Confused Birds headed North West?

This just happened, and I'm sorry that I don't have any video for this, however this was what went down.

I was in my home office (in Atlanta) doing some work when I heard this cacophony outside. Eventually I said "What is going on!" and went outside to take a look...

at first it sounded like a bunch of doves cooing, but then I realized it was much further above my head.

I looked up and saw what looked like geese all flying in multiple directions squawking at eachother and flying back around as if it was an odd spiral

They did this for about 5 minutes, my son and sister-in-law said the birds looked confused or like they were having some sort of committee to decide which direction to go...

Eventually the majority of them formed a V and headed North West. Very soon after a few more of the same kind of bird showed up in the same spot, did the same thing for a bit, and also headed North West...

What did I just witness?

Only going off the title, but here in the northwest we have alot of trees and our weather is like the only place that hasnt had any abnormalities, soooooo if the birds are headed this way I can understand why, if this doesnt relate to the posting at all well then hopefully it will be deleted

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Don't think the direction really matters, but the confusion is important imho. ...It might be related that my cockatiel August (an expert flyer) was repeatedly bumping into walls on Saturday and Sunday. NOT normal.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Assuming you're aware of the news that birds can "see" the Earth's Magnetic Field, then it may be a case that there happened to be a distortion there, causing them confusion?

Originally posted by OptimisticPessimist
reply to post by HunkaHunka

 

Assuming you're aware of the news that birds can "see" the Earth's Magnetic Field, then it may be a case that there happened to be a distortion there, causing them confusion?

See this would be concerning given that it's right over my house! My son joked that the new North Pole would be above our house and I said I hope not!

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Haha, I'd think if the North Pole (physical, not magnetic) were to move anywhere, it would not be a good thing full stop! But I like to think that's not going to be the case. Even if it is, worrying about it would only waste the time I had left!

I don't think it's anything to be immediately concerned about, I mean, the Magnetic Field shifts and moves all the time if I'm not mistaken (I could be), although it is currently changing like we've never witnessed before, so this could be a factor of course.
Either way, if a magnetic field is going to affect you, it could well be to your benefit, like this!

Going across the state line yesterday from Arkansas to Louisiana, I saw many many birds flying. I saw a flight of geese going towards the setting sun. All the birds seemed to be flying rapidly out of Arkansas, Louisiana area.

I've been seeing this all winter in the north and mid west. Often in bitter cold weather. In Idaho I seen thousands of Canada geese on a frozen lake with their beaks down... The winds were gusting over 60 MPH, I had to stop driving, and it was well below zero... I have wondered since then if those birds survived.

Generally in my travels large flocks of birds seem completely lost, with groups flying in all directions, in a few cases I've seen them flying against strong head winds toward the northwest and flying hard but not covering much ground.

Maybe I've just been paying more attention this year and this is normal, but it has seemed quite odd. I'm no expert, but I know what getting lost is like, and these animals seemed lost to me.

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


Wow... because that was one thing which stood out about the second group to head NW, was that they were flying into a strong headwind, and that they were having difficulty making it happen, in such a way that they had to fly our of it, and back around for another attempt before they could really get it going

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I've posted about seeing this in other threads. For some time my theory was that the wind was the cause, that somehow these birds are flying into the wind because they can't get enough lift to stay aloft flying away from the wind, so they fly in zigzag patterns and it appears as though they are lost... But I'm still not sure... I've seen stranded geese where it is too cold for them... The geese I spotted on the frozen lake was in the middle of last month, and occasionally since then I've seen more flying erratically, in and out of the typical formations, and on calm days with little or no wind.

I don't know much about migrating birds, so for all I know this is all perfectly normal... FYI

I have a Senegal Parrot. I have had him for over 6 years. He has always been friendly to everyone. A happy Bird that talks and sings. Since the day I got him he always had his wings clipped so he knows he can't fly. The past 2 days of opening his cage in the morning he jumps right out flapping his wings falling onto the floor and runs. Runs under couch or behind something. Birds generaly do not like it on the ground. He prefers to be up high. My bird has bitten me 4 times today (never bit anyone). He has been puffed up and nervouse. Does not want to be out in the open...right now he is under a blanket on my couch feeling safe. I do not know what this is all about. But he has been changing his attitude for the past 2 weeks now that I think about it. Oh...I live in Northern Ca. The past 2 weeks have been warm and sunny....until today all of a sudden a storm hits. Scarey times!

