Mystery of Falling Birds?

[bigrebnc1775]

Tell that to all the conservative sportsmen who would like to continue hunting and fishing. And the conservatives who are just as SOL as the liberals when their farmland is suddenly contaminated, their livestock diseased, they have to have a vent stack in their front yard to keep their house from blowing up or they can't use their wells.

Nothing is ever that black and white, bigreb. Not in real life.

Thank God for the hunter and fishermen. A quick death due to a bullet or hook is a lot better then straving to death due to over population.

I don't do either, but most of my family and friends do. No arguments here. In fact I know a lot of folks who fill their freezers that way. Or donate it to local food pantries with the facilities for distribution. It's good eatin' and one hell of a lot cheaper than the market.

But my point is concern over an unknown contaminant or disease in the environment isn't just a liberal thing. At least not here, and not in AR either I'm sure. Fishing is a lifestyle in some parts of the state.

I agree, but what pissed me off was the comment if it not in my backyard I don't care. That has to stop

 

[goldcatt]

Thank God for the hunter and fishermen. A quick death due to a bullet or hook is a lot better then straving to death due to over population.

I don't do either, but most of my family and friends do. No arguments here. In fact I know a lot of folks who fill their freezers that way. Or donate it to local food pantries with the facilities for distribution. It's good eatin' and one hell of a lot cheaper than the market.

But my point is concern over an unknown contaminant or disease in the environment isn't just a liberal thing. At least not here, and not in AR either I'm sure. Fishing is a lifestyle in some parts of the state.

I agree, but what pissed me off was the comment if it not in my backyard I don't care. That has to stop

Agreed. These things can spread too quickly and affect too much land, water, wildlife and human activity (or health) to be all "whatever" about it. You think gas prices would rise, wait till you see food prices if it's something that end up affecting farmland, poultry or livestock on a large scale. Or health care costs and availability if you have an outbreak of human contamination or disease. Or your water bill if they suddenly have to treat for fifteen new things to make it safe for your tap.

Doubt it will stop though, NIMBY is human nature.

 

[Douger]

I agree, but what pissed me off was the comment if it not in my backyard I don't care. That has to stop

Its uh murkin thang. Just like the clowns that don't have a single thought about the Nazi empire sending in the goons to bomb the shit out of infrastructure and strife weddings because it's "over there".
Well. There's going to be BILLIONS laughing, and nobody helping, when it finally happens in murkastan.
Don't be there.

 

[Intense]

I heard about the bird thing the other day. As long as they stay away from my house I don't care

If it is related to disease or contaminant, we all should care.

There was one catastrophic thing that happened to make them fall out of the sky and for a hundred thousand fish to die all at once. I don't think it's disease.

I hope not. True Science is based on more than thought and hope though. I wish we were more informed.

 

[mdn2000]

Under the rule of Marxism things like this are not uncommon

 

[Samson]

If it is related to disease or contaminant, we all should care.

There was one catastrophic thing that happened to make them fall out of the sky and for a hundred thousand fish to die all at once. I don't think it's disease.

I hope not. True Science is based on more than thought and hope though. I wish we were more informed.

Ironically, no one seems to have read my post on the last page.

Fireworks scared the birds at night.

They are blind at night.

They flew into the ground.

USA TODAY 1/6/2011

 

[bigrebnc1775]

There was one catastrophic thing that happened to make them fall out of the sky and for a hundred thousand fish to die all at once. I don't think it's disease.

I hope not. True Science is based on more than thought and hope though. I wish we were more informed.

Ironically, no one seems to have read my post on the last page.

Fireworks scared the birds at night.

They are blind at night.

They flew into the ground.

USA TODAY 1/6/2011

They shoot fireworks off last year and the year before and the year before and within those years at least 3 times a year.

They shoot off fireworks around my house a buch of times I have yet to see or hear about mass death of birds.

 

[Samson]

I hope not. True Science is based on more than thought and hope though. I wish we were more informed.

Ironically, no one seems to have read my post on the last page.

Fireworks scared the birds at night.

They are blind at night.

They flew into the ground.

USA TODAY 1/6/2011

They shoot fireworks off last year and the year before and the year before and within those years at least 3 times a year.

They shoot off fireworks around my house a buch of times I have yet to see or hear about mass death of birds.

USA Today says these were really big Fireworks

 

[R.C. Christian]

This simply won't die. You would probably have to ask the residents of Beebe Arakansas if any significant fireworks were going off. Is there an ordinance preventing such things on New Years Eve? These birds suffered blunt trauma. They ran into things mostly. They did not just fall dead out of the sky.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Ironically, no one seems to have read my post on the last page.

Fireworks scared the birds at night.

They are blind at night.

They flew into the ground.

USA TODAY 1/6/2011

They shoot fireworks off last year and the year before and the year before and within those years at least 3 times a year.

They shoot off fireworks around my house a buch of times I have yet to see or hear about mass death of birds.

USA Today says these were really big Fireworks

Nothing new fireworks are fireworks. They are all the same. That uis when it comes to these types of firework displays

 

[Sarah G]

If it is related to disease or contaminant, we all should care.

