Birds of the Aflockalypse

If Daniel were here today, he would be researching why nearly five thousand dead birds were found in a particular area of Arkansas within about a one mile radius, about forty miles from Little Rock. These were red winged blackbirds which do not normally fly at night. The department of game in the subject area says they died of massive internal trauma of uncertain cause. In Labarre, Louisiana, roughly at the same time, about 500 starlings, red winged blackbirds and grackles were also found dead. Daniel would be gathering information on the internet about the dozens of jackdaws, also a bird, found dead in Sweden. In Italy, 400 turtle doves have fallen out of the sky dead. Daniel would be reading about all the theories from trauma and from fireworks to potential disease. From the testing of new weapons to theories about cloud to cloud lightning and high atmospheric hail.
In any event, he would be concerned about the abrupt bird deaths and recent fish kills. He would be considering whether the bird and fish deaths relate in any way to the increase in seismic activity recently throughout the world. In Yellowstone, occasionally animal groups are found dead due to the liberation of gasses in an area of seismic activity. He would be considering this also. The frequent and continuous seismic activity in Arkansas would also concern him as this is one of the first sites where in excess of a thousand birds were reported as being found dead.

This is the google map of the events thus far:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201817256339889828327.0004991bca25af104a22b

In any event, it seems an ominous start to the new year.



The original by songwriter, Dougie MacLean: