Althouse: Oh, no, it wasn't the alien spacecraft...

January 4, 2011

Oh, no, it wasn't the alien spacecraft...

... it was a loud noise that killed the birds.

24 comments:

Triangle Man said...: In other words, "hey y'all watch this" goes horribly wrong again.; 1/4/11, 10:47 AM
TWM said...: I don't know . . . that big spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a hell of a loud bass tone.; 1/4/11, 10:49 AM
Scott M said...: ...caused by the alien spacecraft...they redacted that last bit.

What caused the death of all those fish then? Are we finally looking at a Patient Zero situation? Get the kids inside, Ma.; 1/4/11, 10:52 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Oh Baloney.

If loud noise were the cause, this area would be knee deep in dead black birds when the wild rice is ripe and the farmers are constantly shooting off the Zon Guns from dusk to dawn. It sounds like WW I. Boom booom boooom booom .....

They should just say...."We don't have a fucking clue."; 1/4/11, 10:55 AM
William said...: If true, I would nominate blackbirds for this year's Darwin Award. You'd think thunderstorms would have finished them off ages ago.; 1/4/11, 11:03 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Maybe the fish and birds killed themselves because they know thorugh some freaking animal ESP that Huckabee might run again...and win?

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!; 1/4/11, 11:05 AM
Unknown said...: Swamp gas, meet loud noise.

Loud noise, meet swamp gas.

The Joint Readiness Training Center is down that way. But that would have no connection to this.; 1/4/11, 11:15 AM
Michael said...: Perhaps, but then another flock of red wings have been found dead in Louisiana. This must have something to do with the weather given the fact that they expire suddenly and in large groups. Apparently these "events" have happened 50 or 60 times according to the wildlife people in Ark.

Dust Bunny: In Arkansas the duck hunters do the job done by the cannons they use in the California Delta. Also, the cultivated rice has been harvested by duck season and the ducks are still up north. They do love to eat up the unharvested rice. And the bait.; 1/4/11, 11:16 AM
Stoutcat said...: Michael: the birds in Louisiana showed no signs of trauma, as I understand, so although creepy timing, I'm willing to write it off to coincidence.

But I'm with DBQ, if it were simply fireworks, dead birds would be raining from the skies all over the country each Independence Day.

So, no, the "top experts" don't have a f*ing clue, and as usual, they're not willing to admit it.; 1/4/11, 11:43 AM
Titus said...: Anderson Cooper sadly interviewed Kirk Cameron about what was going on with the birds croaking.

Where are we going skating today Helen?

My skates are very fancy with big pink balls on them so there.; 1/4/11, 11:59 AM
Lincolntf said...: I have no way of knowing what really happened, but the official fireworks story isn't at all outrageous.
A "loud noise" didn't actually kill the birds, it just drove them into a dangerous situation. Animals that flock, school, herd, etc. are especially prone to these types of mishaps.
In the AK case it seems that a flock of birds was flying directly under a big airburst, so they instinctively headed down and away, slamming into whatever houses, trees, poles, cables happened to be under them. Same thing happens over a cornfield and maybe all the birds are just rattled, not dead.; 1/4/11, 12:07 PM
Titus said...: Are there gays in Arkansas?; 1/4/11, 12:09 PM
David said...: That's what they want you to think.; 1/4/11, 1:48 PM
Scott M said...: Not at all saying this is the Big One, but doesn't it just sound like the opening shots of the end of the world?; 1/4/11, 1:53 PM
DADvocate said...: If loud noise were the cause, this area would be knee deep in dead black birds when the wild rice is ripe...

And we'd have blackbird massacres on the 4th of July.; 1/4/11, 2:57 PM
Gene said...: I heard an Arkansas biologist say last night on NPR that his office had examined the bodies of 19 Red Winged black birds and found internal bleeding caused by blunt trauma in every one of them.; 1/4/11, 3:10 PM
Quaestor said...: DADvocate wrote :
And we'd have blackbird massacres on the 4th of July.

No, because redwing blackbirds do not roost in giant flocks during the summer. During the winter they roost in huge numbers, evidently to help ward off the cold by their shared body heat. If they're frightened into the air when it's completely dark (New Year's Eve was a virtually moonless night) they often collide with branches, tree trunks, houses, each other, sometimes sustaining grievous injury.

Internal injury resulting indirectly from midnight fireworks and gunfire is consistent with the necropsy findings.; 1/4/11, 3:15 PM
Wince said...: "I say Chapter 5. It's the end of the world."

(Didn't the Bodega Bay town drunk say Ezekiel Ch 6 the first time, ahem, Mr. Hitchcock?); 1/4/11, 3:20 PM
Scott M said...: they often collide with branches, tree trunks, houses, each other, sometimes sustaining grievous injury.

I think I was at that party...; 1/4/11, 3:20 PM
DADvocate said...: Are there gays in Arkansas?

One, but she's a lesbian.; 1/4/11, 3:21 PM
traditionalguy said...: I blame global warming that caused the super cold artic air to run away from Siberia like a high speed train that in turn caused a blackbird massacre. Of course it was Bush who failed to ratify Kyoto and therefore killed these precious birds as if he did it to each one in his hands.; 1/4/11, 3:27 PM
DADvocate said...: During the winter they roost in huge numbers, evidently to help ward off the cold by their shared body heat.

The starlings do that here. We don't seem to get very many red winged blackbirds. Starlings are ugly, nasty birds.; 1/4/11, 3:40 PM
former law student said...: This was driving me crazy till I figured out AA's headline was a King Kong reference:

Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.; 1/4/11, 4:17 PM
Quaestor said...: From Wikipedia on starlings: Although there are approximately 200 million starlings in North America, they are all descendants of approximately 60 birds released in 1890 in Central Park, New York, by Eugene Schieffelin, who was a member of the Acclimation Society of North America reputedly trying to introduce to North America every bird species mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare

Let that be a lesson to all good deed doers.; 1/4/11, 6:49 PM