Dead birds everywhere ...

I live in this townhouse/condo development in Washington DC.

I or my wife wake up every morning to take our bulldog for her morning walk. For the last three/four days we have noticed the strangest thing.

Dead birds everywhere.

Yesterday I saw three, today I saw six more. Some sparrows and a bluish bird I can't identify. I don't know bird species. But whatever they are they are basically dropping from the sky. I asked the guy at the management office if they have sprayed the trees with anything and he said absolutely not. He also said that other residents have reported this and that the maintenance crew are finding over 30 dead birds every day for the past week. And that's just is this relatively small development, I can't imagine how many birds are perishing this way in the immediate region.

Obviously this isn't good. Birds aren't supposed to be dropping like flies.

I was wondering if anyone had noticed this where they live, or if anyone is aware as to any potential cause. The air in DC is usually very clean, the city is one of the greenest in the world and there is no manufacturing industries in the vicinity.

Any thoughts?


Edit for spelling.






[edit on 14 Feb 2009 by schrodingers dog]

This is an e-mail from my friend:

Oh my God, I'm feeling sick over this.

Eric's been finding dead and/or staggering ,dying sparrows in our backyard for weeks.

At Christmas time he was filling the bird feeding platform with big yougurt containers full of seed at least 3 times a day. Now, he fills it with ONE container, once a WEEK.

The bigger birds like the doves and quails seem to be okay ( for now). But the sparrows are basically gone now.

So you are not alone, they are very concerned about sudden bird death in our area.

I know the USDA poisoned the food that Starlings eat, in order to decrease the population in New Jersey:

Dead birds New Jersey

They did this without prior notification - people just woke up to dead birds everywhere.

Could they be doing the same thing in DC?

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Since it's so localized some sort of poison would be the first suspicion. Rat poison for example.
From 2007:

UPDATE: A mistake by a Metro contractor led to the shutdown of three Metrorail stations yesterday and prompted an investigation by the FBI and local hazardous-materials crews after the contractor spread commercial pest poison at the wrong time of day, a transit agency spokeswoman said.At least 60 birds that apparently ingested the poison, mostly sparrows and starlings, were found dead at six Metrorail stations before the transit agency discovered that its contractor had put out the poison and failed to remove the dead birds as part of the cleanup.

www.nationalterroralert.com...

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Miners, especially coal, would take canaries underground with them as a "first alert" system. The birds would die due to their susceptibility to foul air.
But would do so before the air became bad enough to cause death to humans.
Foul air being oxygen deficient, methane, hydrogen sulfide,etc.

Be very careful, observant, and be prepared to leave the area should you see the birds start dropping in flight.

Otherwise, the dead birds may be a result of cold weather, or bird flu?

Have you thought about taking some carcasses to a vet, public health official for testing, evaluation?

reply to post by Phage


Yeah, I read about the Metro case before I posted. And it is possible that some contractor somewhere near here may have done something similar. That's kind of the reason for the thread, to find out if this is highly localized and hence the work of some individual or individuals, or to see if other people in the region are also experiencing this which would make it a bigger event.

Wow another dead bird thread? this is getting weird, not heard anything about it from bird experts, etc and news coverage is very slim but i keep hearing people all over north america talk about it - sorta reminds me of the mass DDT spraying that used to happen.

Then again Alex Jones was playing a tape of someone talking about fema preparadness drills for mass outbreaks of avian flu - maybe they do know something we don't? maybe they're culling birds, etc trying to stop it spreading? If they told people the panic would probably rip the country to pieces at the moment, of course they would hide it.

reply to post by NatureBoy


DDT (at "normal" levels) does not kill birds. It supposedly weakens the shells of the their eggs, causing them to break before hatching.

[edit on 2/14/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


That's good to know, however the masses of video footage of birds dead all over the place and the endless accounts of people witnessing falling birds during and shortly after ddt was sprayed suggests that indeed it can and did cause the same sort of scenes as we're seeing now.

