It must be either a massive fraud, like so many crop circles, or perhaps a case of “We are not alone!” It is difficult not to consider some otherworldly explanation for the various instances of blackbirds falling from the sky, for reasons unexplained beyond “traumatic injuries” or “sudden, hard external blows.” Most of us have probably heard of the New Year’s Eve midnight fall of birds over Beebe, Arizona, in which sources claimed more than 5,000 blackbirds, starlings, and sparrows were found dead in yards, on roads, and on rooftops.
Government experts analyzing the dead birds were annoyingly at a loss to provide information. A spokesman said that perhaps the birds had all flown into a large tower. Toxicology reports will be forthcoming.
Days later, although the deaths may have occurred on the same night, New Year's Eve, Labarre, Louisiana reported 1,000 dead blackbirds and starlings. Labarre is about 400 miles from Beebe. Texas Parks & Wildlife Department biologist Winston Denton used the word “alarming.”
All of this wouldn’t amount to a pea in a porridge if it weren’t for the new information from Falköping, Sweden, which notes a “large number” of birds having died and fallen to the ground on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, January 4 and 5. The Swedish National Veterinary Institute found the birds to have died of "sudden hard external blows." There were no signs of infection or illness.
Oddly there have in recent days been reports of dead fish, their deaths defying explanation. Some have suggested a Biblical explanation. A look at the particular relevant passages seems inconclusive. Hosea 4:1-3 mentions the lack of faithfulness, love, or acknowledgment of God. It continues that there is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery. It also says there is bloodshed and more bloodshed.Then: “because of this the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea are swept away.”
There are other possibilities. Perhaps the birds were shot from a massive, submarine-based bird-cannon from some dark and remote sea. I still like the “We are not alone!” explanation. We can only hope that the coming days will confirm some reasonable, rational explanation (such as the combination of heavy fog and power lines that has been suggested). And we do feel sad for the poor dead birds.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - John Lake
Fog is commonplace; happens several times each winter. Every driver knows that. If falling birds were accounted for by foggy nights, then why the press coverage? If roadways and roofs littered with winged corpses were an ordinary occurrence, why has the national press brought the dying avians to our attention?
2 - brent
You mean Beebe, Arkansas, not Arizona.
3 - Dr Dreadful
This sounds like an example of the clustering illusion to me. I'd hazard a guess that sudden mass wildlife deaths are quite frequent, especially when said wildlife comes into collision with human activity. But because the Beebe incident got such wide publicity, people are now sitting up and saying, "Hey, didn't something like that happen round here a couple of weeks ago?"
4 - John Lake
There doesn't seem to be a lot of notice by residents in the affected communities of any particularly dense fog that night.
One would think that birds in a fog would slow down and quickly return to the safety of the ground.
5 - Dr Dreadful
Another question is what birds were doing flying around at night. Most species, including blackbirds, are diurnal. Unless they're migrating: I don't know if that was the case here.
The fireworks hypothesis that has been proposed for the Beebe incident sounds plausible. If there were rockets going off close to a roost, that could easily have disturbed the birds and sent them careening into objects in their terror and confusion.
6 - John Lake
If there were fireworks being viewed at that time, those watching the pyrotechnics would have seen the display, and the plummeting birds.
"Clustering illusion" may apply.
Are blackbirds and sparrows ever migratory?
7 - Dr Dreadful
If there were fireworks being viewed at that time, those watching the pyrotechnics would have seen the display, and the plummeting birds.
Unlikely, actually, John. It was dark, and the attention of the spectators would have been on the fireworks, not whatever else might have been going on in the darkness. Also, their eyes would have been attuned to the bright rocket bursts. You don't see spent rockets falling to earth after they detonate for precisely this reason; why would you expect to be able to see birds?
8 - John Lake
Nor hear them?
