Re: Between 4,000 and 5,000 dead birds fall from sky in Arkansas, also some in Louisiana & Kentucky
Re: Between 4,000 and 5,000 dead birds fall from sky in Arkansas, also some in Louisiana & Kentucky
<TABLE id=apex_layout_271110100662109808 class=formlayout border=0 summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Archive Number</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20110104.0036</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Published Date</TD><TD noWrap align=left>04-JAN-2011</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Subject</TD><TD noWrap align=left>PRO/AH/EDR> Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA: (AR), RFI</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
UNDIAGNOSED DIE- OFF, AVIAN - USA: (ARKANSAS), REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
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A ProMED-mail post
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[1]
Date: Mon 3 Jan 2011
Source: CBS News, Associated Press (AP) report [edited]
<
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/03/national/main7208349.shtml>
Wildlife experts are trying to solve a mystery that evoked images of
the apocalypse: Why did more than 3000 red-winged blackbirds tumble
from the Arkansas sky shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve [31 Dec 2010]?
Scientists are investigating whether bad weather, fireworks, or
poison might have forced the birds out of the sky, or if a
disoriented bird simply led the flock into the ground.
"We have a lot more questions," said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist
with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. She said there are
documented cases of birds becoming confused and plunging to earth.
Separately, some 100 000 fish died last week in the Arkansas River in
the northwestern section of the state, the New York Daily News
reports. The drum fish were discovered Thursday [30 Dec 2010] across
more than 20 miles [32 km] of the river, fish and game officials
announced Sunday [2 Jan 2011]. Officials said they don't know what
killed the fish, but that contaminated water isn't likely to be the
cause because only one species was affected. The fish kill took place
only 125 miles [200 km] from the site of the mysterious falling birds.
Residents of the small town of Beebe, northeast of Little Rock, awoke
Saturday [1 Jan 2011] to find thousands of dead blackbirds littering
a 1.5-square-mile [4 sq km] area. The birds inexplicably dropped
dead, landing on homes, cars, and lawns. Cleanup crews wore
protective suits, gas masks, and rubber gloves as they spent the
holiday weekend [1-2 Jan 2011] gathering the carcasses.
The director of Cornell University's ornithology lab in Ithaca, New
York, said the most likely suspect is violent weather. It's probable
that thousands of birds were asleep, roosting in a single tree, when
a "washing machine-type thunderstorm" sucked them up into the air,
disoriented them, and even fatally soaked and chilled them.
"Bad weather can occasionally catch flocks off guard, blow them off a
roost, and they get hurled up suddenly into this thundercloud," lab
director John Fitzpatrick said.
Kevin McGowan, another Cornell ornithologist, called the incident
"very unusual" and "almost unprecedented" in an interview with CBS
News. McGowan said that the birds don't normally fly at night and
can't see well in the dark.
"Something happened; they should have been asleep in their roost," he
said. "Wherever they were, they ran into something."
McGowan doubted the lightning explanation but said that fireworks
were plausible. He said similar events aren't seen on the Fourth of
July because the birds are mating at that time of year and not found
in large congregations.
Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday [31 Dec 2010], but the
worst of it was already well east of Beebe by the time the birds
started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National
Weather Service in North Little Rock.
If weather was the cause, the birds could have died in several ways,
Fitzpatrick said. They could easily become disoriented -- with no
lights to tell them up and down -- and smack into the ground. Or they
could have died from exposure.
The birds' feathers keep them at a toasty 103 deg F [39.4 deg C], but
"once that coat gets unnaturally wet, it's only a matter of minutes
before they're done for," Fitzpatrick said.
Regardless of how they died, the birds will not be missed. Large
blackbird [this article states blackbirds, not red-winged blackbirds.
- Mod.TG] roosts like one at Beebe can have thousands of birds that
leave ankle- to knee-deep piles of droppings in places.
Nearly a decade ago, state wildlife officials fired blanks from
shotguns and cannons to move a roost of thousands of blackbirds from
Beebe. In recent years, many of the migratory birds returned.
Red-winged blackbirds [blackbirds and red-winged blackbirds are
different and have different scientific names. - Mod.TG] are among
North America's most abundant birds, with somewhere between 100
million and 200 million nationwide, Fitzpatrick said. Rowe put the
number of dead in Beebe at "easily 3000."
Bird carcasses were shipped to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry
Commission and the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison,
Wisconsin. Researchers in Georgia also asked for a set of the dead
birds. Test results could be back in a week.
Rowe said many of the birds suffered injuries from striking the
ground, but it was not clear whether they were alive when they hit. A
few grackles and a couple of starlings were also among the dead.
Those species roost with blackbirds, particularly in winter.
Tens of thousands of blackbirds can roost in a single tree. And they
do not see well at night, when they usually sleep, Fitzpatrick said.
Earlier Friday [31 Dec 2010], a tornado killed 3 people in
Cincinnati, Arkansas, about 150 miles [240 km] away. Then a couple
hours before the birds died, thunderstorms also passed through parts
of central Arkansas. Lightning could have killed the birds directly
or startled them to the point that they became confused. Hail also
has been known to knock birds from the sky.
In 2001, lightning killed about 20 mallards at Hot Springs, and a
flock of dead pelicans was found in the woods about 10 years ago,
Rowe said. Lab tests showed that they, too, had been hit by lighting.
