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 Offline sooz06
PostPosted: 01/02/11 7:39 am • # 1 
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I've never heard of anything even remotely close to this ~ Image ~ Sooz

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.
Associated Press
– Sun Jan 2, 9:18 am ET

BEEBE, Ark. – 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110102/ap_ ... s_arkansas
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kathyk1024
PostPosted: 01/02/11 8:49 am • # 2 
So more inconclusive results to be expected.  Must have been something toxic up there.  I don't think 1000 birds died of the trauma of fireworks. 
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 Offline grampatom
PostPosted: 01/02/11 12:27 pm • # 3 
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We're in AR right now.  We had nothing to do with this.
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 Offline John59
PostPosted: 01/02/11 1:25 pm • # 4 
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Are we sure Cheney isn't hunting in AR?


Sorry, this is actually quite sad. I hope this turns out to be a rare event and not something that could lead to more deaths.


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Sidartha
PostPosted: 01/02/11 2:21 pm • # 5 
I have a feeling Kath may be on to something.
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kathyk1024
PostPosted: 01/02/11 2:30 pm • # 6 
I just read it was 4000-5000 birds.   The article said it wasn't that rare and usually had to do with lightning or high altitude hail.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/02/arkansas.falling.birds/index.html?hpt=T1
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Sidartha
PostPosted: 01/02/11 2:36 pm • # 7 
"it wasn't that rare and usually had to do with lightning or high altitude hail"

bullshit... I'll bet it has something to do with the energy companies and "fracturing".
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Dee
PostPosted: 01/02/11 2:36 pm • # 8 
We have had some odd weather here in southern Missouri over the past few days.  Two days ago the temps got up to 66 degrees then we had two tornadoes touch down within a 45 minute drive from us, one on the east of us in Rolla, Mo  and one northeast at Ft. Leonardwood Military Base and one struck in Arkansas and several people were killed in these tornadoes and then by 7 pm the temps had dropped to 29 degrees.  On Christmas Day we had sleet then it changed to snow.  We've had fog so thick and today it's been just clear and bitter cold.   I am ready for Spring to get here!
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Dee
PostPosted: 01/02/11 2:44 pm • # 9 
Sid, I can't think of a single factory or industry in Beebe that could have caused this much air polllution because Beebe is probably not over 6,000 in population.  When I was driving back and forth from Houston to our farm here on weekends I drove past Beebe and it's just a tiny place... rural area. I am not sure there are factories of any kind in Beebe although I haven't done a search I am just going on what I observed over the 14 years I was driving back and forth and I noticed little change in it at all.
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 Offline John59
PostPosted: 01/03/11 5:59 am • # 10 
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And now this....

Up to 100,000 fish found dead along Arkansas River

Officials suspect disease, not pollutants, as cause of death

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40887450/ns/us_news-environment/
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Sidartha
PostPosted: 01/03/11 6:39 am • # 11 
I tell ya... I think it's that "fracturing" they're doing to get natural gas. It's causing earthquakes in other states.
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 Offline jabra2
PostPosted: 01/03/11 6:59 am • # 12 
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I say it is a sign that either the rapture is right around the corner or god is displeased with the GOP. Image
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 Offline jimwilliam
PostPosted: 01/03/11 7:45 am • # 13 
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Maybe there was a helicopter towing a giant pane of glass.  Whatever it was, it ws probably natural.  Pollution doesn't kill that quickly - or, at least not that specifically. 
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 Offline jimwilliam
PostPosted: 01/03/11 7:49 am • # 14 
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jabra2 wrote:
I say it is a sign that either the rapture is right around the corner or god is displeased with the GOP. Image

If the GOP is involved, it just didn't happen.  It's all a non-existent plot to soak up tax payer money.  Besides, dieing as a group like that shows the birds were all socialists and probably from Mexico.  Real American birds are rugged indivudalists who croak on their own.
  
