor birds flew into the beam!
i_prefer_yeti

That’s gonna make a big-ass pie.
Phikus

The death rays… They have begun.
aeryn

Read the whole article. Between the thousands of dead birds, thousands of dead fish, and “yearlong swarm of mini-earthquakes,” now might be a good time to get out of Arkansas.
- hassenpfeffer
  
  Now might be a good time to get out of Arkansas?!?!? If you haven’t gotten out of there already, there’s probably something congenitally wrong with you. ;-)
  
  /no offense intended to Arkansans, just pouncing on the obvious punchline
YakHerder

Having spent some of my early years living near a pond, I’ve always had a special fondness for red-winged blackbirds. So sad, this.
uildaan

This happened here down under a couple of years ago. Culprit turned out to be poisoning from lead ore being transported through town to the port
Mattz

I like how this coincided with my watching of the Supernatural episode “Lucifer Rising”.

Not that it has anything to do with it, I just love it when TV and reality blur a little.

BRB, reading Revelations.
Anonymous

It’s an Omen! Break out the Salt shells and Holy water boys, the demons are coming.
Jason Weisberger

Evidently the mass bird die-off was NOT related to the near-by Arkansas mass fish kill.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/01/disease-suspected-in-mass-kill-of-100k-fish-in-arkansas-river/1
- Kaden
  
  Sure… that’s what They want you to believe.
Jason Weisberger

Ooops someone already caught that.
Ugly Canuck

4000 dead blackbirds, at four-and-twenty birds per pie, would make about 167 blackbird pies.

What a feast!

As it has been reported that cats and dogs which have eaten these fallen birds have suffered no ill effects, it appears that if the agent of death was a poison, then it is a poison which disappears as its first victim metabolizes the dose.
george57l

Christ! What a Phenomenon!
zebbart

Fuckin’ phenomena, how do they work?
Anonymous

Here’s a much better and updated story:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/68363/title/Arkansas_birds_died_of_trauma
RabidViking

It seems Guy, Arkansas also had a string of earthquakes in 1982.

With regards to the birds and the fishes, that’s one huge coincidence. Both these phenomena are super-rare, and when calculating the combined probability we multiply the likelihoods of each event. That number is going to be about 1/a-number-so-vast-Julian-Assanges-insurance-file-feels-insecure.
j.davidmckay

Or it’s an incredibly impressive publicity stunt for Stephen King’s last novel: http://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/under_the_dome.html
- gwailo_joe
  
  and the best thing to come from his brain to the page in damn near 20 years IMHO (even if Mr. Burns did it first. . .)
  
  it’s winter: freezing temperatures/hail/winds and migrating birdies=something like a phenomenon
  - j.davidmckay
    
    [start German Accent] I’m here to lead, not to read. [end]
    I did wonder whether there was any sort of conversation between the folks who wrote The Simpsons Movie and Mr. King around the general idea behind the dome-over-small-town theme. But you can’t copyright an idea, only its expression, and there’s little likelihood that anyone would confuse the two works.
Anonymous

I’m not one to go around shouting “conspiracy”. But this has military test/accident written all over it
gregnnn

Drink your Tea!
(this makes me sad also)
swangelok

“8:7 The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burnt up, and one third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

8:8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood,

8:9 and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.

8:10 The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters.

8:11 The name of the star is called “Wormwood.” One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one third of them would be darkened, and the day wouldn’t shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way. ”

Ummm, isn’t there a partial solar eclipse today?
- zuludaddy
  
  Here’s a bit more woofood for you:
  
  The Russian/Ukrainian word for ‘wormwood’?
  
  Chernobyl.
  - Courtney
    
    I can’t tell if you’re making a funny or not, but I used Google Translate to translate ‘wormwood’ and ‘Chernobyl’ into both Russian and Ukranian, and while I don’t read Cyrillic characters I can definitely tell that the two words looked nothing like each other.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  Do you actually credit this crap?
  
  Upon what evidence?
  
  Oh, I see, fit what you NOW see, to what was THEN said: it helps to speak in (“truthful”?) metaphor and simile and figure-of-speech, for this makes what is stated is so flexible in its application to any circumstance which should arise: as such can be MADE to fit any circumstance, if the “thinker” be clever enough: and on e must be clever, since God apparently requires profound obscurity of language to make His will better known!
  
  Religion needs obscure language, just like a Nation-State needs secrecy, eh?
  
  For efficacy.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    Damned typos! Too many “is”es, and a space in one.
- Courtney
  
  Partial solar eclipse over North Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    Whether or no that counts as a “third of the sun” being “struck” would seem to depend crucially upon precisely where the observer is, does it not?
    - Courtney
      
      I don’t put any weight into the verses he posted. But he is correct that there is a partial solar eclipse today.
    - Ugly Canuck
      
      Relativity versus Revelations.
      
      Which set of predictions to believe, and why?
      
      Think about it.
- Owen
  
  There is. And tomorrow, there’s an eclipse of one third of all of the stars.
  
  And, just yesterday, one third of all of the world’s rivers turned into absinthe, just as revelations predicted.
Childe Roland

They shoot cannons and explosives and all sorts of loud things to get these huge flocks of blackbirds to move. I’ve had to go out in my yard and fire a shotgun into the air to get the couple thousand who decided to roost in my yard for the night to move on. If loud noises freaked them out, there’d be dead birds all the time – especially on the 4th of July, for example.

And weather? Birds evolved from dinosaurs millions of years ago and have survived till the present, and now suddenly thunderstorms are killing them off?

I am wondering if the Arkansas Tea Party might be testing a new auditory weapon. You know, like Bush’s free speech zones, but a more final solution to pesky crowds of liberals.
- Anonymous
  
  Everything evolved from something millions of years ago, and survived to the present. Not everything is tough because of it.
- mr_subjunctive
  
  Why wouldn’t thunderstorms (lightning, hail, etc.) kill them off? Birds as a group have survived millions of years, but that doesn’t make each individual bird immortal.
Milo

But it did happen
Anonymous

This was uncomfortably close to Guy, AR. Something truly awful is in the works down in that part of the world. Like someone else said, if anyone is in AR, particularly this region then they should clear the hell out.