Greetings birders,
This kill has all the signs of an aggregation event caused by artificial
lighting emanating from the residential area where the kill was found. Whatever
flushed the birds (fireworks, cannons or lightning), once they were in the air
it is likely that the easiest cue for orientation was the lights of the nearest
residential area. The birds would tend to stay in that lighted airspace instead
flying into the darkness with no orientation cues, and I guess a dense
aggregation with mixed-direction flight occurred and led to lots of midair
collisions. There were no dead birds reported from the site where the birds had
been roosting and it is likely that the kill wouldn't have occurred (or would
have been much smaller) if there were no lights in the vicinity of the roost.
The cloud ceiling was 100% overcast and the refraction of light off the bottom
of the could ceiling may have contributed to creating a distinctly lighted
airspace that birds concentrated within.
The reported internal hemorraghing found in the salvaged carcasses could be
partly from the midair collisions but more likely from falling bird impacts
with the ground. I was out at the 850-ft Elmira TV tower one night a decade
ago with two Cornell students while disoriented warblers were striking the
tower's guy wires (or other birds) and falling to the TV station parking lot
below. I distinctly remember the loud smack sound on the pavement within a few
feet of us of a Red-eyed Vireo and a Black-throated Green Warbler. Small birds
falling to the ground from 500+ ft in the air really hit the ground with quite
a bit of force.
Bill E
----- Original Message -----
From: Regi Teasley
To: cayugabird...@cornell.e
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] 5000 blackbirds and starlings fall from the sky!
Regarding the blackbirds killed.
There was a brief story about this on NPR. The fish and game fellow said he
didn't think it was a storm after all. He was coming to think it was fireworks
("cannons") celebrating New Year's Eve that frightened the roosting birds.
Apparently, when they flew at night in their fear, they crashed into things.
Their injuries were "blunt force" injuries.
If so, once again humans blithely blunder around destroying nature in
the process. Pathetic. Change is in order.
Regi
At 09:08 PM 1/3/2011, you wrote:
Yes, I read about this on Sat.. I get the local, world & national news from
various newspaper sources on my computer. I found it interesting but didn't
know if it would be acceptable to post so didn't. Today about 500 dead birds,
starlings, grackles & blackbirds were found outside New Roads, AL.
Fritzie Blizzard
Stephanie Greenwood wrote on Monday, January 03, 2011 8:27 PM
Subject: [cayugabirds-l] 5000 blackbirds and starlings fall from the sky!
I was just shocked when a friend I met for dinner this evening told me
about this story. Have any of you heard about this?
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