9 - Matt
Revelation 8
[8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
[9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
People say it's common for birds & fish to die but how come so many in the past year? And how come it's happening in such huge quantities this time around and not the previous years before- if this was so common- I'm sure we would have heard about it before- especially this isn't the first time fireworks were used for new years-
I's happening worldwide- if you google Everglades, chile, Australia, Bosnia, chesapeke bay, kentucky, new jersey, queens, Brooklyn, brazil- fish & birds dying all over the place in recent months- In my opinion God is displaying his wrath- even in the bible it says there will be earthquakes, floods, famines- increase in knowledge, wars & rumors of wars- false prophets rising- no man, not even the angels in heaven know when the 2nd coming will be-
If you argue that Christians have been saying the end is near centuries ago, I wasn't told that we were living in the end times a decade ago- I was told that Jesus said he would return to the world a 2nd time- you didnt hear anyone
Say "We are definately living in the end times"
Remember how simple life use to be- we didnt have so many earthquakes, increase in knowledge etc- recently alot of the prophecies in the bible are being fulfilled and there are a few more that are yet to come but it's true that Christians believe more than ever that we are living in the end times-
How is that the only book in the world that is full of truth, wasn't written in a day or year but over several years giving several examples of right & wrong and still today no man can ever
Get rid of the Bible- that instructs us to believe in God the creator telling us that these things will happen... And it's true- the prophecies are happening and at a faster rate than ever- even in the days of Noah when he said a flood was coming- people just laughed and carried on with life and instead of believing- they were destroyed in the flood- what other book in the world tells you about the city of Sodom & Gomorrah? Its one thing if the city never existed but there is proof that the city was actually there and sulfer balls the size of golf balls entact within the ashes- with a sulfer potent higher than anything seen in the entire world- people didn't believe Jesus was the son of god and crucified him- but then turned around and said maybe he really was after the earth trembled when he died- You can keep calling us crazy but if if what us Christian say and believe is the real truth- then there are no 2nd chances after death- I can't imagine being in hell every second for eternity burning in flames without rest- now the time we have on earth is the only opportunity we have to get to know God and make sure we don't end up in Hell- even studies show that scienctist actually believe hell is inside the earth where the temperature is hotter than the sun-
Imagine you bought a puppy at the store- you try so hard to give it everything it wants- love, a home, food, but refuses to acknowlege that you are the owner- and your puppy grows up to be angry, vicious, violent, full of hate & no respect- how dissappointed would you be that you are the owner and your puppy refused to love you?
People get the wrong idea about us Christians- we are not here to judge anyone- that's God's job to do when we die- our job however Is to share our knowledge of what we know about God to the world- everyone has a choice whether to believe or not-
The bible is the only book in the world that explains why we have 7 days- why we celebrate Christmas take off Mas & you have Christ- why the rainbow shines after it rains-
How many signs do we need to see before we accept the truth? If God said he will rain fire upon the earth- we would turn around and argue that it was a meteor shower- the answer is so much more simple than we put it out to be- obviously god created the stars, the moon, the sky- why we try so hard to find another reason than the obvious-
If I was God I'd be angry too- we all get disappointed if we created something that didn't turn out the way we wanted it to be-
I guess people will only see the truth if you choose to believe it- however don't think just because we speak about God- that all Christians are crazy- that is only an excuse to end the conversation and be done with it- just like the days of Noah- you heard what was coming but chose not to believe the truth-
10 - Dr Dreadful
Mystery solved as far as the incident in Sweden is concerned, anyway. The truck driver who hit the birds has come forward. It seems that a flock of them had been attracted by salt which had been laid down on an icy road.
11 - Dr Dreadful
Matt - you're committing the Texas sharpshooter fallacy.
12 - Dr Dreadful
Nor hear them?
Over the sound of fireworks?
13 - John Lake
Firstly I am immersed in Matt's comment. The fact of occurrences at midnight on New Years Eve suggest we are indeed in the final days.
Dr. Dreadful is displaying his Doctorate which must surly be in the field of philosophy. He may be picking at nits.
I am still solidly behind the "bird cannon" theory.
14 - Matt
How so? He quoted Hosea from the bible, I quoted Revelations- he's talking about the birds in Arkansas- On the same day a few hours before the birds- 100,000 drum fish were found dead- therefore since the topic is about Arkansas and the fact that reports are being made worldwide- I added the other references- including my point of view and my opinion- since he spoke about religion, aliens, so how is it that I'm pulling a texas sharpshooter fallacy? I think we are pretty much talking about the same topic- since this isn't just about Arkansas & Sweden- the phenomenon that's happening worldwide and still in certain places cannot be explained- that's why I was giving my point of view-
15 - John Lake
Google is going forward with the Biblical viewpoint. I see no mention of a truck driver. This is getting interesting...
