Fish die, birds drop from sky; nothing to see here is a diary yesterday by Deep Harm that made the rec list and generated more than 500 comments. Mostly from bored, holiday-and-religion weary kossacks fascinated by the strange occurrence of thousands of birds falling from the sky for no apparent reason on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. About which the news media has been buzzing. The incident occurred within 150 miles of the Arkansas River, where last week there was a major fish kill of drum, bottom feeders known to share a food source with blackbirds (wetland invertebrates). State and federal testing of the fish and birds started yesterday, nobody knows yet what caused either event or if the two events are connected in some way, but there is much speculation from officials, residents of Beebe, Arkansas, and folks on the intertoobs. All very intriguing.
I personally find this mystery quite fascinating, and wonder how it might fit into various scenarios of climate change, possible pollution of some kind, plain old weird weather tricks, population-stressed species committing mass suicide like lemmings, whatever. It can be fun to look at what is known versus what is only speculated about what is known, and see if you can rule any of the speculations in or out to explain something so mysterious that it makes news all over the world.
Earlier today redwing blackbirds and starlings started falling from the sky along roads in rural Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Which is about 300 miles south of Beebe, where the New Year's Eve rain of blackbirds occurred. This story too is making the rounds. I heard it on NPR, there are stories about it from Reuters and it's on the front page at CNN Video. Here's a link to the story on Yahoo News. Because these odd wildlife kills are genuine news items, and because no one yet knows what is causing them or if they're related, I think they are legitimate discussion fodder for those of us who like to follow such oddities for what they may or may not tell us about the state of things at present.*
* [Please see War on Error's current diary,
Updated BREAKING NEWS: USDA Killing 1000s Birds for Years for yet another possible/likely explanation of what's going on, at least with the birds].
When yesterday's diary hit the rec list several people descended to try very hard to shut down all discussion and speculation about the matter, insisting that any (and apparently all) of the speculations thus far offered by various 'officials' involved in the just-begun investigations are Certifiable Conclusions™ that should authoritatively prevent any member of the general public from wondering what the hell is going on. The usual exercise in wannabe mind-tyranny by a self-styled 'favored few' who see their job here at DKos to be the imposition of broad censorship on anyone and everyone who seems the slightest bit distrustful of authorities to explain what in fact has not even begun to be explained yet. We're quite used to that around these environs of late, but that doesn't make the game any less frustrating and pointless to intelligent, critical thinkers who are interested in the phenomena at issue.
Heck, a couple of the wannabe mind-tyrants claimed to be 'scientists' (of some unknown variety) whose conclusions ought to be taken as gospel by everybody else on the particular subject of these entirely unique and strange occurrences. To shut down discussion, of course, which appears to be the driving motivation of such people when they barge into a diary to tell everybody to STFU.
Well, I won't STFU. Something is killing these birds, something is killing those fish, and it can no longer be glibly asserted to be heavy weather, because there was no heavy weather in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana when the birds fell today. The world is obviously interested and paying close attention. I see no reason why I shouldn't be.
I am not asserting a link between the three(+?) events that I do not know to be actual. I assert no causation that can't be as wrong as anybody else's. I don't claim to know what has caused these fish and bird kills. But the coincidences are growing, the easy brush-offs are now revealed as somewhat spurious, and I am continuing to wonder if these things might be some kind of alarm about an environmental hazard or intentional manipulation we should know about.
So here's the follow-up diary. For those who think the events are very interesting and quite spooky, wonder if there's something going on that we should be aware of. Thanks.