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Strollerderby
5,000 Dead Birds Fall From the Sky: Let’s Go With the Simplest Explanation
As you’ve been hearing for the last few days, it rained birds on New Year’s Eve, when 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a small town near Little Rock, Ark.
An hour before midnight, the birds started hitting the ground, landing on roofs, lawns, and roads around the town, all at once — no doubt terrifying for the witnesses and more than a little unsettling for those of us reading and watching the coverage.
Meanwhile, in the western part of the state, 85,000 fish died as well, and 500 dead birds were found in Louisiana. Mysteries of nature, conspiracy theories and, as Carolyn points, out end of days fascinations abound.
A member of the City Council told The New York Times, “There’s lots of theories running around. I have no idea. I just don’t have a clue.”
Granted, she’s probably a little shell shocked from the whole event, but the truth is there aren’t really multiple theories, and there’s no reason to draw a connection among all the no doubt bizarre nature happenings.
Here’s what scientists are saying, and why we don’t like to hear them:
Lab results reveal that the birds probably died from “acute physical trauma.” Ornithology experts, university scientists, and conservation officials say that all signs point to the fact that something startled the birds (like New Year’s Eve fireworks), and they took off flying, which they aren’t equipped to do at night. Massive panic, stress, and collisions into each other, chimneys, and trees ensued.
The 85,000 fish dying is almost certainly unrelated, by all accounts.
But the mystery of the events is still alluring to us, and I think that’s because when something unsettling or strange happens, our brains start to make connections where there are none, and look for evidence to support our more far-fetched, less reality-based conclusions — ignoring the simple, straightforward explanations.
That’s why another 500 dead birds in Louisiana might tomorrow be followed up with a finding of 300 dead butterflies, or a squirrel plague striking somewhere else in the south. Now that our red flags are up, we’re on the look out for other strangeness to occur — strangeness that would have otherwise flown under our radar.
I know I stray far from the evidence as a parent sometimes too — my son is extra tender one day and I’m likely to start coming up with all kinds of worrisome theories in my head that have nothing to do with the facts in front of me. Something wrong at preschool, he’s mad at me, too much chaos in the house — we should change something.
The truth is, he’s probably just having his little feelings, likely amped up by tiredness or hunger. End of story.
The probable explanation doesn’t conjure up half as much worry. So as a parent, I think I’ll be a little more conscious of not overreacting to life’s daily ups and downs.
And unless a nature expert really gives me reason to think otherwise, I’ll stick to the conclusion that the events of the last few days are astoundingly coincidental, rare, sad, and completely unconnected.
Image: flickr
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carolyncastiglia commented on Jan 04 11 at 4:29 pm“Now that our red flags are up, we’re on the look out for other strangeness to occur — strangeness that would have otherwise flew under our radar.” That’s so applicable to so many scenarios. My sister once said, “You know how once you buy a red car, all you notice are red cars? That’s what it’s like when you meet a bad guy.” So true!
Matthew Tanner commented on Jan 04 11 at 4:48 pmSometimes we see a pattern where there IS one.
John Cave Osborne commented on Jan 04 11 at 5:31 pmso good, heather. really liked this a lot.
heatherturgeon commented on Jan 04 11 at 5:33 pmexactly carolyn! it’s hard to remember how biased we are about new information. birds, cars, bad guys…
Bobby commented on Jan 04 11 at 5:56 pmMoth man prophecies .
keujah estacado commented on Jan 04 11 at 6:44 pmYeah well i think that putting 5000 dead birds to 85 000 fishes and 500 others to coincidental facts defies imagination- just a bit. Not saying that its the end of days, just that something is OBVIOUSLY wrong.