16 - Matt
So many fish are dying- europe even reported over 40,000 crabs washed up dead a few days ago- 500 penguins washed up dead in brazil (they call it unusual since about only 10 was up dead every year before this) you know that fish is a big part of the food chain in the sea- they say it wasn't a virus that killed the 100,000 drum fish because no other species were found dead- it's one thing if a few fish died here and there but for all of them to die in that quantity on the same day, that's not normal at all no matter what explanation we try to come up with- and again this being reported all over the world- chesapeake bay reported 2 million, Bosnia hundred thousands- just google dead fish everglades, new jersey- come on people it's one thing if it happened 1 year ago- and then today- that kind of pattern suggest that it's normal- but this has been going since last year and in such short intervals- we had fireworks the past years did this incident happen and did it make international news? How long did we have the Internet? We didn't just get the Internet last year? Did tv stations report these stories before 2009? Even if us humans got a virus such as the bubonic plague- we wouldn't run around bumping into each other and falling dead within the hour- obviously the fish had no toxins or viruses- lack of fish explain why dolphins, penguins are dying-
17 - Dr Dreadful
Matt: You are taking the unexplained deaths of a few groups of animals and attributing it as the fulfilment of a prophecy in Revelation which is, to put it mildly, a stretch.
In the old story, the Texas sharpshooter fires a cluster of bullets into the side of a barn, then paints a target around the cluster to make it look as if that's what he'd been aiming at all along.
John: Here is the link to the BBC story which reports the truck driver's account. You'll need to scroll down to the last three paragraphs.
18 - Matt
Funny- I didn't kill the fish or the birds and turn around and say (This is what happened)
I said, what's going, this my opinion- since everyone else is throwing out theirs-
19 - josh
These are all good arguements to why this is happening. Why not god? Why not aliens? Why not fireworks? I'm trying not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but at this point in time its impossible... all we have is theory.
Have you seen the movie Signs starring Mel Gibson? A short clip shows the main actors all gathered in a closet watching a tv news report. A BIRD flies across the sky, stops suddenly as if impact was made, then falls to the ground. The movie creates viewers to believe there are cloaked (invisible) UFOs stationed across the world. Could this be possible?
A man who I respect greatly once told me a theory. To sum up this theory, he believed that movies on aliens and apocalyptic accurances are made solely to prepare humanity for what was found and hidden by the "govenment" and what is truely to happen in the near future. I was 14 when I was told this... didnt believe it then but now maybe haha.
This does not explain the mass fish deaths however just food (theory) for thought.
20 - Matt
I'm not saying that what is written in Revelations is happening right now as we speak, its not my place to preach and say it's happening right now believe or be judged- since John quoted Hosea (as a possibility) likewise- I was quoting revelation (as a possibility) who knows what's really going on- but since I haven't seen anyone mention the book of revelations- I felt posting it as an alternative explanation with the intention of "it could be this too, there are some of us who believe this"
Maybe my English is bad but in order for me to commit what you are saying- I'd have to kill the birds and the fish- then paint a story around it claiming that I intend it to be "this"
21 - Kenneth Pakal, aka "Frequency"
Be cool, everyone. According to the Mayan calendar, the world won't end until December 21, 2012. We have nearly two years left! Enough time for us to witness the capper End Times event: the election of Sarah Palin as our first woman president in November 2012. Just one word of advice, though: if you plan to celebrate Christmas in 2012, do so early, since we won't make it to December 25. That's definitely going to put a crimp into the merchants' bottom line for the year.
22 - Dr Dreadful
Matt, you are not understanding the Texas sharpshooter fallacy - not that that's an excuse for committing it.
The fact that the sharpshooter painted the target himself is neither here nor there. It could just as easily have been painted by one of his admirers.
The point is that the target was painted after the fact to make random shooting look accurate. You are applying biblical passages after the fact to make what are probably randomly occurring animal deaths look like an act of God.
23 - John Lake
Matt:
Dr. Dreadful doesn't blame the bird deaths on you. He makes the point that rather than there being a prediction of bird deaths on January 1, 11, the birds died, then came the explanation.
I see nothing wrong with your English. I didn't notice it till you mentioned it.
24 - Matt
But before I got into any detail- I said "I'n my Opinion" I thinks that's a very important line I'n my first post- I never said it is this- I even questioned could it be- that should make a big difference I'n what you are accusing me of no?
25 - Matt
I's happening worldwide- if you google Everglades, chile, Australia, Bosnia, chesapeke bay, kentucky, new jersey, queens, Brooklyn, brazil- fish & birds dying all over the place in recent months- (((In my opinion God is displaying his wrath-))) even in the bible it says there will be earthquakes, floods, famines- increase in knowledge, wars & rumors of wars- false prophets rising- no man, not even the angels in heaven know when the 2nd coming will be-