Check out this article.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUMR9hgvvvjAem8_8-v5V9Ow-nug?docId=eb2eb78242fe4290a414e0644cda18a6

---- Linda Sekura <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> Jan 4 "Audubonmagagine.org" article (fwd from CT listserve --> PA-BIRDS listserve).  Link in forwarded email. Excerpts:
> 
> Illegal Fireworks Likely Cause of Massive Arkansas Blackbird Deaths 
> 
> The loud noises, combined with birds’ poor night vision and large winter gathering...  led birds to crash to their deaths.  That’s the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's “strong working hypothesis.”  
> 
> (On New Year's Eve) At 10 p.m., residents heard several extremely loud, “window-shaking” noises that are believed to have come from professional-grade fireworks, which no one had permission to set off. The blasts came from an area near the birds’ winter roost.  ~15 minutes later several folks went outside when they heard the whooshing wings of a blackbird flock flying at its normal fast speed. “But instead of the birds being above treetop level, like they usually are, they were at rooftop level...  They crashed into houses, cars, trees, mailboxes, shrubbery. Everything around.”
> 
> Blackbirds don’t usually fly at night. The big booms apparently flushed the birds from their roost, and then poor eyesight and disorientation stymied them from making it back safely. “Necropsy report shows trauma primarily to the chest...  Hemorrhaging in the body cavity, bruised skulls, blood clots in brain. It’s consistent with crashing into something rather than falling.”  The death toll is difficult to estimate because feral cats, raccoons, and other scavengers likely made a meal out of the fallen creatures.
> 
> It appears that similarly mysterious bird deaths in Louisiana around the same time are unrelated. “Initial findings indicate that these are isolated incidents that were probably caused by disturbance and disorientation,” says Greg Butcher, Audubon's director of bird conservation. 
> 
> FULL ARTICLE, BELOW.
> 
> Linda
> 216-598-0113
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wiltraut, Richard E <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Fri, Jan 7, 2011 9:11 am
> Subject: [PABIRDS] Bird deaths
> 
> 
> From the Connecticut list serve
> Subject: Probable Cause of Death of Arkansas Birds
> rom: Frank Mantlik <mantlik AT sbcglobal.net>
> ate: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 18:37:28 -0800 (PST)
> ere's National Audubon's analysis of the cause of death:
> 
> ttp://magblog.audubon.org/illegal-fireworks-likely-cause-massive-arkansas-blackbird-deaths
> 
> 
> rank Mantlik
> ______________________________________________
> his list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for
> he discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut.
> For subscription information visit
> ttp://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org
> 
> Rick Wiltraut
> acobsburg Environmental Education Center
> 35 Jacobsburg Road
> ind Gap, PA 18091
> 
> 
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