Back in 1973, hail knocked birds from the sky at Stuttgart, Arkansas,
on the day before hunting season. Some of the birds were caught in a
violent storm's updrafts and became encased in ice before falling from the sky.
Rowe and Fitzpatrick said poisoning was possible but unlikely. Rowe
said birds of prey and other animals, including dogs and cats, ate
several of the dead birds and suffered no ill effects. "Every dog and
cat in the neighborhood that night was able to get a fresh snack that
night," Rowe said.
--
Communicated by:
Joe Shea
Editor-in-Chief
The American Reporter
<
amreporter@aol.com>
******
[2]
Date: Mon 3 Jan 2011
Source: The New York Times [edited]
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/us/04beebe.html?_r=3D1&src=twrhp>
New Year's surprise: 4000 dead blackbirds
-----------------------------------------
Times Square had the ball drop, and Brasstown, North Carolina, had
its descending possum. But no place had a New Year's Eve as unusual
"and downright disturbing" as Beebe, Arkansas.
About 10 p.m. Friday [31 Dec 2010], thousands of red-winged
blackbirds [yet the title said only blackbirds and they are not the
same. - Mod.TG] began falling out of the sky over this town about 35
miles [56 km] 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.
"One of them almost hit my best friend in the head," said [a woman]
who was standing outside among the smoking crowd at a New Year's Eve
party. "We went inside after that."
The cause is still being determined, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman
for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Of the more than 4000
birds that fell on Beebe, 65 samples have been sent to labs, one in
Arkansas, the other in Wisconsin. Some results may be available as
soon as Monday [10 Jan 2011], Mr Stephens said.
For now, state officials are speculating that the birds may have died
as a result of stress, startled by fireworks in the area, or perhaps
by lightning. But, Mr Stephens acknowledged that the cause may never
be known. It is, he said, the biggest case like this that he is aware
of. "About 19 years ago, we had some ducks," he said, "but that was
only a couple of dozen."
The town contacted an environmental cleanup firm, which by Monday
afternoon [3 Jan 2011] had picked up nearly all of the bird
carcasses, some of which had been bagged and left by residents at the
end of driveways. A few calls were still coming in, said Tracy
Lightfoot, who sits on the City Council, but that was no surprise
given how many birds had dropped out of the sky.
"It just looked as if it had rained birds," he said, declining to
speculate on the reason. "There are lots of theories running around.
I have no idea. I just don't have a clue."
One thing is almost certain: the bird drop is not related to the 83
000 fish that died a few days earlier in the western part of the
state, the biggest fish kill in Arkansas that anyone can remember.
They were spotted by anglers last week [30 Dec 2010] and reported to
the Game and Fish Commission, which spent New Year's Eve measuring
and counting dead fish that had spread out for nearly 20 miles [32 km].
In that case, the victims were almost all drum, and almost all
younger ones. That suggests the culprit was disease, said Mark
Oliver, the commission's chief of fisheries. He said that fish kills
were not uncommon, especially in winter when fish are packed more
closely, but he did not recall one of this size.
State officials have sent samples of dying, but not yet dead, fish to
the fish disease lab at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff,
which could take a couple of weeks to reach conclusions.
The likelihood of a connection between dead fish in a river on one
side of the state and dead birds from the sky in another is pretty
much nil (nor is there any connection between these events and the
yearlong swarm of mini-earthquakes in the center of the state).
But it is all rather odd.
Becky Short, who also sits on the City Council, said that in addition
to the controversial fireworks theory, people have already begun
joking about the biblical end times and UFO's.
Her conclusion was simpler. "Looks like some sort of phenomenon
happened," she said.
[Byline: Campbell Robertson]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
[The red-winged black bird is _Agelaius phoeniceus _ is a beautiful
bird who, according to some, has a bit of an obnoxious personality.
It is most likely an unfortunate coincidence that the fish kill
happened just prior to the bird-fall. However, the distance between
the events is substantial, and the number of days between the events
(not the reporting of the events) would argue they are indeed separate events.
The necropsies of these birds may take a little time. Sorting out
what happened vs the trauma of the fall may be time consuming.
We look forward to an authoritative report regarding the determined
demise of the birds.
These articles do not make it clear which bird is primarily affected,
the blackbird (_Turdus merula_) or the red-winged blackbird
(_Agelaius phoeniceus _). The photos show red-winged blackbirds but
the articles include both names.
Photos of red-winged blackbirds (_Agelaius phoeniceus _) may be found
at <
http://sdakotabirds.com/species/red_winged_blackbird_info.htm>
and photos of blackbirds (_Turdus merula_) may be found at
<
http://www.digital-nature-photography.com/nature/showeng.php?id=GR10/GRAM060204-5917&info=Amsel>
and <
http://www.wildanimalsonline.com/birds/blackbird.php>. - Mod.TG]
[The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Arkansas is available
at <
http://healthmap.org/r/0l35>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
[ProMED-mail would like to thank the many subscribers who submitted
the same or similar articles on this event. - Mod.MPP]
[see also:
Undiagnosed die-off, fish - USA: (AR), freshwater drum
20110104.0035
2009
----
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA: (CA) 2007 agent ident.
20090303.0875
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA: (CA), RFI
20090109.0093
2008
----
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA (FL): RFI
20081005.3145
2007
----
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA (multistate)
20070705.2131
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA (TX) (02)
20070120.0267
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA (TX)
20070112.0137]
...................................tg/mj/mpp
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