I saw this recently too, Sandy. I'm sure once they've had time to run the testing on the dead birds and fish they will know what's going on one way or another.
Also, I've set your link up for auto selection here.
Posted by David Graham on January 4, 2011 at 3:28 AM
Any ideas? None yet!
The only similar episode of a blackbird die-off I was involved in investigating occurred in the mid-70s in Des Moines Iowa. During the Fall migration hundreds of " blackbirds"...mostly common grackles with a sparse admixture of starlings and redwings...were being found dead daily in the streets and yards of a residential area of the city. The State Parks & Wldf agents brought carcasses daily to our lab at Iowa State University where we diagnosed a remarkable variety of conditions including starvation, Aspergillosis (a fungal infection of the lungs and airsacs), microfilariasis associated with meningial filarid nematodes (routinely observed in up to 70% of healthy common grackles), several blood protozoon infections, internal and external poxvirus infections, feather mite infestation, oral capillariasis....in short, no single disease cause of the "die-off" could be identified. Then, almost in passing, a city official told me that the dead birds were "...coming from the big roost in trees surrounding a local municipal park." The city fathers were becoming concerned that the guano accumulating at the roost site might pose a public health risk. I accompanied the Parks and Wldf agents on a pre-dawn stake-out of the roost to make a population estimate of it's denizens before the birds left the roost at dawn to scatter to feeding areas. Five independent systematic counts yielded population estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1,500,000 birds.
The conclusions were:
1. Any population of that size should be expected to experience a daily mortality of a few hundred individuals from variety of causes,
2. The accumulating guano from the immense roost could, indeed, become a public health hazard as a site of propagation of the fungal organisms that cause the diseases cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis, and
3. The City of DesMoines decided to fell most of the larger trees in the roost area to promote dispersal of the roosting migrants and to prevent further guano accumulation.
I am eager to hear more about the objective findings in this current die-off in Arkansas.
David, I was hoping you're pipe up! Thanks - Always appreciate your well-informed posts..
1.5 MILLION birds??
Sandy
Posted by David Graham on January 4, 2011 at 3:42 AM
Any ideas? None yet!
The only similar episode of a blackbird die-off I was involved in investigating occurred in the mid-70s in Des Moines Iowa. During the Fall migration hundreds of " blackbirds"...mostly common grackles with a sparse admixture of starlings and redwings...were being found dead daily in the streets and yards of a residential area of the city. The State Parks & Wldf agents brought carcasses daily to our lab at Iowa State University where we diagnosed a remarkable variety of conditions including starvation, Aspergillosis (a fungal infection of the lungs and airsacs), microfilariasis associated with meningial filarid nematodes (routinely observed in up to 70% of healthy common grackles), several blood protozoon infections, internal and external poxvirus infections, feather mite infestation, oral capillariasis....in short, no single disease cause of the "die-off" could be identified. Then, almost in passing, a city official told me that the dead birds were "...coming from the big roost in trees surrounding a local municipal park." The city fathers were becoming concerned that the guano accumulating at the roost site might pose a public health risk. I accompanied the Parks and Wldf agents on a pre-dawn stake-out of the roost to make a population estimate of it's denizens before the birds left the roost at dawn to scatter to feeding areas. Five independent systematic counts yielded population estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1,500,000 birds.
The conclusions were:
1. Any population of that size should be expected to experience a daily mortality of a few hundred individuals from variety of causes,
2. The accumulating guano from the immense roost could, indeed, become a public health hazard as a site of propagation of the fungal organisms that cause the diseases cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis, and
3. The City of DesMoines decided to fell most of the larger trees in the roost area to promote dispersal of the roosting migrants and to prevent further guano accumulation.
I am eager to hear more about the objective findings in this current die-off in Arkansas.
Dave Graham
Estelline,SD
Posted by Sharon Lane on January 4, 2011 at 3:52 AM
First reports say no poison is involved and that it looks like blunt force trauma. And that the birds were probably dead before they hit the ground.
