Whats going on here?

nodle

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Ok we all know about the birds falling from the sky in Austin Texas the other day...

Quoted just in case they remove:

It should be business as usual Tuesday around Downtown Austin, but there's still no word on what caused the deaths of more than 60 birds.

Preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the area, and the bird flu has been ruled out.

While officials search for answers, they say they're confident that there's no public health threat.

"Yeah, it sounds most like a poisoning, if I had to guess," said Jacob Mireles, D.V.M., with the Brykerwood Veterinary Clinic, "and I'm pretty sure that's what it's going to come out as."

The carcasses of the more than 60 grackles, sparrows and pigeons have been sent to Texas A&M, where tests will be performed on Tuesday.

Also, some are asking if it was really necessary to shut down the heart of the city because of these dead birds. Those who made the call at City Hall say there really is no question.

"We're finding out now that we don't feel that there was anything there. There was no risk to public health, but you don't know that until you work your way through the investigation," Asst. City Manager Michael McDonald said.

These birds can be a nuisance to a lot of business owners and people downtown. If someone poisoned the birds, could that person be held liable for the costs associated with the emergency response?

The city's legal team told KXAN Monday they wouldn't answer that question until they know for sure what killed the birds.

BTW: it wasn't just 60, it was thousands, many people on forums from Austin have said this.

http://kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=5904817

Now it's happening in 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.

District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.

"It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about."

He expected birds would return to the area once the problem - natural or man-made phenomenon - was fixed but said it was vital the cause was identified.

The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.

Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died.

Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning.

She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day.

"It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said.

"It was like a moonscape, just horrible. But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21035741-421,00.html

 
K people what do you think is going on here, and why does they news keep covering this up?
 
K people what do you think is going on here, and why does they news keep covering this up?
They cover up alot of stuff. Where shall I begin?

 
If you watch some of the news reports. People have reported a metalliac taste in their mouths. And a few people were taken to the hospital because they felt sick. including police officers. Nothing to see here people move along...
 
You know what.......THE GOVERNMENT SUCKS!  Take my tax dollars and waste it on stuff that is a waste of money. Add to that they cover up everything and we get what we have.
 
Now things are really getting wierd!  :shock:

LONGMONT About 40 dead birds littered a short stretch of U.S. Highway 287 south of the city Tuesday.

Boulder County health officials and the Colorado Division of Wildlife were still coordinating efforts late afternoon to investigate the site, just south Mooring Road.

From an initial description, division veterinarian Laurie Baeten said the birds were likely starlings killed by a passing truck. Considering whipping winds in parts of Boulder County on Monday and the fact that starlings tend to flock at night and in large colonies, Baeten suspects a gust might have thrown the colony into the path of a tall vehicle such as a semi truck.

Starlings tend to sit on the road and fly low, Baeten said. This wouldnt be out of the ordinary.

While farmers on granaries and feedlots have been known to poison starlings a non-native species from Europe originally brought to America as pets such cases are rare in Boulder County, Baeten said. Poisoned birds are generally found within a few miles of the site where they were poisoned, and in smaller numbers.

County health spokeswoman Chana Goussetis said West Nile virus is not an issue this time of year, and she doesnt suspect any other kind of virus caused the die-off. Avian flu is carried by migratory birds, and starlings are not migratory, she said.

Niwot resident J. Morley reported the dead birds to the county health department after he drove past them on U.S. Highway 287 at about 1 p.m.

There were slews of starlings on the (telephone) lines, like they were in mourning. Then I saw all these black balls on the road and realized they were birds, he said. It was kind of eerie, kind of Steven King-ish.

Morley said he wouldnt have reported the incident had his wife not mentioned a news report that Austin, Texas, shut down 10 city blocks after discovering dozens of dead birds there Monday. Esperance, a coastal town in West Australia, also reported Monday that several thousand birds mysteriously dropped dead out of the skies.

Health officials at both those locations have not yet determined the cause of the die-offs.

Boulder health officials said they contacted animal control officers to investigate the birds on U.S. 287. If theres reason for concern, theyll send a carcass to a state laboratory.

We dont believe theres a public health risk, Goussetis said.

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=14007

 
Is this part of it also?

4,000 chickens die in France

Tests were being carried out on Monday to discover why 4,000 chickens died suddenly on a French poultry farm, the Agriculture Ministry said.

The chickens died Saturday night. The 3,500 other chickens on the farm in eastern France were symptom-free, the ministry said in a statement.

Initial test results were expected Tuesday. "Autopsy results do not particularly point the diagnosis toward avian influenza," the statement added.

Earlier this year, 45 countries imposed full or partial bans on poultry imports from France after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus hit a commercial poultry farm in the southeast of the country.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8M3HN6O1.htm

 
Oh boy another! :shock:

Barn owls dying by thousands along Idaho's I-84

BOISE -- If you drive down the interstate east of Boise you may spot some of the hundreds of dead owls that are being reported.

The owls are being hit by vehicles in unusually high numbers and so far no one is certain why such a large amount is dying. 

Barn owl deaths are becoming extremely common along Interstate 84 in southern Idaho. It tends to occur all year long, but peaks in the wintertime. And in the past couple of years the situation has gotten worse.

Experts think the owls are hunting for prey at night along the interstate -- flying low and in front of vehicles, and ultimately getting hit.

