Birds. WARNING POSSIBLE TINFOIL HAT RELATED CONTENT!!!!
I think something is going on with birds in the USA. Downtown Austin, TX was shut down for hours a couple days back because they found a bunch of dead birds. Birds of many species. Those birds were tested for chemicals and for bird flu and they found nothing.
Gee, it's okay then. Nothing to worry about!
What killed the fucking birds? You incompetent Bush Homeland Security assholes! We've come to suspect that just because you move something off your desk, that doesn't necessarily categorize it as something we needn't worry about. Canary in the coal mine?
Anyway, it made me start looking round here. In Winter, we feed the birds here. We keep feeders full of suet and seed in the back yard and normally they're empty within two days. 18 inches of snow and low temperatures take a lot out of little birds. In past years we could hear them out there fussing with one another.
Now? Nothing. The feeders remain full and untouched after two weeks! Silence! The sky is empty and so are the trees! I can't remember seeing a bird in this corner of Wyoming for... months maybe?
And from Australia
THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.
All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.
The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.
Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.
On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.
Maybe I'm just going crazy too. I'm going to leave an hour early for work this evening and go looking for birds. If I find some, good.
I fear I will not. Oh boy! Do I fear that! Crazy?
I SWEAR! We usually go through big sacks of birdfeed every Winter! Checking the feeders, I don't think we've used any seed at all! None! The feeders are full! And I'm the one who fills them, so I know! It's only my own footprints in the snow going to the feeders.
I'll keep everyone updated as to the bird thing and/or my psychosis.
UPDATE: The first couple of comments have exposed a brilliant idea. In your comments, please state your location (State or Country, I guess) and your observed bird situation. Maybe we can get the KOS colored maps folks to deal with any results, if signifigant.