Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Mon 01/08/2007 View Sun 01/07/2007 View Sat 01/06/2007 View Fri 01/05/2007 View Thu 01/04/2007 View Wed 01/03/2007 View Tue 01/02/2007
1
2007-01-08 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Dead birds close center of Austin, Tx
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by Laurence of the Rats 2007-01-08 09:21|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Interesting. In looking around for more info on this I found a story about a gas leak in NYC this morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16524813/
Posted by Laurence of the Rats">Laurence of the Rats  2007-01-08 09:56||   2007-01-08 09:56|| Front Page Top

#2 I lived in Austin 40 years ago. Nothing I like better than the sound of grackles in the morning.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-01-08 10:13||   2007-01-08 10:13|| Front Page Top

#3 Mucky alert!
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2007-01-08 10:23||   2007-01-08 10:23|| Front Page Top

#4 I live in Austin and have only heard the same thing. It doesn't appeart to be a terroristic act, but nobody knows what caused it. I was kidding my co-workers that it was probably Leslie, our cross dressing bum that caused the air sickness due to not showering in 3 weeks.
Posted by texhooey">texhooey  2007-01-08 10:27||   2007-01-08 10:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Meanwhile, this morning in Tucson White rats pop up in toilets.
If the stars go out, I'm leaving.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-01-08 10:35||   2007-01-08 10:35|| Front Page Top

#6 Heard this second hand....

Press conference . . . 3 different species, 60 birds total. Calls coming in from other parts of the city. Gas leaks ruled out at this time. A&M medical checking out the animals. Current theory is poison from some source...

My speculation: If poison it must be local... grackles fly off out of town during the day to eat and return at night. But with other species getting it too then its prolly here.
Posted by Laurence of the Rats">Laurence of the Rats  2007-01-08 10:50||   2007-01-08 10:50|| Front Page Top

#7 Maybe they have been eating D-Con or something.
Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul  2007-01-08 10:59||   2007-01-08 10:59|| Front Page Top

#8 Enormous flocks of grackles gather just before dawn and around sunset, making an almighty racket and Jackson Pollocking any surface below their chosen perches... frankly anything that has killed them has my qualified approval.
Nasty things...think sewer rats with wings.
Posted by Sgt. Mom 2007-01-08 11:23|| www.ncobrief.com]">[www.ncobrief.com]  2007-01-08 11:23|| Front Page Top

#9  Common Grackle
Starling

Either poisoned bird food or rotted/fungus tainted grain, would be my guess. Or a disease spread by crowded conditions amongst the flocking birds -- finches have been dying in large numbers in the US in recent years due to some disease spread by contact at crowded bird feeders.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-08 13:21||   2007-01-08 13:21|| Front Page Top

#10 Just wait until you see what replaces them.
Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford  2007-01-08 13:23|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/]  2007-01-08 13:23|| Front Page Top

#11 More starlings/grackles or whatever, Rob. They just keep on making baby birdies, y'know. The four most successful bird species in North America are the non-native European Starling, Rock Dove/Pigeon, European Sparrow and the native Common Grackle. What we need are more Peregrine Falcons to eat the problem for us.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-08 13:38||   2007-01-08 13:38|| Front Page Top

#12 thezen mexican grakls. gonna miss they sweeet singin. :(

wernt lesly. hes been buzy
Posted by muck4doo 2007-01-08 16:11||   2007-01-08 16:11|| Front Page Top

#13 DemoLefties win 2006 ergo is now a race to see whom introduces the most PDeniable, "justified" Commie-Governmentist legislations. Once the Earth is controlled, the Lefties only have 999,999 +/- more Earth-style planets to go before can demand the Sun to surrender, or else. OTOH, SCI-FI CHANNEL > CHILDREN OF MEN Series > in year 2027, Human civilization has collapsed due to human females suddenly being unable to have children - unless children are born, in 50+ yarns the human race will be in massive die-off mode due to "normal" aging + other dynamics. Race is on to save = control = extort = study the last female human pregnant teenager on earth.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-01-08 20:14||   2007-01-08 20:14|| Front Page Top

#14  UPI says

A 10-block section of downtown Austin, Texas, was closed to traffic Monday after about 60 dead birds were found in the area along Congress Avenue. The bird carcasses -- mostly pigeons, sparrows and great-tailed grackles -- were discovered from Cesar Chavez Street to 11th Street well before dawn.

Samples [collected] from the birds and the environment were sent to a lab at Texas A&M University. Officials said they did not believe the bird deaths were caused by avian flu or the West Nile virus.


Bird ebola, perhaps? (A family joke. Not likely, I think.)
Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-08 23:07||   2007-01-08 23:07|| Front Page Top

23:58 Free Radical
23:44 Lone Ranger
23:39 Snuting Glatch6729
23:34 Sock Puppet of Doom
23:20 twobyfour
23:13 ed
23:07 trailing wife
23:02 BA
23:01 ed
22:55 DarthVader
22:51 DarthVader
22:50 BA
22:50 Chuck Simmins
22:49 BA
22:49 Verlaine
22:43 Mike N.
22:43 RD
22:38 ed
22:36 Mike N.
22:33 tu3031
22:31 ed
22:31 Brett
22:28 Frank G
22:26 Frank G









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com