Blackbirds falling in the dead of night:Investigation under way after 1,000 tumble from Arkansas sky

Dailymail ^ | 1/3/10 | Lewis Bazley

[Kartographer]

Bemused U.S. officials are looking into why more than 1,000 blackbirds crashed from the sky in Arkansas on the final day of 2010.

In scenes reminiscent of the FlashForward drama series, state wildlife employees were searching the town of Beebe after scores of birds fell to the ground late on New Year's Eve, continuing into the early hours of the morning.

High winds and tornadoes swept through Arkansas on New Year's Eve, killing seven people, and state staff believe the bizarre incident could be down to the severe conditions.

[WOBBLY BOB]

They’re dodging a Flying While Intoxicated check point.

[WayneS]

Don’t forget George Bush! As certifiable moon-bats, we must ALWAYS try to pin the blame on GWB first!

[mpackard]

that is what I was thinking

[WayneS]

Don’t forget George Bush! As certifiable moon-bats, we must ALWAYS try to pin the blame on GWB first!

[SF_Redux]

worse yet, they are falling on the fish and killing them too

[Blood of Tyrants]

A lightning strike would seem to be a logical explanation as these types of birds have been know to flock together in flocks of several million birds.

[Wings-n-Wind]

Lost In The Ozone Again...

[El Cid]

The performance of my new, experimental, “quad-barrel, zero-gauge” shotgun exceeded my expectations.

Hah!
Did you at least say "oops", when it started raining birds?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Two problems with falling birds and dead fish..

They fell while in flight in the middle of the night when they should have been on the roost, only one type (Red wing Blackbird) was affected.

The fish killed near Ozark were all Drum. No other species affected as far as I know.

[fight_truth_decay]

The dead fish were drum fish and biologists aid the fish and bird incident are unrelated. Large Fireworks do kill birds, but there was a hail storm that could have also taken down the birds as well.

I don't think it was travelers from outter space!! There is some type of fish in the gulf that was released from an aquarium during a hurricane and have mulitiplied and are eating species of a popular fish once dominant to that area--so catching of this fish is now encouraged and even called a delicacy..was a lion fish? (not sure).

[blondee123]

Anyway to pin this on SUV’s, globull smarming, the Tea Party, Sara Palin or Israel?

You forgot BUSH!

[sinanju]

"...Cloud suck is typically associated with an increase in thermal updraft velocity near cloud base. As a parcel of air lifted in a thermal rises, it also cools, and water vapor will eventually condense to form a cloud if the parcel rises above the lifted condensation level. As the water vapor condenses, it releases its latent heat of vaporization, thereby increasing the buoyancy of the parcel.[3] The updraft is amplified by this latent heat release.[1][4] Paraglider pilots have reported being unable to descend in strong cloud suck, even after bringing their canopies into full stall, which would normally result in a rapid vertical descent.[5] Cloud suck is especially dangerous for paraglider pilots, whose maximum speed is less than 30 knots, because the updrafts can exceed their ability to get away.[6] On 14 February 2007 while practicing for a paragliding contest in Australia, Polish-born[7] German team pilot Ewa Wiśnierska-Cieślewicz was sucked into a cumulonimbus cloud, climbing at up to 20 meters per second (4,000 feet per minute)[8] to an altitude of 9,946 meters (32,600 feet).[9] She lost consciousness due to hypoxia, but regained consciousness after 30 minutes to an hour, and landed still covered in ice after a three and a half hour flight.[10] [11] Chinese paraglider pilot He Zhongpin died after he was sucked into the same storm system and struck by lightning at 5900 meters (19,000 feet). Mr. He's body was found the next day 15 km (9 miles) from his last known position prior to entering the cloud.[12] Compared with hang-gliders and paragliders, sailplanes have much higher top speeds (often over 250 km/h), they could easily escape powerful cumulo-nimbus clouds by flying away quickly or by using their powerful air brakes. Furthermore, since lee waves are nowadays used by glider pilots to gain great heights instead of thunderstorms, occurrences of unplanned ascents are rare."

[evets]

"No, no.. they're, um... they're just resting."

[mmercier]

Drudge has a report today about a mass fish kill, I believe also in Arkansas.

[WOBBLY BOB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRjdjqNv0E

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Blackbirds falling in the dead of night: Investigation under way after 1,000 tumble from Arkansas sky

At four and twenty per pie, that's over 41 pies.

[FrankR]

It's genocide against BLACKbirds...someone call Al and Jesse...

PS# yesterday the media sait it was 5,000 birds...accuracy in reporting all.

[Sacajaweau]

I would imagine that getting swooped up by the winds of the tornado and then let go could produce a flock of birds.

Now if it was happening.....one flock at a time, I might think different....

Need a better sequence of events.

Why only blackbirds? Why only that certain species of fish?

[Arrowhead1952]

It undoubtedly had something to do with the severe weather.

Several years ago, NW Austin had a big hail storm. Lots of dead grackles, but not nearly enough. Doves and other birds got away before the hail hit, bunt the grackles just stayed.

[Terry Mross]

And some guy is saying the rapture will occur on May 21st. Could this incident be related?