Mystery as thousands of birds fall from sky (Australia)

[The Straight Story]

Mystery as thousands of birds fall from sky

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.

All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.

Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.

On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21036489-30417,00.html

[solara]

1. Woah, first Austin and now Australia? n/t

[Marie26]

2. Was there a storm in Austin? nt

[originalpckelly]

4. I seem to remember another place, I think it was Montana...

where birds died out like this. I wonder if it has anything to do with avian influenza.

[FourScore]

5. When did it happen in Austin?

Link?

This is a very strange story.

[ceile]

7. Yesterday. Link

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/09/9deadbirds.html

[Nabia2004]

18. Tehran pollution kills 3,600 (people) in a month

I doubt that there are any birds left in Tehran.

Tue Jan 9, 10:58 AM ET

TEHRAN (AFP) - Air pollution has killed 3,600 people in just a month in the Iranian capital Tehran, an official said, describing the city's environmental situation as a "collective suicide".

"Pollution has directly or indirectly caused the deaths of 3,600 people in the month of Aban (October 23 to November 23)," Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, director of Tehran's clean air committee, was quoted by Tuesday's edition of Kargozaran newspaper

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070109/hl_afp/iranhealthpollution_070109155637

[lovuian]

3. This is so sad

What is causing this???

[bdamomma]

6. could there be something in the air birds are allergic too.

[The Straight Story]

9. It's caused by making people smoke outdoors :)

:rofl:

[BlackVelvet04]

25. Now

that's funny. :rofl:

[Sequoia]

16. Or a sound wave, death ray that we can't hear or sense?

Testing on birds then the undesirable humans in blue states.

[FourScore]

8. I also saw a post earlier today

about a strange odor in New York City and New Jersey. Hmm. Too strange. Can't find the link now though.

[RebelOne]

11. It's on all the MSM news Web sites. n/t

[dogday]

10. The Sky is Falling--No Really it is

or at least what is in the sky is falling.... Something affected these birds....

[Blue Diadem]

12. I wonder what's going on? Has anyone noticed changes in the number

of birds at their homes?

I used to be able to toss out a couple pieces of stale bread and birds would flock like crazy..now the bread sits for days untouched. I never hear the singing I used to and even though it's winter we always had birds that stayed around.

[StaggerLee]

23. You're right!

It's been unseasonably warm here and you've made me realize that I don't hear the normal chirping that you can usually hear around here during the winter, even on normally colder days.

Upsetting.

[yellowcanine]

13. Has a Dick Cheney connection been ruled out?

[FourScore]

15. Actually, it's Bill's fault. Everyone knows that... n/t

[Peace Patriot]

14. The seams in the web of life on earth are ripping open--and what are we

doing? We're having to work hard to prevent our insane President from sending more soldiers to die in the civil war he created in Iraq--as he stuffs the pockets of war profiteers and oil corporations, and pollutes seas and land with military transport and toxic munitions.

If the human race survives the Bush Junta, the children of the 22nd century are surely going to wonder at the priorities in the land of the free, home of the brave, before their time. It will seem like our view back toward WW I--the unbelievable waste of human life over nothing, over squabbling monarchs--while the tidal wave of the Great Depression built up momentum, through the profligate games of the super-rich in the 1920s, to break upon the world a few years later, with mass starvation and homelessness on a scale never before seen in America, or in the world.

And that folly is as nothing compared to ours, or I should say, to the Bush Junta's and its war profiteering corporate backers and fascist "think tanks."

Our fate is turning on a hairs-breadth spindle--a couple of words in the Constitution--very important words, though, written by the most passionate of hearts--giving Congress the sole power to declare war, and the sole power to fund it. It is not an irrelevant battle--by any means. The battle in Congress over the "balance of powers" is as much a battle for the life of the earth as it is for anything else. Because this horrible diversion of resources and people that the Bush Junta has created is preventing us from attending to our home, our planet.

The "balance of powers" created by the Constitution is also a metaphor for the balances in nature--and I have no doubt that the Founders were thinking of natural balances when they wrote the Constitution. War and oppression and tyranny are disorders of nature, and those tendencies can and must be "balanced" by the countermeasures of free speech, the right of habeas corpus, denying the President optional, "preemptive" war, curtailment of the President by Congress holding the purse strings, and restriction of the President by laws passed by a Congress elected by the people, and regularly brought up before the people for their voting judgment.

Let us hope and pray--and work hard for--balance to be restored.

[dogday]

17. Excellent

Add that one to your journal... It is inspiring.... :hi:

[ArmchairMeme]

19. Hear hear Peace Patriot

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

21. Peace Patriot, beautiful, haunting words. n/t

:cry: MKJ

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

22. Peace Patriot, what beautiful, haunting words. n/t

MKJ

[nashville_brook]

20. "toxins were the most likely cause..." more from the article...

The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.

Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died.

Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning.

She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day. "It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said. "It was like a moonscape, just horrible.

"But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."

[pitohui]

24. yes there's another thread on this

won't bother to link it here because it's almost devoid of value (someone straightfaced blames the bird deaths on iraq for instance) but in short in my experience when this has happened in the past and disease is cleared as the cause, it's a toxin

for instance the toxic algae responsible for the big bald eagle die-off recently in the usa southeast

or the huge brown pelican die-off in california, caused by botulism carried by invasive tilapia

poor ag practice is behind much of this, i believe the toxic algae was linked to fertilizer run-off that encouraged their growth, the tilapia were brought here to be farmed but perhaps without sufficient health checks

that's absolutely where i would be looking first