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Cannalee2
PostPosted: 01/03/11 9:59 pm • # 15 
Interesting thing:  in today's Arkansas Gazette I found an article on the dead birds, but absolutely no mention of the dead fish...bearing in mind that Super-agent Gibbs says there is no such thing as a "coincidence", both events occurred on the same days, within relatively close proximity (150 miles isn't really all that great a distance) and I find it curious why the Gazette did not discuss the two subjects in tandem or at least mention the fish story....Friday morning, New Year's Eve, not only presented a tornado at Cincinatti, Arkansas( which is not all that far from Beebe) but a training system of strong storms from Little Rock all the way up the state...there was a lot of wind and hail in these storms and I would be willing to bet the birds were indeed killed by the storms...knowing what I know about the Arkansas River (pollution actually was a factor which had to be factored in every year for Wichita's River Festival--it was always "iffy" if certain water sports would be permitted during the festival based on the pollution count  (no self respecting Kansas fisherman would eat fish caught out of the Arkansas River) I would also bet the fish were victim in some way to pollution...I would bet besides drum fish there were other scavenger fish found dead, most likely some catfish...jmo....
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kathyk1024
PostPosted: 01/04/11 2:52 am • # 16 

Today's paper is saying stress from fireworks.   What kind of fireworks display does Beebe do for New's Year?
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 Offline grampatom
PostPosted: 01/04/11 3:21 am • # 17 
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Friday night around midnight, we were preparing to bed down in unfamiliar territitory in Arkansas, a gun batle errupted. I was actually worried about stray rounds, it was that close.  Pistol shots, large and small sidearms, it sounded like.  Of course it was fireworks.  Forgot about the New Years Eve thing.  It's a custom we don't have up home here, fireworks on New Years Eve.  Seems like in the south they break out fireworks and have bang battles about any event that happens to come around on the calendar.  But Friday night, it sounded exactly like a gunfight.  Maybe it really was. Did they think to check those birds for bullet wounds?
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 Offline laffinalltheway
PostPosted: 01/04/11 4:13 am • # 18 
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You're all wrong - it's Obama's fault.   
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Cannalee2
PostPosted: 01/04/11 8:22 am • # 19 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40904491/ns/us_news-environment?GT1=43001

Some 500 dead and dying birds fell onto a Louisiana highway on Monday, just three days after a similar incident in Arkansas.

The events have led to speculation running from poisonings to "End of Days" scenarios, but a key federal agency emphasized that mass bird die-offs are not that rare.

Most of the birds found on Louisiana Highway 1 near Point Coupee were red-winged blackbirds, as was the case in Beebe, Ark., some 360 miles away. The species is one of the most common in the United States, with a population estimated at up to 200 million.

Some of the Louisiana birds will be tested by the National Wildlife Center run by the U.S. Geological Survey. But a USGS spokesman told The Baton Rouge Advocate that USGS records showed 16 incidents in the last 30 years where more than 1,000 blackbirds have died all at once.

"These large events do take place," he said. "It's not terribly unusual."   (entire article can be read at link)...interesting... 
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Cannalee2
PostPosted: 01/04/11 8:26 am • # 20 
grampatom wrote:
Friday night around midnight, we were preparing to bed down in unfamiliar territitory in Arkansas, a gun batle errupted. I was actually worried about stray rounds, it was that close.  Pistol shots, large and small sidearms, it sounded like.  Of course it was fireworks.  Forgot about the New Years Eve thing.  It's a custom we don't have up home here, fireworks on New Years Eve.  Seems like in the south they break out fireworks and have bang battles about any event that happens to come around on the calendar.  But Friday night, it sounded exactly like a gunfight.  Maybe it really was. Did they think to check those birds for bullet wounds?
Yeah...I trully do love Arkansas...the people do like to have a banging good time!!Image

  
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 Offline John59
PostPosted: 01/04/11 11:22 am • # 21 
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More birds fall from sky — this time in Louisiana

'These large events do take place; it's not terribly unusual,' says U.S. official

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40904491/ns/us_news-environment/
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 Offline sooz06
PostPosted: 01/04/11 12:22 pm • # 22 
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I don't care what any US official says: I find this story terribly unusual ~ I honestly don't remember ever hearing of anything even remotely close to this happening before ~ and I'm trying to imagine Alfred Hitchcock's reaction if he were alive today ~ Image

Sooz
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kathyk1024
PostPosted: 01/04/11 1:11 pm • # 23 
So were they shooting off fireworks in LA, too?
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 Offline grampatom
PostPosted: 01/04/11 1:39 pm • # 24 
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'... it's not terribly unusual,' says U.S. official  I agree. 

Yes, bird droppings are pretty common.
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the monster
PostPosted: 01/04/11 3:18 pm • # 25 
John59 wrote:
Are we sure Cheney isn't hunting in AR?


Sorry, this is actually quite sad. I hope this turns out to be a rare event and not something that could lead to more deaths.

If it was Cheney, the birds would still be alive.
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