500 More Red-Wing Blackbirds Found Dead in Louisiana

Four days after an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe, Ark., about 500 more dead birds were found lying lifeless on a quarter-mile-long stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish in Louisiana.

The birds, red-winged blackbirds and starlings, were discovered on Monday, Baton Rouge's The Advocate reported. Biologists will send some of the birds to labs in Georgia and Wisconsin to conduct necropsies and tests to determine the cause of death.

After examining the birds found in Arkansas, state officials concluded that they had died as a result of blunt trauma, possibly caused by flying into buildings after being startled by New Year's fireworks.

A day before the Arkansas bird deaths were reported, 100,000 drum fish were found dead in a massive fishkill in the Arkansas River. That die-off is still being investigated but was likely caused by a combination of factors including a population boom over the summer, a deadly pathogen and a harsh winter cold snap.

All of which is true—but the fact remains that a large part of migratory birds, if not the larger part, cover their distances at night. Easiest by far to notice are mallards and Canada Geese. It’s not something that has been well explained by ornithologists, many of whom chalk it up to birds observing the stars for flight patterns, which I don’t buy much. But still they do it.

Growing up in the mid-west; I have often seen late evening flights of geese in their ‘V’ formations heading south. They are noisy - which I can simply attribute to the goose behind alerting the goose ahead of it’s close proximity.

I can see where a mid-air collision among geese could not only be dangerous, causing injury and possibly death - it would mean a lot of wasted effort recovering both altitude and getting back to the flock.

I do not recall hearing these same ‘chatter’ at night. We would often see a large flock of Geese descend on one of our fields in the late evening - I mean, there were literally THOUSANDS of those noisy and delicious Canadian Honkers and Snow Geese (all white).

So, we would get up early in the morning - move quietly and slowly and crawl as close as we could - without alerting the flock to our presense - and wait for sunrise. The goal was that the geese would launch, circle the field to organize - and give us a good shot during this period - where we could each get a goose or two.

Unfortuantely, every single time we thought we were sitting pretty - some Hunting Retard would drive by - and fire on the flock from 200+ yrds away with a shotgun. Sometimes we felt his BB’s land in the grass around us - more times than not, the BB’s wouldn’t make it that far - but the noise travelled very well, thank you. This would cause the flock to immediately take off - in a direction that was always not favorable for us getting a shot off. I won’t shoot unless I have a shot that will kill (not wound - kill) a goose. So, more often than not - we just got some excitement and a good freeze for our efforts. You just can’t discount the Hunting Retards - their numbers are far too high to ignore.

Pity, there is no season or permits issued on that one.

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