Hundreds of dead birds are falling out of the sky in Florida. No one knows why.

This story was on the same local NBC channel 4 Kark in Little Rock. I didn't look for it on their website (www.kark.com). Probably not there, as it was one of those 10 second blips at the end of the broadcast.

I have my own speculations on why this might be happening, but will let you draw your own conclusions.

-- Lisa (lisadawn@yahoo.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

Was a story on nightly news about a similar situation on New York..a virus or something. Some elderly people were getting it and several died...

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), January 07, 2000.

Uh oh. Possible bio-terr attack. Consider the chem trails may be pesticides to kill the misquitoes carrying Western Nile Fluvitis variation. Saddam is rumored to have been experimenting with genetically altering this fluvitis to yield 97% fatality. There will be autopsies on some of those birds. Pray the chemtrails killed the birds, because the alternative is REAL bad news; the alternative would be the chemtrails in FLA are ineffective on this strain, and so the fluvitis is spreading. Hopefully you'll see some freaky satellite shots of radar, so a killer thunder storm will wash it all to sea. Stay away.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 07, 2000.

Ummm...Hokie...I tend to listen when you speak because you speak intelligently. Tell me this isn't just a joke?

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), January 07, 2000.

Satana, I've posted some of this stuff before, opinions of my friend Duane who loaded the C-130's with pesticides in the AF? Led the 5 man crew? Did it at the state's request, to spray pesticides for public health issues that the state was not equipped to do themselves. It's his opinion that this is the deal with the chem-trails.

I personally don't know what the hell's goin on with these dead birds. Maybe Brent knows (*snicker).

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 07, 2000.

this reminds me of the article (sorry i can't find it again) i saw as i was perusing msnbc sites today that showed the results of a study that said that certain levels of chemicals were ok for people but not for frogs. i think they are trying to find a reason for all of the deformed frogs that have been showing up in the past five years in the upper midwest.

guess those same chemicals are bad for birds too!!!

i am sure they are bad for us. i used to belong to a occuptational/environmental health listserv and was always stunned by the news i saw come across it. if only the public knew. if only the public believed.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), January 07, 2000.

Hokie...sorry, never saw those posts. I'm relativly new here...and so much comes in each day it's easy to miss stuff.

tt...I'd forgotten bout the frogs...what state[s] were/are those? I just moved to Iowa last Summer...maybe in the Spring I can go 'frog catchin'...since I'm a photographer...might be able to post images...if the board is still here...otherwise will stick on my website.

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), January 08, 2000.

yep --tt, often fact is stranger than fiction.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 08, 2000.

My speculation had to do with a possible chemical leak i.e. the Anhydrous Ammounia Leak at the Ice Plant in Florida posted here on TB. I wish the news report had said what area of Florida.

-- Lisa (lisadawn@yahoo.com), January 08, 2000.

"Hundreds of dead birds are falling out of the sky in Florida. No one knows why."

Because they're dead. Sheesh.

-- Me (me@me.me), January 08, 2000.

Me

LOL :) Exactly why I always have two people proof everything I write at work!

-- Lisa (lisadawn@yahoo.com), January 08, 2000.

Maybe it's the Avian Influenza season?

-- Cherokee (Cherokee@qtmail.com), January 08, 2000.

The deformed frogs were found in Minnesota.

-- (your@inform.ation), January 08, 2000.

A Brunette and a Blonde are out for a stroll.

The Brunette says, "Awwww... look, there's a dead bird."

The Blonde looks all around, searching the sky, says, "I don't see anything!"

-- Cherokee (Cherokee@qtmail.com), January 08, 2000.

Here's a story in the Seattle Times on the bird deaths in NYC and the concern that birds going south for the winter will be carrying the "avian flu" with them. Humans are susceptible to this virus. http://www.seattletimes.com/news/he alth-science/html98/mosq_19990929.html

We were on Cumberland Island (off the Georgia coast) over the Thanksgiving weekend. The ranger warned everyone not to touch any dead crows we might see.

BTW there's a report in yesterday's Atlanta paper that people in a northern suburb observed one flock of 2,000 sandhill cranes passing overhead, and some smaller flocks.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 08, 2000.

STAY AWAY FROM THE BIRDS! People are getting sick from them. They are not sure what virus they are carrying. May be either of the above.

-- Scotty (blehman202@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

Mental note: don't touch dead crows.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 08, 2000.

Uhhhh....... I live out here in the boonies, at least what's left of them after the influx of clueless Yuppies, so I've been pretty familiar with birds all my life. I have never known a bird to 'fall out of the sky dead' when I didn't have a 12-guage in my hand. Birds that get sick before they die, stop flying. They either fall out of trees dead, or die on the ground.

