Query: What was the weather at the time of the die-off and in the 72 hours before? Was it cold? Was there precipitation?
It might be advisable to do an analysis of the feathers of the birds to see whether they had natural weatherproofing. In some places, icterids are considered agricultural pests. Many years ago (and perhaps still today) large winter icterid roosts were deliberately sprayed with detergents to remove the natural oils in the birds' feathers so that the birds would freeze to death after the first cold rain. -----Original Message----- From: Fred Baumgarten <[email protected]> To: nysbirds-l <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 1:58 pm Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fw: 5000 blackbirds and starlings fall from the sky! And...dare I ask, now that I see a fresh report of bird kills in Louisiana, and coupled with the fish kills in Arkansas...is it possible that there is some environmental factor from the oil catastrophe? I know that preliminary reports said there was no toxicicity in the birds, but I remain skeptical for now. Fred Baumgarten Sharon, CT/Westchester and points north, NY From: TNIC <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, January 4, 2011 1:21:48 PM Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fw: 5000 blackbirds and starlings fall from the sky! Having seen a few things struck by lightning I would think there would be some singed feathers. I have heard hail, lighting, fireworks, bumping into each other and lots of other speculation. No one had confirmed there was a fireworks display going on. No eye witnesses heard or saw lighting. No one saw wind or hail. No one saw the birds bumping into each other. No one saw concentrated lighting. Having seen birds in action for years now I have confidence in their ability to survive a startling event. I don’t accept they died of sudden stress from a firework. Or bumping into each other. Birds are amazing survivors. We have all seen them dodging raptors and other perils. I have seen them on the 4th of July and this does not fit what I see when fireworks go off near birds. I don’t accept the explanations I am reading. They don’t have supporting evidence or anything at all that I can cite as supporting evidence. In my opinion we don't yet know what happened to these birds. The "could have been" explanations are no more than - "could have been" explanations. When they are from public officials they follow the convenient explanation model. I don’t know what happened to these birds and I don’t think anyone does yet. Tom Midland Park -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
