Utah - More than 4,000 birds crash-land in parking lot

[Pathfinder]

December 14, 2011 1:48 PM

More than 4,000 birds crash-land in parking lot

By Michelle Castillo
(CBS News)

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Authorities were shocked to find more than 4,000 birds scattered across a local Utah Wal-Mart parking lot on Monday night.

According to CBS affiliate KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah, witnesses claimed thousands of the creatures had crash-landed in the parking area. At least 1,500 Eared Grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird, which slammed into the pavement were dead. Fortunately, Utah Department of Wildlife Resource officials and volunteers were able to rescue up to 3,000 of the large flock.

More...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162...ds-crash-land-in-parking-lot/?tag=pop;stories

 

[Emily]

Re: Utah - More than 4,000 birds crash-land in parking lot

Their theory about the birds getting fooled into thinking the Walmart parking lot was a body of water is hard to accept. Why so many at this time, even if there was a storm?

Here is a story about hundreds of birds being found dead in a Walmart parking lot in Broken Arrow, OK this past August. They said a storm caused this, also. (There does not seem to be any pathology studies done on these birds, though.)

http://www.newson6.com/story/15244551/broken-arrow-woman-complains-of-dead-birds-outside-walmart-market

Perhaps the weather is a factor making the birds susceptible, but I wonder if Walmart might be using a powerful radio frequency inventory or theft deterrence system that could be interfering with the birds' navigational abilities?

ETA: This incident in NC was along a highway that has a Walmart supercenter on it. (Though the distance might be almost 16 miles.)
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178070

This incident in New Mexico was about 16 miles from a Supercenter:
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_19504108

Bloomfield highway dotted with dead birds
By Ryan Boetel
Posted: 12/09/2011 02:00:47 AM MST

Click photo to enlarge
BLOOMFIELD Even Edgar Allan Poe may have gasped at the morbidity along Bloomfield Highway on Thursday....

 

[Emily]

Re: Utah - More than 4,000 birds crash-land in parking lot

There is a Salt Lake City Tribune article out that says the birds were not just limited to Walmart or even Cedar City and they estimate that about 5,000 grebes crashed.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53114352-78/birds-cedar-eared-lake.html.csp

By bob mims

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Dec 14 2011 09:54AM
Updated 6 hours ago

A wildlife biologist named Keith Day is quoted as saying:

He said the incident has created interest around the country, including at the University of Wisconsin, which requested some of the birds for display, and from a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution who has been studying the species for 25 years.

That might be a misquote, since I doubt UW wants the birds to display. This could be the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison wanting to necropsy the birds. They did the investigation of the birds killed last year in Beebe, Arkansas.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/113018024.html

 

[Emily]

Re: Utah - More than 4,000 birds crash-land in parking lot

Looks like grebes have a long history in the west of mass mortality events during winter storms. Possibly losses are getting more intense, though, especially since the 1990's.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4514141

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4163967

Maybe proliferation of urban or industrial lighting is the cause, though there might be a distinction between low flying birds crashing into structures and birds diving straight down into the ground as in the recent case. I found one other similar mass mortality like that in another migrating water bird:

http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=5285804&q=&uid=791354654&setcookie=yes

Unusual Migration Mortality of King Eiders in Central Baffin Island
Mallory, ML | Gilchrist, HG | Jamieson, SE | Robertson, GJ | Campbell, DG
Waterbirds [Waterbirds]. Vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 453-456. Dec 2001.

In October 1999, approximately 110 King Eiders (Somateria spectabilis) were found on the ground in the middle of Baffin Island, indicating that these birds had been following an overland migration. The composition of the flock was mixed in both sex (44% female, 56% male) and age of birds (62% hatch year, 38% after hatch year). Approximately 40 birds flew off after resting for six days on the frozen ground. Of the remaining birds that died, predators are about 15, and 55 were recovered by staff from a local radar site. All eider carcasses carried fat reserves, although there were differences in body mass related to age and sex. Most birds had injuries consistent with crashing into an object at high speed, but in the absence of any obvious vertical obstacles in this region, it appears that this flock flew into the ground during conditions of poor visibility, perhaps facilitated by the formation of cataracts in their eyes

I think there might be a radar test facility along the flight path from Great Salt Lake to Mono Lake. I wonder about certain types of radar impairing migratory birds navigation systems under stress. Of course, urban lighting is another possible factor or co-factor.