We have flocks of grackles (starlings) that perch by the thousands in trees. A few years ago a flock took shelter in a tree that was growing in a swampy area, and the tree was hit by lightning. Later I was shocked to see dozens of dead birds still perched on the branches, their grips frozen by the electric shock.

If birds are literally falling to the ground going Thump, dead, then they were killed instantly while flying, which would be a most alarming situation indeed, because it would mean some gas like Sarin. So I think we should ask the lady from Fla, where, in what condition, and especially what species of birds are found dead. In Florida there are many species of wading and water birds, which can succumb in large numbers due to avian viruses or bacteria that flourish in wetlands. Sudden changes in water quality and temperature, like a heavy rain or a cold snap, can kill birds in large numbers and fish, too. Any associated fish kills?

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), January 08, 2000.

I live in Florida - have seen no dead birds - I believe the gas leak at the ice plant was in Highlands Florida.There is a lot of flu going around here. Don't have any idea if any of this is connected.

-- Lornna Mitchell (doone@digital.net), January 08, 2000.

The West Nile virus was initially mistakenly identified as St. Louis Encephalitis. The dead birds were a key part of unraveling the identification of WNV. This virus has never been seen in this hemisphere this far north (NYC) previously. My feeling is that this was indeed a trial baloon of bio-terrorism. My question is, will the virus make it through the winter? As we left off in the Fall the mosquitos were dying due to cold weather, however scores of dead birds had been found. If infected birds made it through the winter, I would think the virus could have easily survived.

I pray that we're as wrong about this as we were about embededs.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), January 08, 2000.

DEFINITELY "Y2K Related."

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), January 08, 2000.

I hate to even encourage this, but for what it's worth, the chemical said to be a suspect in the frog deformaties is nitrate. Lots of nitrates around. But nitrates are found in sewage, and more significantly, in many fertilizers.

And yes, anhydrous ammonia is used as a nitrogen fertilizer, and is PROBABLY converted to nitrates in the soil.

Here in Oregon, I noticed that the THOUSANDS of frogs croaking every summer, stopped croaking when they started croaking. Or something. This was in the mid eighties. Soon afterwards I started reading all sorts of reports about frogs disappearing from ponds and lakes in California in the Sierra Nevadas. Then other places around the world.

There was lots of speculation about what could be causing this (also some salamanders were being affected). Suggested causes were excess fertilizer, other types of water pollution, acid rain, and various other things. My personal opinion was that none of these were likely, as they could not affect so many areas in so short a time, worldwide (except maybe acid rain?).

Also, I live in a very prisine area--very pure groundwater, rather pure streams, good air quality, coming as it does from the west, off the Pacific Ocean. No pollution upwind between here and Japan, except fo occassional slash burning and trash burning from a very lightly populated valley to our west.

So I speculated that perhaps it was the alleged increase in ultraviolet rays we've all been reading so much about. Especially since scientists who have been investigating this frog problem think the eggs are dying, and they are exposed to the sun.

Anyway, our frogs are back, some years better than others. But only fraction of their former numbers.

Another mystery.

For your chemtrail buffs, I started seeing these "chemtrails" ten or fifteen years ago, too. Gotta be a connection, right?

-- jumpoff joe a.k.a. Al K. Lloyd (jumpoff@ekoweb.net), January 08, 2000.

Cute side note: Now I remember a news interview with a kid about a year ago, who was credited with solving the frog deformity mystery in his pond for his science project; he isolated a fungus.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 08, 2000.

Researchers here in Minnesota subsequently isolated a parasite that was causing the deformities in the frogs. The waters they were found in were not as polluted as they had first thought.

-- Liz (lizpavek@hotmail.com), January 08, 2000.

Lisa, do you know of any biological testing labs in your vicinity, say within 50 miles??

In order to rule out biological activity leaks, you must know the answer to that question.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), January 08, 2000.

Likely the West Nile bug. The birds from the north are migrating through Florida, many on their way to South America. This will prove to be a very interesting and possibly scary year.

Personally, I don't believe (maybe want to believe) this is terrorism. There are several outbreaks of this around the world currently and I suspect an infected individual came to New York. Excellent article on this outbreak in New Yorker back in November by Richard Preston.

Got MOPP? Might need it....

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), January 08, 2000.

OR:

I'm not even in the same state where this is reported to be occurring. This is taking place in Florida, but unfortunately I don't know where in Florida.

-- Lisa (lisadawn@yahoo.com), January 08, 2000.