PS; i laughed about y2k from 1998 til 2000 and i dont think that something crazy big is going to happen in 2012. But to say that almost 100 000 animals died in less than 3days might just be coincidences…
DaltonTam commented on Jan 04 11 at 6:59 pmI do agree that the scientists have a good point about what is happening with the birds. I am a sportsman of Louisiana and I love to duck hunt and bass fish especially. The connections that I can put together are that the birds in Arkansas and the birds in Louisiana are of the same exact species. Not only black birds but “Red” winged black birds. Now, as a duck hunter I understand that the birds were also both found in what we call the Mississippi flyway which means they could have all came from the same flock. Now as a bass fisherman I know that the one bird species that I see almost every fishing trip near the water is not black birds but “Red” winged black birds. They like to reside close to the water and feed on insects and berries. Now…. if there were thousands of dead fish lying ashore there would have been many insects in this area due to decomposition. My theory is that the birds died from the same disease that the fish died from. Birds are known to fly hundreds of miles everyday and the largest flyway for migratory birds in the United States is the Mississippi Fly way.
kalayah commented on Jan 04 11 at 9:41 pmdiz stuff iz crazii and nasty,i wudnt want birds fallin on miii houz and i think the scientists are right so u should believe them.but bye,thankxz for the information/data
Arlyn commented on Jan 04 11 at 9:59 pmDaltonTam, I agree and thought the same thing. Perhaps there’s some sort of insect virus popping up. Why don’t the scientists investigate that?
Kimberly commented on Jan 04 11 at 10:38 pmI think that there is something terribly wrong with this whole deal! I believe that the public is always being kept from the truth of whatever craziness is going on in the world. I am a medical professional and the diagnosis given is kind of rediculous because there is no supporting data, if there is something going on we all have a right to know. The people believe to much of what they are told and we should all ask questions! The public should demand answers.
LogicalMama commented on Jan 04 11 at 10:44 pmGerm warefare testing.
Alec commented on Jan 04 11 at 11:20 pmuhm its the end of days for sure, it says it in the bible and warns us of all the things that are happening with our weather, animals, what people are doing and how families being broken, and so on and so on. if u dont believe it, then read the bible, and if u dont believe in god, how could some bible be right about so many things.
RIZZO commented on Jan 04 11 at 11:28 pmTHAT WAS PUT REAL NICE LADY, REALLY IT WAS YOU SHOULD WRITE A MOVIE. YOU KNOW WHO YOU REMIND ME OF SCULLEY ON THE XFILES SPEAK THE SCIENCE AND NOT EVEN THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE. SOMETHING SCARED THOSE BIRDS BUT FIREWORKS SMDH AFTER YEARS FIREWORKS SUDDENLY KILLED 5000 BIRDS, ANOTHER 500 IN LOUISIANIA, AND ANOTHER 100 000 000 DEAD FISH. EITHER YOUR SCARED OF THE TRUTH CAUSE NO ONE WANTS THE WORLD TO END OR, VIRUSES SPREAD, BUT HEY JUST STICK TO THE THEORY THEY HIT A BUILDING 5000 OF THEM AND THE FISH,THEY DIED FROM POLLUTION OR A OIL SPILL,I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND. HOW PEOPLE SOME NOT ALL DONT THINK THEY CAME FROM SOMEWHERE. AND DONT TELL ME THE HUMAN CELL FIRST APPEARED IN THE OCEAN, WHY AINT MORE IF SO, AND WHY DO PEOPLE DENY IT EVERYTHING HAS A BEGINNING, AND THIS EARTH WAS HERE BILLIONS OF YEARS PRIOR TO OUR ARRIVAL. WHO KNOWS WHAT THE HELL TO THINK WHERE DID THE EARTH COME FROM AND THE UNIVERSE IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE, BUT WHERE ALL BUY LINE UP, BUY CHANCE, HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE SOMEONE MADE ALL OF US. ALL OF THIS IM TALKING ABOUT LIFE NOT MARS, OR VENUS ,CAUSE I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT BUT WE WERE GIVEN LIFE AND IF THE HOUR IS AT HAND THEN SO BE IT. EVERYTHING ENDS THE SUN WILL BURN OUT IN 26 BILLION YEARS SO EVERYTHING ENDS. EVERYTHING BUT WHERE DID IT COME FROM. ASK YOURSELF THAT. CAUSE NO ONE KNOWS NOT EVEN SCIENTISTS. REAL ONES THEY DON’T KNOW AND NEVER WILL WE WOULD LIKE TO BUT, MAN CANT KNOW EVERYTHING EVEN THOUGH WE WANT TO WE CANT. BUT OTHER THEN THAT YOU WROTE A GREAT THEORY A PREDICTABLE ONE BUT A THEORY NONETHELESS.
