Mystery of Falling Birds?

[Valerie]

Here's a thought, I'll just throw it out there.

AR Geological Survey map of gas wells on the Fayetteville Shale:

Fayetteville Shale Gas Play

Note the line of the Arkansas River, marking the line between Crawford and Sebastian Counties on the western border, then disappearing as it crosses central Franklin County (where both Ozark and presumably the cause of the fish kill are located) and continuing as the line between Johnson and Logan Counties to the East of Franklin County. Here's another map showing where it runs:

Franklin County Arkansas Map

While the majority of gas drilling has taken place to the east, there are several wells in the immediate vicinity of the Arkansas in Franklin County.

I'm not much of an oil and gas person, but I know of some of the problems with contamination poorly or incorrectly drilled wells have caused in the past in local portions of the Marcellus. Would a botched gas well potentially have this kind of effect on wildlife?

I saw an article earlier about the fish and the weird thing is it's only one type of fish but not the others...


When I heard about the birds I thought maybe a storm or an electrical current.

 

[Intense]

red winged blackbirds and starlings will eat about anything

My first guess would be toxins or poison.

 

[Sallow]

Let's see Arkansas

Has anyone considered that a bunch of rednecks all fired their guns into the air to celebrate new year?

Funnah!

 

[Valerie]

Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail.

A strong storm system moved through the state earlier in the day Friday.

"It's important to understand that a sick bird can't fly. So whatever happened to these birds happened very quickly," Rowe told CNN Radio on Sunday.

"Something must have caused these birds to flush out of the trees at night, where they're normally just roosting and staying in the treetops ... and then something got them out of the air and caused their death and then they fell to earth," Rowe added.

Officials also speculated that fireworks shot by New Year's revelers in the area might have caused severe stress in the birds. Rowe said Sunday there was evidence that large fireworks may have played a role.

"Initial examinations of a few of the dead birds showed trauma. Whether or not this trauma was from the force of hitting the ground when they fell or from something that contacted them in the air, we don't know," Rowe said.

Arkansas game officials probe mystery of falling birds - CNN.com

 

[slackjawed]

My guess would be something poisoned both the birds and the fish. I have no idea where the poison came from or what it is, the scientists examining the dead animals should be able to figure it out in a few days.
I do wonder if it is related to the recent earthquakes in AR.
check this;
Earthquake List for Map Centered at 37N, 90W

 

[Sarah G]

suspected hail storms or a lightening strike...will be interesting to see what the science people say....

It was more than 5000 birds, that makes me question a lightening strike or even hail.

 

[goldcatt]

My guess would be something poisoned both the birds and the fish. I have no idea where the poison came from or what it is, the scientists examining the dead animals should be able to figure it out in a few days.
I do wonder if it is related to the recent earthquakes in AR.
check this;
Earthquake List for Map Centered at 37N, 90W

That's what made me think of the gas drilling that's going on. There's some speculation the drilling in that area contributed to the swarm. I haven't read enough to know if it's bogus, just skimmed an article about it, but AR is more geologically active than most folks realize.

 

[Missourian]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyFiClAzq8[/ame]​

 

[The Infidel]

Lots of new BB guns!!!!

 

[strollingbones]

its in the river...the birds were most likely getting water there...now there are fish dead..what a mess

 

[The Infidel]

The fact that there is a huge fish kill in a body of water in the area creates a very troubling possibility. What kind of poison could do that kind of damage both in the water and air?

Maybe its all the hot air from the global warming zealots

 

[Valerie]

its in the river...the birds were most likely getting water there...now there are fish dead..what a mess

Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.

Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Thursday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River - CNN.com

 

[goldcatt]

its in the river...the birds were most likely getting water there...now there are fish dead..what a mess

Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.

Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Thursday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River - CNN.com

I wonder. It looks like a study done on the effect of natural gas in the water was done on ocean fish, and there was an indication that different species have different levels of tolerance:

Gas impact on fish and other marine organisms

I don't know how true that would be for this particular fish, or how the different species in the Arkansas would stack up if there were differences between them. But it's interesting to note local sources are stating the fish killed are "primarily" drum fish, not "entirely".

Officials Investigate Dead Fish in Logan Co. - KFSM

I find it odd that all of these things happened within a few days of each other and all in areas where new gas drilling is happening.

Here's the gas play map again:

Fayetteville Shale Gas Play

The fish kill occurred near Ozark in central Franklin County, where there are a sprinkling of black dots near the location of the Arkansas River, and apparently extending east into neighboring Logan County.

The earthquake swarm was concentrated in Guy, which is to the east in Faulkner County in the area almost filled in with black.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/32.42.-95.-85.php

Beebe, the site of the bird kill, is east of that in White County, colored half blue and half pink on the map and also full of black dots.

The area is littered with small and often shallow faults, gas pockets and other geological hazards for drilling companies to deal with. I wonder if there's any way to match up these sites with numbers of fractured wells?

I'm not sure about any of this, it's just speculation. It's just very odd to me that it's all happening in a narrow band across the active drilling area and all within a few days. Some sort of geological activity could easily be to blame, even if it's not the drilling itself.

