We've all seen the pictures in the press and on the TV about the falls of dead red wing blackbirds in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Initially it was reported that approximately a thousand blackbirds died on New Years Eve and fell to earth, and the current theory surrounding this mysterious event appears to be that the birds were spooked by revellers letting off fireworks, causing them be scared from their roosts - only to collide in mid air, or crash into the ground.
Barely plausible I know, but it's the best they can come up with in the circumstances.
That figure of 1000 has now been upgraded by 500%.
Over 5000 birds fell on Beebe.
5000! Preliminary autopsies have been carried out on nearly 20 of those 5000, and those autopsies found the following:

• The stomachs of every one was empty, which has effectively ruled out poison.
  
• There was no sign of chronic disease or infectious disease (see my comments on this below)
• They died in mid air, not on impact with the ground
• Every bird died of blunt trauma to their organs
• All exhibited blunt trauma to the breast area
• All exhibited major blood clotting.
  

The birds came from a roost near to Beebe, home to over 100,000 redwings, and a search of that roost area by the Mayor of Beebe, Mike Robertson, and some of his officials found no dead birds whatsoever at the roost site.
So we are asked to believe that the fireworks set off by revellers at midnight spooked 5000 birds enough to get all those birds to collide with each other with enough force to kill them.
Leaving 95,000 left in the roost unharmed.
5000 birds collide with each other? Breast to Breast? Have you ever seen the beauty of a huge flock of blackbirds going to roost in the evening? That huge, swirling mass of birds, each moving in its own space, the whole flock swooping and diving and changing direction as one bird? I've been watching that phenomenon since I was a kid, and I've never seen one bird hit another head on, or even strike a glancing blow for that matter.
Oh, and the midnight firework thing? The first birds started to fall to earth at 2337.
Where I live the fireworks go off as the bells strike.
Call me cynical if you want to, but all this firework/hailstone strike malarkey would be acceptable (ish) if 3 days later, and 300 miles away, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 500 of the same bird species hadn't fallen from the sky.
Clear day, bright sunlight, no fireworks, no storms, same bird species and exactly the same injuries.
Oh, and Kentucky.
Dead birds there too.
What's going on here? In 2004/2005 we stockpiled vaccine to deal with a potential avian flu epidemic, we even banned the import of birds from outside the U.
S.
, but not a word of that potential threat from anyone in the media.
How many Government scientists converged on Beebe to conduct tests? Looks like none.
Warnings given to townspeople? Not heard of any- pictures abound of unprotected members of the public handling dead birds.
The disposal of the carcasses by Government specialists? Didn't happen, the Mayor apparently had to hire contractors to pick them up.
And all this before any preliminary tests had come back about the symptoms of the birds deaths.
A bit worrying isn't it.
It's got the 2012'ers all boiled up, and some fundamentalists talking up the end times, but should we worry? Make your own decision about it -they didn't worry in 1896 when out of a clear blue sky nearly a thousand dead birds of different species fell into the streets and gardens of...
yep, you guessed it...
Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Watch the skies folks, watch the skies.