Drew commented on Jan 05 11 at 2:19 amThe Author’s ‘Simplest Explanation Theory’ Is…
…SUPER Naive At Best!
Author Wrote:
“Massive panic, stress, and collisions into
each other, chimneys, and trees ensued.”How Silly!!!
It’s VERY Immature to Think That Birds Would…
1. Collide With Each Other… NEVER!
2. Fly In To Chimneys… HOW DUMB!
3. Hit Tress… PLAIN STUPID!
Dead Birds Found ALL Over The OPEN Streets
And OPEN Yards… Not Under Trees or Below
Chimneys!BUY A VOWEL And GET A CLUE!
–
The 5,000 Birds In Arkansas… 500 In Louisiana…
And The 100,000 Dead Fish ARE ALL CONNECTED!One Thing Is Causing It…
And It’s Not Nature!
IT’S SECRET OPS!!!
And of Course The Sheeple Believe What
‘Scientists’ Are Saying… And Go BACK
To Sleep…Like Good Little Sheeple!!!
–
One Day When Our OWN Government
USES The Hi-Tech Population Control
Methods It Been Testing On Animals…>>> ON YOU <<>> But Sadly… It will be TOO LATE!! <<<
The Sheeple With Be Gone From America!
**************************************************
GOOGLE 'Dead Birds HAARP'
AND 'Dead Birds Chemtrails' If
YOU Want To Wake Up BEFORE
It's Too Late!!!WATCH THIS VIDEO NOW… If You're Tired of Being A Sheeple!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psdg3OAw_a8&feature=fvw
It May WAKE YOU UP TODAY… Instead of When It's Too Late!!
exnycgirl commented on Jan 05 11 at 8:17 amCoincidental? Arkansas, Maryland, Louisiana, and now Brazil? we as Americans are so unprepared. we are more interested in watching the biggest loser, jersey shore, and going on facebook, then reading and learning whats happening in our country with ALL these dead birds and fish. the goverment has the power to hide ALOT of things. why should 2011 be any different?
Bob Dobalina commented on Jan 05 11 at 8:40 amDoes the word COREXIT not come to anyones mind here???
heatherturgeon commented on Jan 05 11 at 11:03 amThanks for your feedback! Not surprisingly, all kinds of birds and fish death reports today. Unsettling and strange, yes. “Aflockalypse,” no.
Apparently mass bird deaths are not that uncommon, with “about 500 million to 1 billion birds are killed every year and mass deaths have been noted about 16 times in the past 20 years”. And scientists still seem divided as to whether the initial deaths were triggered by panic after fireworks, or a weather system. But the Chesapeake Bay fish might have died from cold weather stress.
Sarah Bear commented on Jan 05 11 at 12:10 pmTo believe this is not connected is ludacris. Same type of naivete that the oil is gone. So many are asleep or supporting fear’s reason by hiding behind faith, or believing agencies, or we are just “creating patterns.” What does it take for eyes to open…to even surmise this “coincidence.” ?
Google Fema Coffins. Go from there. Even if it has nothing to do with *all *these *deaths, ponder what that is about.
ren1999 commented on Jan 05 11 at 1:20 pmI am a psychic and I have concluded that the fish, bird, bat and butterfly deaths around the globe are a result of freezing temperatures.