There was one catastrophic thing that happened to make them fall out of the sky and for a hundred thousand fish to die all at once. I don't think it's disease.

I hope not. True Science is based on more than thought and hope though. I wish we were more informed.

I wonder if we'll ever know.

 

[R.C. Christian]

Omg it's a sign of the apocalypse!

 

[Samson]

They shoot fireworks off last year and the year before and the year before and within those years at least 3 times a year.

They shoot off fireworks around my house a buch of times I have yet to see or hear about mass death of birds.

USA Today says these were really big Fireworks

Nothing new fireworks are fireworks. They are all the same. That uis when it comes to these types of firework displays

Why else were the birds flying at night?

 

[Valerie]

It has been a bad week for wild animals.

Starting just before the turn of the New Year, 500 red-wing blackbirds died together in Louisiana. Some 100 jackdaws turned up dead on a street in Sweden. And in Arkansas, an estimated 100,000 fish went belly-up the day before 5,000 blackbirds slammed into roofs, mailboxes and the ground at full speed.

Such massive, dramatic and high profile events have fueled concerns that nature is coming to an end, or at least that something weird and disturbing is going on in the animal kingdom.

But, experts say, massive die-offs like these are not at all unusual.

From bats to whales to bees to frogs, wildlife health experts say, major mortality events happen every year for reasons that include bad weather, disease outbreaks and poisonings. The main reason this recent spate of events seems so strange is that, most of the time, mass deaths occur in places where nobody notices them.

"This is really not the unusual thing that people are trying to make it into," said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California, Davis. "A lot of this stuff happens without anyone documenting it."

Dramatic die-offs are most common in animals that congregate or travel in large groups.

Migratory birds, for example, often become disoriented by fog or storms, causing them to run into towers, bridges, wind turbines and trees. On their long journeys, migratory birds may also accidentally ingest pesticides or even poisons that were left specifically for them. Weather can work against them, too, particularly if they migrate too soon in an unseasonably cold year.

Records kept by the United States Geological Survey list at least 16 die-offs of more than 1,000 blackbirds or starlings over the past 30 years, said Marisa Lubeck, a spokesperson for the USGS in Denver. But group deaths among animals have been going on for a lot longer than that.

In a review study published in 2007 in the journal Ibis, researchers looked through European and North American bird journals and other references dating back to the late 19th century. They found frequent reports of deaths of birds in the hundreds, thousands or more.

In one of the most extreme examples, an estimated 1.5 million Lapland Longspurs died during a March 1904 storm in Minnesota and Iowa.

And it's not just birds that can die en masse. Tens of thousands of salmon died in Northern California's Klamath River in 2002 when the water temperature got too high for them.

Strandings of whales, seals and turtles get occasional attention. In recent years, caves full of bats have been dying from white nose syndrome. And entire hives of bees have been going down for reasons that are still unclear.

Most of the time, when many animals die at once, they do it far from our daily lives in fields, caves, forests or national wildlife refuges, where animals often live at unusually high concentrations, and diseases can spread rapidly.

In Beebe, on the other hand, thousands of blackbirds had settled for the night in trees near people's homes. After a series of fireworks blasts went off on New Year's Eve, the birds were startled off their roosts. Because blackbirds can't see at night, they ended up flying all over the place, mostly downward.

One bird made it into a house, when the homeowner opened the door to see what was causing the racket. Most landed on roofs and the ground, making loud clunking noises as they shattered themselves to death. Necropsies revealed internal hemorrhaging, with no sign of pesticides.

"They weren't falling as dead carcasses," Meese said. "They didn't fall from the sky. They flew from the sky. That makes it less weird."

...

Birds Falling From the Sky Not Unusual : Discovery News

 

[bigrebnc1775]

USA Today says these were really big Fireworks

Nothing new fireworks are fireworks. They are all the same. That uis when it comes to these types of firework displays

Why else were the birds flying at night?

It's more believeablke that the government had killed John Wheeler than it is to think that something that has been done for years every years shooting off fireworks caused the deaths of birds worlkd wide.

 

[goldcatt]

I think as in most cases of things like this there is a natural, rational explanation that makes more sense than fireworks that happen every year without incident. I also think we'll never know what it is. Probably because they're not looking for it.

I just like mysteries.

 

[Samson]

Nothing new fireworks are fireworks. They are all the same. That uis when it comes to these types of firework displays

Why else were the birds flying at night?

It's more believeablke that the government had killed John Wheeler than it is to think that something that has been done for years every years shooting off fireworks caused the deaths of birds worlkd wide.

So, you don't have any reason that birds are flying at night, huh.....

a firework falling into their roost would cause them to fly.

 

[Samson]

In Beebe, on the other hand, thousands of blackbirds had settled for the night in trees near people's homes. After a series of fireworks blasts went off on New Year's Eve, the birds were startled off their roosts. Because blackbirds can't see at night, they ended up flying all over the place, mostly downward.

Birds Falling From the Sky Not Unusual : Discovery News[/QUOTE]

 

[Two Thumbs]

Apparently the only thing abnormal about these die offs is that we noticed.

Kinda makes me wonder

Can we humans have mass die offs?

 

[R.C. Christian]

6000 birds in an a few hours is hardly normal.