A strange discovery this morning in downtown Austin. (TX)

Several blocks of Congress Ave are closed as police investigate the death of dozens and dozens of birds lying in the street.

KLBJ spoke to the APD's Toni Shovenitz, She says they are speculating it is some type of posioning.

Right now police are using leaf-blowers to clean the road. They hope re-open this area before rush hour traffic.

We had this happen several years ago. Hundreds of birds dead and it turned out to be poisoning. Can't remember what kind of poison. It was in a farming area.

I was going to answer some time ago, but had to take care of another matter. We had something similar happen near here a few years ago as well. Turned out that the birds "got drunk" on fermented berries on some the local trees and bushes, and flew into windows and broke their necks.

["An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 birds, mostly Lapland Longspurs, were killed on the night of January 22, 1998, at a 420 foot tall communications tower in western Kansas. Apparently a heavy snowstorm sent the birds up looking for bare ground. Dense fog caused the tower's aviation-safety lights (required on structures over 200') to reflect off water in the air and form an illuminated space, causing the birds to switch to their diurnal (visual) mode of navigation. The flock circled the lighted tower and collided with its guy wires. Some birds were impaled by wheat stubble, suggesting they were so disoriented that they couldn't tell which way was up and flew into the ground at full force. The tower had three white strobes. This is interesting because it has been suggested that flashing lights cause less mortality than steadily illuminated lights. Evidence suggests that continent-wide, communications towers kill 2 to 4 million songbirds each year." (American Bird Conservancy, Bird Calls, March 1998).]

This is an interesting story. It seems a rather unique situation that is worded to sound plausible. Why are the bird deaths estimated? Where are the photos of 5,000 to 10,000 dead birds? That is a rather large pile of birds. The article describes a pretty detailed account of the incident on that night in Kansas. Nobody actually counted the birds close enough to be able to estimate the deaths any closer than 100%? The rest of the article is the same drivel that you get about towers anywhere.

If their "estimated deaths" are this far off in this one instance, I highly doubt the 2 to 4 million deaths estimate. Do you have a link to photos of 5,000 dead birds littering the base of a communications tower?

Do you have a link to photos of 5,000 dead birds littering the base of a communications tower?

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:lWYWQzSJcPcJ:cacx.org/pier/environmental/avian_bibliography/2004_AVIAN_BIBLIOGRAPHY.XLS+american+-bird-conservancy,+tower-kills,+australia&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9

I don't think bird groups really have a selfish agenda here, but tower contractors and developers could.

Funny, I just visited a site that stated, "If we don't open up the [endangered] manatee safety zones to boat traffic, how is the state [of Florida] going to be able to accurately count the numbers killed by boats?"

Logic...of sorts.

:^)

[I don't think bird groups really have a selfish agenda here, but tower contractors and developers could.]

PETA's agenda is anti-captilization, anti-business under the guise of "protecting the environment for animals from humans." No doubt there can be well meaning bird lovers and enthusiasts out there, pure of heart and a little misguided. By and large, I believe the anti-wind farms, anti-com towers, anti-development are driven by the same type of folks that sit in trees in the redwood forests.

I qualify the above state by unequivocally acknowledging that I am no expert and am stating my opinions.

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