More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.

[incarcerated]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...a4e9cb318cda86

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.

(AP) – 3 hours ago
BEEBE, Ark. (AP) — Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 black birds 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 he 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.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...a4e9cb318cda86

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.

(AP) – 3 hours ago
BEEBE, Ark. (AP) — Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 black birds 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 he 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.

Sounds pretty "eerie" to me...................

Big Teddy

[SF_BHT]

Sounds like Bubba and his friends had a little tooo much New Year cheer and the went out with a lot of 12 guages and got rid of those pesky things........

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by SF_BHT

Sounds like Bubba and his friends had a little tooo much New Year cheer and the went out with a lot of 12 guages and got rid of those pesky things........

Prolly beebe guns.

[alelks]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Prolly beebe guns.

Haha! Good one.

[Gypsy]

Creepy! Everytime I see a large grouping of birds...I think of The Birds.

[PRB]

didn't they just have a Tornado etc and mucho extreme weather or they all ate at the wrong greasy spoon

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by PRB

didn't they just have a Tornado etc and mucho extreme weather or they all ate at the wrong greasy spoon

We've had some extreme weather up here. I'm about an hour from the site of the tornado, and about 3 from the bird kill.

"Weather Underground Huntsville Arkansas" reported (-)11 degrees this AM, and the tornado came at an unusual time. I'd assume the bird kill was weather related, as well.

[incarcerated]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40885546...s-environment/

....BEEBE, Ark. — The number of birds that fell on this Arkansas town on New Year's Eve night is now estimated at 4,000 to 5,000, a wildlife official told msnbc.com, up sharply from the initial estimate of 1,000.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, provided the new numbers, adding that 65 carcasses of the red-winged blackbirds had been collected and were being tested to determine the cause of death.

"We may have something today" on the cause, he said....

[7624U]

Guess the birds can't see UFO's eather

[Dusty]

Now it's the fish...

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/...136401&catid=2

Northwest Arkansas turned up dead. They were found along a 20-mile stretch between the Ozark Dam and Highway 109 Bridge in Franklin County.


The 20-mile stretch along the Arkansas River where an estimated 100,000 drum fish were found washed ashore and floating looks much different now.

Keith Stephens with Game and Fish explains, "We got a call last week from a tug boat operator that found the fish out on the river along the bank, in the river channel and we immediately dispatched somebody to the area to take a look."

Investigators from local and state agencies took samples from the affected area. Stephens says fish kills occur every year, but the magnitude of this one is unusual, and disease could be the cause.

A pollutant would have affected cross species. Stephens says, "Ninety-nine percent of them were Drum, which is a bottom feeder. It's not a game fish in Arkansas."

Some fish collected were alive and visibly sick. They have been taken to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for testing.

The affected area was never closed and fishing is encouraged. "Right now it's fine to fish. If you go out there you can still fish for bass and crappie, catfish, it will be fine. Obviously don't' eat the dead fish."

As for clean up, nature is taking its course. "We'll have raccoon and birds and things like that will take care of it so there is really no clean up, it's really too big. It's contained along the river channel."

Officials expect to have an exact estimate on how many fish died by Monday. They will release the test results as soon as they get them.

The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission is also investigating thousands of dead birds in Beebe. Click here for that story.

[Masochist]

Wonder if fracking and the water disposal process could have a hand in things.

[Richard]

Well...it is Arkansas...an odd place of 3 million people with 6 family names where the unexplainable is commonplace....such as people voluntarily wearing large plastic hats shaped like sprinting hogs while scaring the hell out of everyone and everything nearby by running around with breath you don't want to light a match near and yelling "Sooooo...eeeeeeeee!" at the top of their lungs in some sort of frenzied Saturday ritual that strangely seems to have a romantic effect on the women who live there on turkey farms and reside in communities of double-wide manufactured housing sitting on concrete blocks.

But you can also play news reporter or politician running for reelection and just blame it on Obama, Bush, or Clinton - your pick.

Richard

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by Richard

Well...it is Arkansas...an odd place where the unexplainable is commonplace....

I want to believe, Scully.

[alelks]

Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. "The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages." Beyond that, all the birds were healthy.

Weather cannot be ruled out according to the article.