Mystery of the Falling Birds in Beebee, AK

The story is right out of Hitchcock: birds gone wild, then falling dead out the sky. But the mystery is no mystery--just vindictive mischief by local yahoos. US Person concludes this after reading various news reports about the thousands of red winged blackbirds that fell dead on the small town of Beebee, Arkansas. The verdict of wildlife experts after examination of remains is the birds died of "acute physical trauma", not poisoning, aliens, or some unexplainable cause. News reports also said Beebee is near a roost of thousands of blackbirds. Undoubtedly, some residents found that many birds in one place noisy and dirty.

As usual for a New Years' Eve, rubes became erratic with fireworks. One report quoted a resident as saying, "everybody and their brother" was shooting off their supply. Several very large reports where heard that night. The noisy celebration was perfect cover for vindictive vandals. A likely scenario is that some persons unknown to outsiders stole into the roost undercover of darkness and fireworks explosions. There, they lit fuses on several large charges and departed. The loud reports scared the peacefully sleeping birds literally out of their wits. In the melee of escape the flock collided into each other and man made structures. Some of the traumatized birds made it to Kentucky and Louisiana before succumbing to extreme stress. Anything for a yuck, right? The fact is birds are dying off at an alarming rate even without persecution by bored numskulls. The US Geological Service reports 90 or more events of mass wildlife mortality including 5 incidents of at least 1,000 birds dying in 2010.