The flaw in Evan's friend's argument against the fireworks hypothesis is that there are no big summer (July 4th) concentrations of birds--such as the multi-thousand assemblages of Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, Common Grackles, etc., that occur in winter.
I'm sticking with the alien flying saucer attack theory. :-) (Not really. I still like the fireworks idea.) Cheers, BILL ======== On Jan 6, 2011, at 10:41 AM, Evan Clark wrote: > Dear ECOLOG-L Members, > > I have an ornithologist friend who works for the Dept. of the Environment in > D.C., and in a recent correspondence I asked for his opinion on the mass > bird kills in the news. Here is his reply for any who are interested. > > "The red-winged blackbird and other species kills were most likely > microbursts and windshear associated with the storm system which had moved > through earlier. Microbursts can have wind gusts between 60 and 120 miles an > hour, that would create plenty of force to mimic hurricane conditions and do > some real trauma. Is was not disease or some type of contamination. You can > see a few birds staggering around with broken wings on the news videos. I > believe the birds were either crushed in the air of forced downward with > enough energy to kill them. I don’t buy the firework theory. If it were true > we would have giant bird kill problems every July 4th." > > Cheers, > > Evan D. Clark ========= RESEARCH PROGRAM c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA office & cell (803) 684-5852 fax (803) 684-0255 Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net): Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org ==================