..actually, it doesn’t take a psychic to figure out that freezing temperatures and susceptible to freezing temperature species equals mass death. Last Summer was the hottest Summer in history. Perhaps this Winter will be the coldest at certain times.
marc commented on Jan 05 11 at 1:38 pmconspiracy theories aside. birds do fly into things including chimneys and into my window about once a season. when they fly the coop in a panic, ive actually witnessed them flying into each other and it creates even more chaos. in fact, there is a history of these things happening especially when there are lunar eclipses, solar eclipses and small shifts in the environment. a 1 degree shift in water temperature can make some of the oddest things happen as one species moves and several others have to adapt or die.
heather makes a great point, the simplest explanation is usually correct. i blame mass instant media for this sudden interest. although uncommon these events happen and now, with 24 hr news someone is getting paid to connect these events and make you tune in, so your watching. normally, 500 dead fish would indeed be a side note that most people would pass right over.
so its that or were being visited by aliens with invisible space ships that the birds have flown into ;) im going with the unconnected event theory myself.
SpottedOwlStew commented on Jan 05 11 at 2:08 pmRegardless of any other speculation,
5,000 birds died simultaneously and
dropped straight down, within a one
mile radius. Virtually one species.
I would be interviewing those who
perform legal culling of these flocks.
They have vast insight as to behavior
when 5,000 are poisoned or sprayed.Birds are designed to travel forward.
Broken beaks, necks and trauma to
their breasts just might happen, when
the earth stops their dead weight fall.
So far, Zero factual information.
From any credible source.
bubba thorne commented on Jan 05 11 at 2:09 pmThis all happened at the time the Earth was at its closest point to the sun
KEN commented on Jan 05 11 at 2:40 pm100 tons of dead fish washing ashore in New Zealand, Brazil, and some other countries. Along with the amounts of birds randomly dying in Sweden and the countries I just mentioned. Plus the fish/bird deaths in the US and Canada. All in about 2 days?
Call me crazy, but it seems a little too coincidential to me. Hmmm, maybe it has something to do with a certain spill everyone swept under the rug?
COREXIT does indeed come to mind.
Todd commented on Jan 05 11 at 3:47 pmThere were about 20 tornados that ripped through that part of the country on Dec 31. People were killed in Ark. and Missouri. A large cold front moved in on warm gulf air with about a 40 degree temperature change. The birds were reported to have been killed by acute physical trauma – like a tornado maybe? A drastic change in water temperature could also be responsible for a large fish kill or maybe it could be lightning striking the water several times. I bet many of these cases around the world can be attributed to weather.
jerry commented on Jan 05 11 at 6:40 pmHas everyone already forgotten about the oil spill in the Gulf or all the pollution companies around the world are pumping into our atmosphere? Let`s just blame it on the weather and the Democrats !
tonya commented on Jan 05 11 at 7:35 pmow my goodness! shame on all of you! most of you want to blame the weather, well who is the only one that can change the weather? how could so many deaths not be conected? birds in this country and others! fish on the banks! please take a moment to ponder… And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. than he went on to create the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. than came man! well in the end of days God said to us that there will be signs for the faithful to follow! wouldnt it make sence to any one that the first made, first to go theory would be right. God is trying to see just how much we can trust him! just how much we have paid attition to his word over the years. these are signs! please i pray for all of you to find your place, dont be scared just be sorry, ask God to forgive and he always will! the end is near!! please repent!! my god save us all!! if you dont believe me see for your self! if the cattle and beasts and creeping things of the land start to die off just the same you can only emagion what is next! please pray! if we all pray we might show God there is faith left on this horrable planet!!!
IrishCream commented on Jan 05 11 at 7:40 pmOkay, Ken: you’re crazy!
Ah, that felt good.
CJ commented on Jan 05 11 at 8:10 pmDropping by via a link from “Parenting” website for some info on parenting and coincidentally find myself reading about 5,000 dead blackbirds, fish kills and the extreme randomness of life/death. Not being much for conspiracy theories I’ll go with Heather’s take on accepting the simplest explanations for strange events. Now, where are the blogs on parenting?