And the large number of deaths was enough of a concern that a Boise State University professor began a small study to find out just how many were dying. The numbers are startling.

"Thousands per year seem to be getting killed, and that suggests that there are probably a lot of barn owls in our area. But it also suggests it has the potential to be a really important mortality factor for them and start to effect their population, so there might be some conservation concern for them," said Jim Belthoff, BSU biology professor. 

Boise State has three freezers full of dead owls that they've collected during the three-year study, which just wrapped up.

Most of them are young and were healthy when they died. Some even had rodents in their talons.

The next step will be to try to minimize the deaths.

One plan is to get a nest box program going.

Another is to seek money for highway signs that warn people about the owls -- a lot like deer crossing signs.

Work is still being done to better determine why the birds are putting themselves in the path of vehicles in such large numbers.

http://www.king5.com/animals/news/stories/NW_010607ANBbarnowlsSW.143241c0.html

 
We had a whole shit load of pelicans die off near chase lake. (medina nd) It left the state game and fish scratching their head. No explanations forth coming.
 
We had a whole shit load of pelicans die off near chase lake. (medina nd) It left the state game and fish scratching their head. No explanations forth coming.
that certainly was a weird deal....

 
We had a whole shit load of pelicans die off near chase lake. (medina nd) It left the state game and fish scratching their head. No explanations forth coming.
When was this?

 
We had a whole shit load of pelicans die off near chase lake. (medina nd) It left the state game and fish scratching their head. No explanations forth coming.
When was this?
Year ago or so. Came out in the Jamestown Sun if I remember correctly.

 
Here is a quote from another board...

"Austin is starting to come apart. Many have left already, others are starting to hoard food, water and other supplies. Quite a few have gotten sick, and by some reports hospitals are beginning to see bed shortages, though no news outlets are reporting that. Of course there are enough people that work in the health care industry that it isn't really a huge secret and if they say beds are filling up, I'm sure they are. I haven't seen so many empty parking spaces nor as many people with luggage laden cars filling up with gas since I moved here. It's kind of creepy."

 
Here is a quote from another board..."Austin is starting to come apart. Many have left already, others are starting to hoard food, water and other supplies. Quite a few have gotten sick, and by some reports hospitals are beginning to see bed shortages, though no news outlets are reporting that. Of course there are enough people that work in the health care industry that it isn't really a huge secret and if they say beds are filling up, I'm sure they are. I haven't seen so many empty parking spaces nor as many people with luggage laden cars filling up with gas since I moved here. It's kind of creepy."
It's probably related to all the chem trail activity. Buggers are spraying death on us.

 
Don't know if this has anything to do with it? Seems to be affecting flying things.

Thousands, if not millions, of honeybees have mysteriously been dying off in colonies in at least 22 states, and farmers are concerned.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. Feb 12, 2007 (AP) A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.Researchers are scrambling to find the cause of the ailment, called Colony Collapse Disorder.Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some affected commercial beekeepers who often keep thousands of colonies have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have roughly 20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer.

"We have seen a lot of things happen in 40 years, but this is the epitome of it all," Dave Hackenberg, of Lewisburg-based Hackenberg Apiaries, said by phone from Fort Meade, Fla., where he was working with his bees.

The country's bee population had already been shocked in recent years by a tiny, parasitic bug called the varroa mite, which has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers' hives and devastated most wild honeybee populations.

Along with being producers of honey, commercial bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators, along with some birds, bats and other insects. A recent report by the National Research Council noted that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants including most food crops and some that provide fiber, drugs and fuel rely on pollinators for fertilization.

Hackenberg, 58, was first to report Colony Collapse Disorder to bee researchers at Penn State University. He notified them in November when he was down to about 1,000 colonies after having started the fall with 2,900.

"We are going to take bees we got and make more bees but it's costly," he said. "We are talking about major bucks. You can only take so many blows so many times."

One beekeeper who traveled with two truckloads of bees to California to help pollinate almond trees found nearly all of his bees dead upon arrival, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, acting state apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
SOURCE

 
More birds and  a "cause of death"? I don't think so...

LEAD poisoning is suspected of killing thousands of birds that fell from the sky over the West Australian coastal town of Esperance last year.After three months of searching for answers to the unprecedented phenomenon, the state Department of Environment finally confirmed yesterday that lead poisoning was responsible for killing four birds it tested recently.But it said more tests were needed before it would link lead to the deaths of all of the estimated 4000 birds that have died since December.

With another 100 bird deaths reported in the Esperance townsite this week, the state Government is bracing for a community backlash.

But Health Department spokesman Jim Dodds said there was no evidence to suggest the general population had been exposed to a health risk. He said anyone who was worried should consult their GP. No other advice was given.

The alarm was first raised by local resident Michelle Crisp in December after she found dozens of dead birds - mostly wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters - on her property one morning.

Within days, the town's dawn chorus was silenced as the number of dead and dying birds continued to grow. Many were seen vomiting and convulsing before death and despite numerous autopsies on the tiny bodies, authorities remained baffled.

Department of Environment spokesman David Mell said there was still no direct evidence of a lead source, although lead carbonate transported into Esperance for shipping through the port is the main suspect.

The department has already ordered an upgrade of the Esperance Port Authority's air-quality monitoring after lead particles were identified in dust at some monitoring stations.
SOURCE

 
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