I suspect the Austin thing and what is going on in Australia are different....
at least somewhat.
I hope it's not because the two poisoners are different.
Well, anything that happens in the USA is going to be far more important than anything that happens anywhere else.
You got a problem with that, Bunny?
They probably are different causes, and not related to the fish or frogs. But all together it should open some eyes. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's related to a water born illness / bacteria or such. But, even then they wouldn't seem likely to all fall dead together.
soot, hay, and all the other stuff falling from the sky... I'm hoping pigs are not next.
My take is a water born toxin of some kind given that the feeding regiemes of these birds is all different.
Seed eaters, raptors, nectar feeders and insect eaters.
I'd be willing to bet the Austin ones were someones attempt at pest controll via a rooftop feeding of poisened grain or similar.
I wonder if this could be the reason.
Excerpt from a report by the International Bird Rescue Research Centre
When conditions are right, the marine phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia australis, blooms and the tiny algae overgrow, creating what is known as a "bloom" or "red tide". The algae produce domoic acid. Research into the plankton is so recent that it's still not known what causes the algae growth or why the cells produce different levels of domoic acid at different times, but the effect is clear. As the toxin bioaccumulates up the food chain, fish become contaminated with the poison, and then the birds and marine mammals who feed on them.
The first reported outbreak of domoic acid poisoning occurred in 1987 when 3 people died from eating shellfish from Prince Edward Island Canada. In 1991, dead and dying seabirds, including pelicans, began washing up along the beaches off Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay, CA. The birds had been eating anchovy contaminated with domoic acid. In May and June of 1998, 400 California sea lions died. The cause, domoic acid.
By May 2002, thousands of birds and mammals, including dolphins, sea lions, seabirds, and endangered brown pelicans would have died of domoic acid poisoning. The media reported birds falling from the sky and convulsing, and it was true. The toxin enters the bloodstream, then the brain, causing convulsions, coma, vomiting, seizures and finally, mercifully, death. Wildlife centers were overwhelmed with dead and dying animals and desperately tried to save them.
dlowan wrote:Well, anything that happens in the USA is going to be far more important than anything that happens anywhere else.
Why would you say something like that? You make it sound like the USA is superior to other countries. Is this what you think? If so, that is a shame and certainly not true IMO.
tryingtohelp wrote:dlowan wrote:Well, anything that happens in the USA is going to be far more important than anything that happens anywhere else.
Why would you say something like that? You make it sound like the USA is superior to other countries. Is this what you think? If so, that is a shame and certainly not true IMO.
Now would be an appropriate time to make your stock comment about irony, Cunning Coney.
Setanta I think your dog is nicer than you. At least he/she looks at a person and appears to smile.
I think that's right. It's about time Dlowan quit thinking the US is superior to everyone and everything. She's right about the dog, too.
Setanta wrote:tryingtohelp wrote:dlowan wrote:Well, anything that happens in the USA is going to be far more important than anything that happens anywhere else.
Why would you say something like that? You make it sound like the USA is superior to other countries. Is this what you think? If so, that is a shame and certainly not true IMO.
Now would be an appropriate time to make your stock comment about irony, Cunning Coney.
Nah...only stupid Americans don't get irony, and there's no educating them.
dadpad wrote:My take is a water born toxin of some kind given that the feeding regiemes of these birds is all different.
Seed eaters, raptors, nectar feeders and insect eaters.
I'd be willing to bet the Austin ones were someones attempt at pest controll via a rooftop feeding of poisened grain or similar.
I wonder if this could be the reason.
Excerpt from a report by the International Bird Rescue Research Centre
When conditions are right, the marine phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia australis, blooms and the tiny algae overgrow, creating what is known as a "bloom" or "red tide". The algae produce domoic acid. Research into the plankton is so recent that it's still not known what causes the algae growth or why the cells produce different levels of domoic acid at different times, but the effect is clear. As the toxin bioaccumulates up the food chain, fish become contaminated with the poison, and then the birds and marine mammals who feed on them.