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
reply to post by HunkaHunka

 

I've seen stranded geese where it is too cold for them... The geese I spotted on the frozen lake was in the middle of last month

I saw 8 Canadian Geese in the Toronto area this afternoon (by Highway 427 and 7). I've only been here 4 winters, but never seen them at this time of year. It had warmed up yesterday and this morning - around the 0Deg Celsius mark, but dropping to -14Deg Celsius overnight. I don't know how those poor birds are going to survive, and more importantly, what the hell are they doing here now, walking in a foot of snow??

I can add to the bird strangeness from here in west Scotland. Let me first say " this isnt new" as the birds have been showing changing behaviours since October 2009. A recap, winter 2009 the winter birds that feed in my garden went missing for 3 weeks then just turned up one day. This winter I have 4 male robins sharing a territory ! and even feeding from the same table together. 2 of them are now so tame they basically land on you when you go into the garden and are now feeding from my wives hand.

Also, Im finding too many dead from cats. Its as if they are dropping their gaurd because their minds are elsewhere. My grandfather ( a great man) used to say that the birds and the cattle are our early warning signs.

Respects

About a month ago, down the street from where I live, I watched a large group of ravens fly in odd circles or figure eights at sunset. Probably 50-100 of them and it was like they were confused or something. We do have lots of crows and ravens here, but I have never seen them fly in unison and never in a crazy pattern like this. It was like they were trapped in a vacuum. I would have videoed it if I'd had the camera, it was so strange. And it was around the time all the birds were dying. They were over a a small shopping center. I left after 5 minutes of watching, while it still continued. The circular area they kept flying in was about the size of a 1/4 football field. I chocked it up to Ravens being Ravens, but it was very unusual.

reply to post by SunnyDee


Very interesting... I wish I knew more about Birds in general, because this really looks odd. I lived a great deal of my life in rural Ohio, and have seen lots of odd natural phenomena, but I have never seen anything like this. As someone else has already said, this could be normal... but it certainly appears to be very odd.

Birds are creatures of timming, can't blame them Sunrise two days early up North. Timming is whacked.

Cant say ive witnessed any odd bird activity in the skies above me here down under but as i posted in another thread bird activity at night is on the increase, lots of loud birds in my front garden at all hours of the night.
Gone are the days of waking with the birds, they are keeping me up throughout the night.

Originally posted by lestweforget
Cant say ive witnessed any odd bird activity in the skies above me here down under but as i posted in another thread bird activity at night is on the increase, lots of loud birds in my front garden at all hours of the night.
Gone are the days of waking with the birds, they are keeping me up throughout the night.

Maybe they see Daylight Magnetic Lines of Force.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I made a thread about this very same thing AND posted a video, it just seemed so unusual to me, their behavior, I took the video below, after 3 days of this activity, let me know if what you saw is anything like the video I took:



Here is the link to my thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

This is getting stranger and stranger isn't it Isis? I'll post my observations here as well.

I live in a rural area between lake St. Clair and lake Erie. Last year we had an unusual number of crows in the area, and this year there are still many more crows than the usual chickadees and mourning doves, that seem to mostly leave or hide this time of year.

I spend a lot of time outside at my farm, and I keep an eye on the crows because I like to bird watch. In the fall we had massive murders of 200+ crows swooping around a low level looking for food, which seemed normal, besides the large numbers in the same area. This winter I was expecting to see them gone down south for the most part, because we are at the most northern part of their winter ranges in this area, from what I understand.

What I keep seeing as the crows flying over head at about 100-200 feet, above to treetops. They are not bunched together in the massive swarms like before, but more spread out. The strange thing is that there seems to be a never ending procession of crows flying through the area, not stopping and always heading to the northeast from the west. All day long, crows and more crows, all heading in the same direction, northeast. At no time have I seen them flying to the south or west.

My immediate reaction is that they are fleeing something.