I call attention to a small natural disaster that is as puzzling as it is depressing. At least several hundred Red Winged Blackbirds and some close kin have dropped from the sky in Arkansas:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
And there are also thousands of dead Drum fish, a normally hardy species, also in Arkansas, on the Arkansas River near Ozark:
http://www.cnn.com/...
These small ecological disasters may have simple explanations beyond regulatory negligence or acts of God (they were speculating the Blackbirds were killed by a storm, but that seems curious given their wide distribution and species-generalized occurrence to this non-expert.)
I diary this oddity fully cognizant that we have wildlife biologists here better able to comprehend the larger issues here. I worry about some fast moving pathogen and especially the carefree way I saw the Blackbirds being scooped up by animal control personnel--very little in the way of respiratory or other bio-hazard gear being worn. They also claim they will not begin study of the issue until Monday, which seems a wee bit tardy if this is some H1N1 derivative. Hope some experts will watch this and follow-up.