More details have been revealed on the blackbirds who ‘fell from the sky’ New Year’s evening in Beebe, Arkansas, story. Added to the weird angle of the story, two additional reports of dead blackbirds discovered in Louisiana and Kentucky. There’s a new theory on what caused the birds to fall from the sky, a ‘washing machine type-thunderstorm sucked up the birds. Another theory, from the Arkansas Game and Fish Ornithologist, the birds were hit by lightning, debunked.
According to CNN, the Redwing blackbird and starling death toll in Beebe, Arkansas, is between 4 to 5 thousand.
-Some of the birds who fell from the sky ‘just before midnight on New Year’s Eve were ‘alive’,
-Some of the birds were Starlings,
-The dead birds were discovered in a one mile area in a neighborhood located in Beebe, AR.,
-Preliminary autopsies show the birds had evidence of trauma in the breast tissue with blood clots in the body cavity and ‘a lot of internal bleeding’.
CNN:
Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the commission, said the birds showed evidence of trauma in the breast tissue, with blood clots in the body cavity and a lot of internal bleeding. All major organs were normal. He cited a preliminary report conducted by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission.
“Further tests will be done to rule out other causes, but the birds suffered from acute physical trauma leading to internal hemorrhage and death. There was no sign of any chronic or infectious disease,” the report said, according to the game and fish commission.
CNN included the claim by Arkansas Ornithologist Karen Rowe which appeared in the original news reports:
Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the game and fish commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail.
We wondered, if the incident is not that unusual, why do all the news reports state this is an unusual event? Can Rowe back up the claim by citing similar incidents?
Rowe’s lighting theory, debunked during the preliminary examination of the birds, the info found in aKATV, AP report:
‘The tests showed lightning was probably not to blame. And poisoning was ruled out early on.’
Over at the Washington Post, weather experts expounded on the lighting and ‘washing machine-type thunderstorm’ theory. The guys over at AccuWeather must of missed the preliminary autopsy on the birds which ‘showed lightning was probably not to blame’.
The AccuWeather radar image of thunderstorms, dated December 31, at 9:00 (Central Time). CNN reported the birds began to fall from the sky at ‘just before midnight’.
The ‘washing machine type-thunderstorm’ theory from MSNBC:
The director of Cornell University’s ornithology lab in Ithaca, N.Y., said the most likely suspect is violent weather. It’s probable that thousands of birds were asleep, roosting in a single tree, when a “washing machine-type thunderstorm” sucked them up into the air, disoriented them, and even fatally soaked and chilled them.
‘Chilled’ birds, a symptom of hypothermia, a finding we’ve yet to hear from the preliminary reports. If the birds were sucked up into a thunderstorm, why did the birds fall in a small area, a square mile, from a thunderstorm which residents reported wasn’t over their area during the time period the birds fell?
On January 3rd, the news report from Gilbertsville, Kentucky, a woman discovered ‘dozens’ of dead birds in her yard.
WPSD:
GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. — Near her car, a dead bird. A quick walk to her mailbox, another. Scattered across her front yard, a local woman discovered dozens of dead birds.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Never,” Sandy said of the discovery.
Sandy, who asked we not share her last name, first noticed the birds several days ago but cleaned them up, not thinking twice.
“I have outdoor pets and just assumed they were bringing them from around the neighborhood.”
But when she noticed more birds Monday morning, she panicked, “I had just seen the story on the news about the birds in Arkansas and I was scared.”
January 3rd, the news report from Labarre, Louisiana, ‘around 500 dead blackbirds found near elementary school’.
LABARRE, La. – Around 500 dead blackbirds and starlings have been found in Pointe Coupee Parish, according to state wildlife officials.
The birds were spotted lying in roads and ditches near Labarre Elementary School. The community is between Morganza and New Roads on Highway 10.
Scientists from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have been sent out to collect samples, which will be sent for testing to the University of Georgia and National Wildlife Center in Wisconsin.
And,
This comes after about 5,000 blackbirds and swallows were found dead around Beebe, Ark. on New Year’s Eve. Dr. Jim LaCour with LDWF said he’s not sure the two incidents are connected.
“It’s not common, (but) we do see a few die-offs for various reasons,” said LaCour. “Yes, we need to look into it, we need to be a little alarmed, but it’s not out of the scope of things to have a die-off.”
Over at Youtube, alternative theories of what caused the thousands of birds to fall from the sky including solar flares and fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field.
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