Discussion
9 replieshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110103/ts_yblog_thelookout/massive-bird-fish-kills-in-arkansas-leave-many-scratching-heads
Sandy
Also, I've set your link up for auto selection here.
Birds & Fish Die Off
The only similar episode of a blackbird die-off I was involved in investigating occurred in the mid-70s in Des Moines Iowa. During the Fall migration hundreds of " blackbirds"...mostly common grackles with a sparse admixture of starlings and redwings...were being found dead daily in the streets and yards of a residential area of the city. The State Parks & Wldf agents brought carcasses daily to our lab at Iowa State University where we diagnosed a remarkable variety of conditions including starvation, Aspergillosis (a fungal infection of the lungs and airsacs), microfilariasis associated with meningial filarid nematodes (routinely observed in up to 70% of healthy common grackles), several blood protozoon infections, internal and external poxvirus infections, feather mite infestation, oral capillariasis....in short, no single disease cause of the "die-off" could be identified. Then, almost in passing, a city official told me that the dead birds were "...coming from the big roost in trees surrounding a local municipal park." The city fathers were becoming concerned that the guano accumulating at the roost site might pose a public health risk. I accompanied the Parks and Wldf agents on a pre-dawn stake-out of the roost to make a population estimate of it's denizens before the birds left the roost at dawn to scatter to feeding areas. Five independent systematic counts yielded population estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1,500,000 birds.
The conclusions were:
1. Any population of that size should be expected to experience a daily mortality of a few hundred individuals from variety of causes,
2. The accumulating guano from the immense roost could, indeed, become a public health hazard as a site of propagation of the fungal organisms that cause the diseases cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis, and
3. The City of DesMoines decided to fell most of the larger trees in the roost area to promote dispersal of the roosting migrants and to prevent further guano accumulation.
I am eager to hear more about the objective findings in this current die-off in Arkansas.
Dave Graham
Estelline,SD
1.5 MILLION birds??
Sandy
The only similar episode of a blackbird die-off I was involved in investigating occurred in the mid-70s in Des Moines Iowa. During the Fall migration hundreds of " blackbirds"...mostly common grackles with a sparse admixture of starlings and redwings...were being found dead daily in the streets and yards of a residential area of the city. The State Parks & Wldf agents brought carcasses daily to our lab at Iowa State University where we diagnosed a remarkable variety of conditions including starvation, Aspergillosis (a fungal infection of the lungs and airsacs), microfilariasis associated with meningial filarid nematodes (routinely observed in up to 70% of healthy common grackles), several blood protozoon infections, internal and external poxvirus infections, feather mite infestation, oral capillariasis....in short, no single disease cause of the "die-off" could be identified. Then, almost in passing, a city official told me that the dead birds were "...coming from the big roost in trees surrounding a local municipal park." The city fathers were becoming concerned that the guano accumulating at the roost site might pose a public health risk. I accompanied the Parks and Wldf agents on a pre-dawn stake-out of the roost to make a population estimate of it's denizens before the birds left the roost at dawn to scatter to feeding areas. Five independent systematic counts yielded population estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1,500,000 birds.
The conclusions were:
1. Any population of that size should be expected to experience a daily mortality of a few hundred individuals from variety of causes,
2. The accumulating guano from the immense roost could, indeed, become a public health hazard as a site of propagation of the fungal organisms that cause the diseases cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis, and
3. The City of DesMoines decided to fell most of the larger trees in the roost area to promote dispersal of the roosting migrants and to prevent further guano accumulation.
I am eager to hear more about the objective findings in this current die-off in Arkansas.
Dave Graham
Estelline,SD
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40885546/ns/us_news-weird_news/
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/04/fireworks-likely-caused-ark-bird-deaths/?test=latestnews
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/04/fireworks-likely-caused-ark-bird-deaths/?test=latestnews
Seems like it may have been illegal fireworks
http://magblog.audubon.org/illegal-fireworks-likely-cause-massive-arkansas-blackbird-deaths
Sandy