The Birds

The Birds

Well, I have to say that I'm not that surprised that the end of the world is coming. I mean, the signs are all here already...

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.

Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned.

I would say not to worry to all you fine folks. I'm sure the government will put Mulder and Scully on the job once the budget gets approved for such radical investigation. Besides that, it would make for a good movie. Sure as hell would make up for that last X-files movie. What a waste! Maybe the birds caught a glimpse of that piece of shit and just decided to kill themselves

It's odd that the ones they looked at all died from injuries and not poisoning or asphyxiation. Why hey, didn't like a hundred thousand fish suddenly die less than 100 miles away from where the birds dropped like rocks? Why yes... that did happen.



And no.. that's not the road that you take to get to the river.. that is the river. Creepy!



But what is that you say? It's not the first time? This happened again in Arkansas...

Just one day before some 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky in Arkansas, piles of dead fish turned up on a nearby shore, though wildlife officials say it's just a coincidence.

On Thursday, officials discovered between 80,000 to 100,000 dead drum fish along a 32 km stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark.

Mark Oliver, chief of fisheries for the state's Game and Fish Commission, said the fish probably died of disease. He insists there's no connection between the fish deaths and the 5,000 blackbirds that fell dead from the sky on New Year's Eve just 200 km away in the community of Beebe.

“We don't see any possible way they're related,” said Oliver. “It's just a coincidence, but an interesting one.”

The birds started dropping at around 11:30 p.m., landing on cars and homes, lawns and roads.

The fish and bird deaths have prompted Christian media to quote Bible passages warning about the end times, while conspiracy theory websites tout it as evidence of UFOs. But the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission assures there's a scientific explanation.

About 65 of the dead birds have been sent to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis., for testing. Fish samples have been sent to the University of Arkansas for testing. Results are expected in two to three weeks.

The commission believes lightning or fireworks caused the blackbird deaths. In a statement, ornithologist Karen Rowe said this sort of thing has happened before in other countries.

“Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail,” Rowe said.

She said fireworks shot off in the area could have startled the birds from their roost, causing them to die of stress.

Oliver said disease likely killed the fish, because nothing else would knock out just one specific species. He said that while the number of fish that turned up Thursday is unusually high, fish often die en masse for all kind

Why gess, I wonder what exactly could be happening to all these birds? Who said the music these days isn't effecting our children?!



Then several hundred birds were found dead in Kentucky...

MURRAY, Ky. — State wildlife officials say "several hundred" dead birds were found near the Murray State University campus last week.

They say grackles, red wing blackbirds, robins and starlings were among the dead animals.

New Year's Eve fireworks have been blamed for causing the deaths of thousands of blackbirds in central Arkansas last week. The bird deaths made national headlines.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources spokesman Mark Marraccini says someone called police about the discovery in Kentucky, and they alerted state officials.

Marraccini says tests performed on the birds ruled out diseases or poisons. He said the deaths could have been caused by weather conditions or another natural event.

Welp, I guess prince was right. Cause tonight we're going to party like it's 2099! It's like the end of days already.



These stories are all pretty creepy. Though I guess if you want to continue the trend of ominous critters dying randomly stories, perhaps you should read about the Bees in freefall as study shows sharp US decline

You want to be freaked out some more? This mysterious bird death thing isn't just limited to the U.S. It also hit Sweden..

Dozens of dead birds have been found lying in a residential street in Sweden, days after thousands of birds fell to their deaths in the US.

Police in the town of Falkoeping have told Swedish media that between 50 and 100 jackdaws had died.

Some are said to have been hit by cars but others have no visible injuries.

Parallels have been drawn with the mysterious death of about 3,000 red-winged blackbirds in the US state of Arkansas on New Year's Eve.

Veterinary officials told Swedish radio that the case in Falkoeping was rare although they said there could be a number of reasons such as "disease or poisoning".
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Aftonbladet newspaper quoted one resident, Drilon Hulaj, who said that as he drove home late on Tuesday night the street in front of him was dotted with "hundreds of dead birds".

Mr Hulaj said he had been immediately reminded of the events in the town of Beebe, Arkansas. Scientists have said the blackbirds there many have been affected by fireworks.

There have been no reports of fireworks or storms in Falkoeping at the time.

Then there was 40,000 dead crabs washing up in the UK. Then a bunch of Snapper washed up somewhere else.

Holidaymakers at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the northeast of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with the dead snapper.

Ministry field operations officer Brendon Mikkelsen said there had been similar occurrences in the past and there had to be reasonable explanation.

But he was hesitant to immediately blame the deaths on a commercial boat dumping its excess quota, which some suggested.

"Any commercial operators must record and report their catch," Mr Mikkelsen said.

"They're equally as concerned as we are ... it's not in anybody's interests for fish to be abandoned at sea."

Mr Mikkelsen said that though the event was not unique, the number of dead fish was concerning.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like the number of dead fish on the beach. "It was so surreal," she said. "It's such an incredible waste. It could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel."

People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported "a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast".

Mrs Pearsall's parents called the Conservation Department and were told it was most likely the fish had starved due to weather conditions, but Ms Pearsall did not think that was so because many fish looked big and healthy.

The Fisheries Ministry is investigating the incident but Mr Mikkelsen said its task had been made more difficult because people did not report the dead fish early.

Snapper were seen in the water as early as 5am but the ministry received reports 12 hours later. Mr Mikkelsen urges people to get in touch as soon as they see anything amiss by calling the freephone number 0800 476 224.

Why yes, the end of times.. They have begun. FINALLY! I mean, shit, I've been waiting for this whole thing for a while! It's about time it started. We're really going to have to ramp up the chaos to meet that 12/24/12 end of the world deadline those Aztecs marked in their calendar.

It's only fitting that all the biblical literalist are turning this dead birds event into a metaphor to make it fit with revelations. But hey, we're letting gays kill now, so it was only a matter of time before God unleashed his wrath... on birds. Speaking of which, what the hell are birds anyway?



Who would have thought that the end times would have started in the deep south. Hell yes! It's even more ironic that the apocalypse of the bible will come long before the liberal apocalypse of "global warming".

Who would have guessed that the end would be some shitty Dean Koontz novel?