 

[Valerie]

its in the river...the birds were most likely getting water there...now there are fish dead..what a mess

Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.

Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Thursday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River - CNN.com

I wonder. It looks like a study done on the effect of natural gas in the water was done on ocean fish, and there was an indication that different species have different levels of tolerance:

Gas impact on fish and other marine organisms

I don't know how true that would be for this particular fish, or how the different species in the Arkansas would stack up if there were differences between them. But it's interesting to note local sources are stating the fish killed are "primarily" drum fish, not "entirely".

Officials Investigate Dead Fish in Logan Co. - KFSM

I find it odd that all of these things happened within a few days of each other and all in areas where new gas drilling is happening.

Here's the gas play map again:

Fayetteville Shale Gas Play

The fish kill occurred near Ozark in central Franklin County, where there are a sprinkling of black dots near the location of the Arkansas River, and apparently extending east into neighboring Logan County.

The earthquake swarm was concentrated in Guy, which is to the east in Faulkner County in the area almost filled in with black.

Map Centered at 37N, 90W

Beebe, the site of the bird kill, is east of that in White County, colored half blue and half pink on the map and also full of black dots.

The area is littered with small and often shallow faults, gas pockets and other geological hazards for drilling companies to deal with. I wonder if there's any way to match up these sites with numbers of fractured wells?

I'm not sure about any of this, it's just speculation. It's just very odd to me that it's all happening in a narrow band across the active drilling area and all within a few days. Some sort of geological activity could easily be to blame, even if it's not the drilling itself.

Wow, it does seem a rather suspicious location and timing...Hopefully the scientists can get to the bottom of it before it happens again!

Maybe there was some sort of massive impact from an underground shift or explosion that only affected the schools of fish that were more vulnerable just by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...???

Same with the birds...Maybe they were slammed by a tornado or some other massive impact.

 

[trlrtrash13]

Maybe it was the Heatch Care Reform.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMdcBWziKXc[/ame]

 

[goldcatt]

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River - CNN.com

I wonder. It looks like a study done on the effect of natural gas in the water was done on ocean fish, and there was an indication that different species have different levels of tolerance:

Gas impact on fish and other marine organisms

I don't know how true that would be for this particular fish, or how the different species in the Arkansas would stack up if there were differences between them. But it's interesting to note local sources are stating the fish killed are "primarily" drum fish, not "entirely".

Officials Investigate Dead Fish in Logan Co. - KFSM

I find it odd that all of these things happened within a few days of each other and all in areas where new gas drilling is happening.

Here's the gas play map again:

Fayetteville Shale Gas Play

The fish kill occurred near Ozark in central Franklin County, where there are a sprinkling of black dots near the location of the Arkansas River, and apparently extending east into neighboring Logan County.

The earthquake swarm was concentrated in Guy, which is to the east in Faulkner County in the area almost filled in with black.

Map Centered at 37N, 90W

Beebe, the site of the bird kill, is east of that in White County, colored half blue and half pink on the map and also full of black dots.

The area is littered with small and often shallow faults, gas pockets and other geological hazards for drilling companies to deal with. I wonder if there's any way to match up these sites with numbers of fractured wells?

I'm not sure about any of this, it's just speculation. It's just very odd to me that it's all happening in a narrow band across the active drilling area and all within a few days. Some sort of geological activity could easily be to blame, even if it's not the drilling itself.

Wow, it does seem a rather suspicious location and timing...Hopefully the scientists can get to the bottom of it before it happens again!

Maybe there was some sort of massive impact from an underground shift or explosion that only affected the schools of fish that were more vulnerable just by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...???

Same with the birds...Maybe they were slammed by a tornado or some other massive impact.

Got me, for all I know I'm full of hooey and none of it is connected at all.

But when you look at where everything happened and then at the map of the active natural gas drilling, it lines up. It may not be the wells, it may be something else. The seismic activity may just have disrupted pockets of gas in the area where, duh, gas exists and they're drilling for it.

The swarm of small quakes started I believe last Monday and are still happening today. The dead fish started appearing to the West of the swarm on Thursday, and the bird kill happened to the East of the swarm on Friday night. Now that's intriguing. Gonna go see if I can hunt up a fault map.

 

[Coyote]

(CNN) -- Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 birds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

The birds -- most of which were dead -- were red-winged blackbirds and starlings, and they were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. Birds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement.

As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 birds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission.

"Shortly after I arrived, there were still birds falling from the sky," said commission wildlife officer Robby King in the statement. He said he collected about 65 dead birds.

Arkansas game officials probe mystery of falling birds - CNN.com

Global warming? Is the end near? You decide.

Manna from Heaven?

 

[Sarah G]

red winged blackbirds and starlings will eat about anything

My first guess would be toxins or poison.

My first thought as well. They say it happened very fast though and it was contained within a relatively small radius... 5000 birds. Eerie.

 

[Samson]

Global warming? Is the end near? You decide.

It's obviously Bush's Fault.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Someone have a theory? Birds drop dead out of the sky, and a 100,000 fish float belly up in the Arkansas river.
[God's warning to the Republican's not to mess with the clean water, clean air act?]