Of course, I could be part of a secret governmental plot to randomly direct new grandparents to information about COREXIT?? You think?
Marci commented on Jan 06 11 at 5:55 amI don’t know how closely timed the tornados and bird and fish deaths occured, but I would wonder that more birds don’t fall from the sky after tornadoes. The pictures we saw on the news in Canada of tornado devastation through those states left me gasping. Perhaps a tornado touched down on a stretch of river where such fish and redwing blackbirds were abiding and spun the birds up into its funnel.
I once saw a news clip of how a tornado ripped up a barn and the piglets therein went flying high into the sky and came down a long way from home. Apparently the piglets never really grew after that. Shocked out of a few years of growth !
Unless something more sinister bombed their pond, or unless their had been no sign of tornados for about 24 hours, I favour the tornado theory.Now as to birds falling from the sky in Sweden, that’s a long way from tornado alley. Hard to say, so far away. Some explosive force. Disease doesn’t decimate a flock in the sky.
As to the various fish deaths recently reported, some explosion must be involved here too, underwater bomb test or submarine sonar.
Summer of 2009, along the west coast of Vancouver Island, hundreds of 2 foot long humbolt and hundreds more of herring washed up on the beaches over about 3 days. They didn’t seem in any way diseased or battered. Just stunned to death.
William Swain commented on Jan 06 11 at 9:40 amTo those who are so quick to point out the bible as an explanation to these events, remember that the bible was written by men, not god. These people were not nearly as well informed about disease or environmental changes as we are now, so every event that they couldn’t explain was chalked up to god. Natural disasters – act of god. Plagues – act of god. Swarms of locusts – act of god. The entire basis of religion as a whole is to provide answers for those things that we can’t explain. Someday science will supercede religion, and we will all be better for it. Before you begin preaching “end of days” do some research and you will find that these mass kills are nothing new. Just because we can’t explain it at the moment doesn’t mean you need to stick your head into a hole in the ground and wait for armageddon.
lorraine commented on Jan 06 11 at 4:26 pmScience has done more destroying than saving this earth and mankind..pollution from chemicals, etc etc..man tries to put right with science what he has already harmed by his own misjudgment. Man has and will continue to destroy the earth God made as well as his own soul for daring to turn his back on his Creator and thinking he knows better how to rule the earth.
So think about that. All sickness, misery and decay and breakdowns were ALL caused by man and his stupid folly to trust himself and his own greed instead of God. Thats why we need a saviour. Jesus is the saviour who can clean up your soul, for he paid the price for mankinds sin on the cross. Nobody can come to God on their own merit, only through Jesus can man be made new.
There will NEVER be man-made peace on this earth. God himself will bring world peace at the appointed time, and a brand new perfect earth too. but only those who love him NOW will share in it.
Drew commented on Jan 06 11 at 8:02 pmKen’s NOT Crazy… YOU Are Naive IrishCream!!! Toyna’s “ask God to forgive” is much closer to CRAZY! This has NOTHING to do with God… And EVERYTHING to do with GOV! Go To Church ALL You Want Tonya… but please don’t post your God Delusions.
Man Is The Cause… God Is A Myth!
Nya commented on Jan 07 11 at 7:15 pmGet a clue people someone is testing chemical warfare and we are all so blind to it that we let it happen without blinking an eye. Someone let something into the atmosphere which killed the birds and as the air got heavy with moisture it deposited the chemical into the water where the fish were killed. this has to be some type of nerve gas which paralyzes them and caused them to stop flying and crash to the ground. hence the trauma the news tries to distract us with. and the fish to stop moving and drown.
Drew commented on Jan 08 11 at 3:29 amNYA… Bravo… It Certainly Is Man/Gov Related!!!!
–
If 300 Million Citizens Believed Like You Do…
Things Would Change For The Better… OVERNIGHT!
–
Vote EVERY Politician Out of Office… And Shut Down The GOV!
–
That’s The Only Way To Save The USA!
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