There must be something wrong with the air in the state of Arkansas. Roughly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas.
and observers spotted the fish kill near the town of Ozark. You can watch a video report on the blackbirds below, courtesy of ABC News: In a statement Saturday morning, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission quoted staff ornithologist Karen Rowe as saying that such events have happened before around the world: "Test results usually were inconclusive, And ofcourse they are going to offer you their opinions by making comments like the following: "the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
Meanwhile, wildlife officials say that the estimated 100,000 drum fish discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River appears to be a natural occurrence that isn't tied to the bird kill in any way.
"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told CNN. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish." He added that fish kills in the area are common, though this one was larger than most.
UPDATE: A state veterinarian tells NBC that preliminary necropsy results from several birds show that they died of "multiple blunt trauma to their vital organs," though what caused the trauma remains uncertain. According to Dr. George Badley, their stomachs were empty, so they weren't poisoned, and they died in midair, not upon impact with the ground.
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