Maybe once again they checked something out it in the lab, it looks good on paper so they deicide to drop loads of alu and barrium from the sky, it seems fine until we discover that it kills mammals...

Maybe the bird seed is from China they poisned the dog and cat food a while back. Some innocent person could be feeding contaminated bird food from China. Just a thought.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Maybe collect one and take it to get tested.

Birds dying could be a precursor to something much larger, particularly if it's in a very localised area.

As an (extreme) example:

Testing to determine the cause of mass bird deaths in the Esperance area suggests the small number of birds tested died of lead poisoning. Up to 4000 birds were estimated to have died in Esperance between early December and January, and more than 100 bird deaths have been reported in the Esperance townsite this week. Samples of these birds have been submitted for testing.

Article

Turned out to be lead poisoning from the port:

ESPERANCE children were exposed to an invisible chemical attack on their vulnerable bodies because government agencies - who were meant to protect them - failed to heed their own advice. On the eve of today's parliamentary inquiry into lead contamination that resulted in 4000-plus birds falling dead from the sky, The Sunday Times revealed a litany of oversights that may have resulted in irreparable damage to the health of infants in the town. Adults also have been exposed to highly toxic lead and nickel dust blown from the town's port, but it is the effect on young children that is causing the most angst. Lower levels of lead exposure can affect a child's mental and physical growth.

Article

[edit on 14-2-2009 by Chadwickus]

Interesting. Did any of you guys ever see that movie The Core? It was a lousy movie so I can't blame you if you haven't. Anyway, wasn't there a scene where the handsome, genius scientist was telling about the effects the core (and by extension the EM field) would have if it stopped moving? I also think there was something about birds going crazy not being able to navigate because of the change in the electromagnetic field, could that also lead to death in smaller species? In that same scene he also mentions airplanes would start to just "fall from the sky". Yes, very interesting indeed.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by schrodingers dog

 

Maybe collect one and take it to get tested.

If this persists I will have to do that.

There are sooo many bloody agencies around here, both local and federal, it is hard to figure out which one would be the best to contact. I fellow member U2Ued me this link, afip.org which seems appropriate.

Hopefully it isn't the Avian Flu. Flu Mist(the free flu shots people were giving out) has H5N1 in it --- 2 out of 3 DNA packets to ensure Avian Flu to become pandemic.



Maybe its a coincidence? Hopefully no one around all these dead birds had their flu shots.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Agricultural departments will have testing facilities as well.

Also, if you think something is up, send the birds to different labs and see if the results match or not.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I just found this thread. Interesting stuff.
I work in Wolcott Indiana(100 miles south of Chicago).
I found 2 dead hawks approximately 200 feet apart.
I called DNR. They came out but didn't do anything!
Thanks for the info.

OK, this is getting really creepy.

Just went back out for another dog walk and found three more dead birds. And the groundskeeping crew had already picked up the ones I saw this morning. I asked some of my neighbors about it and they said the whole neighborhood has been noticing this phenomenon.

The management has apparently already contacted the DC Dept. of Health and the DC Dept. of the Environment.

I'll let you know if and when any information becomes available.

Down here in Texas I have been noticing, not bird deaths, but the lack of birds.

In my area birds stay year-round but as this winter Ive seen maybe 1/5th the normal birds in my area.

I have a bird feeder in my garden and I havent filled it nearly enough with bird feed this winter. I always buy 3 economy sized bags for all of them to feed on. Always lasts me from October to the end of February. I still have 1.8 bags left.
This is the first time in 5 years I havent used all the bird feed.

Bird flu is the first thing that comes to my mind, when I hear about multiple dead birds.


edit to add:
Noticed any birds acting strangely? Birds acting weird or crazy? If so, that's also a sign of bird flu...

[edit on 14 Feb 2009 by Hellmutt]

Originally posted by Hellmutt

Noticed any birds acting strangely?

Only when they're up to no good.

No, not really. I haven't seen any walking around sick or disoriented if that's what you mean.

These poor fellows seem to just be dropping from the clear blue sky.