The first reported outbreak of domoic acid poisoning occurred in 1987 when 3 people died from eating shellfish from Prince Edward Island Canada. In 1991, dead and dying seabirds, including pelicans, began washing up along the beaches off Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay, CA. The birds had been eating anchovy contaminated with domoic acid. In May and June of 1998, 400 California sea lions died. The cause, domoic acid.
By May 2002, thousands of birds and mammals, including dolphins, sea lions, seabirds, and endangered brown pelicans would have died of domoic acid poisoning. The media reported birds falling from the sky and convulsing, and it was true. The toxin enters the bloodstream, then the brain, causing convulsions, coma, vomiting, seizures and finally, mercifully, death. Wildlife centers were overwhelmed with dead and dying animals and desperately tried to save them.
I have been wondering that, too...if so, I would have thought the flooding Esperance got might have flushed it?
Our Torrens now gets algal blooms every summer, though.....and the multitudes of birds living on it do not seem to be poisoned...although perhaps they know to drink clean water when they can?
27 Things That Fell From the Sky (cont.)
11. LUMINOUS GREEN SNOW
In April 1953 glowing green snow was encountered near Mt Shasta, California. Mr and Mrs Milton Moyer reported that their hands itched after touching it and that 'a blistered, itching rash' formed on their hands, arms and faces. The Atomic Energy Commission denied any connection between the snow and recent A-bomb tests in nearby Nevada.
13. BEANS
Rancher Salvador Targino of Joao Pessoa, Brazil, reported a rain of small beans on his property in Paraiba State in early 1971. Local agricultural authorities speculated that a storm had swept up a pile of beans in West Africa and dropped them in northeastern Brazil. Targino boiled some of the beans, but said they were too tough to eat.
14. SILVER COINS
Several thousands rubles' worth of silver coins fell in the Gorky region of the USSR on June 17, 1940. The official explanation was that a landslide had uncovered a hidden treasure, which was picked up by a tornado, which dropped it on Gorky. No explanation was given for the fact that the coins were not accompanied by any debris.
16. HUMAN BODY
Mary C. Fuller was sitting in her parked car with her 8-month old son on Monday morning, September 25, 1978, in San Diego, California, when a human body crashed through the windshield. The body had been thrown from a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner, which had exploded after being hit by a small plane in one of the worst disasters in US history. Mother and son suffered minor lacerations.
17. TOADS
Falls of frogs and toads, though not everyday occurrences, are actually quite common, having been reported in almost every part of the word. One of the most famous toad falls happened in the summer of 1794 in the village of Lalain, France. A very hot afternoon was broken suddenly by such an intense downpour of rain that 150 French soldiers (then fighting the Austrians) were forced to abandon the trench in which they were hiding to avoid being submerged. In the middle of the storm, which lasted for 30 minutes, tiny toads, mostly in the tadpole stage, began to land on the ground and jump about in all directions. When the rain let up, the soldiers discovered toads in the folds of their three-cornered hats.
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The Book of Lists, The Original Compendium of Curious Information, by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace.
dlowan wrote:Setanta wrote:tryingtohelp wrote:dlowan wrote:Well, anything that happens in the USA is going to be far more important than anything that happens anywhere else.
Why would you say something like that? You make it sound like the USA is superior to other countries. Is this what you think? If so, that is a shame and certainly not true IMO.
Now would be an appropriate time to make your stock comment about irony, Cunning Coney.
Nah...only stupid Americans don't get irony, and there's no educating them.
It is nice to know someone is a scholar of Socrates and Cosmic irony.
I could not agree more.
Quite makes one's day, does it not?
ok, some last ones, just cause this bizarre list made me smile (and wince)..
----------------------------
27 Things That Fell From the Sky (cont.)
19. JUDAS TREE SEEDS
Just before sunset in August 1897 an immense number of small, blood-coloured clouds filled the sky in Macerata, Italy. About an hour later, storm clouds burst and small seeds rained from the sky, covering the ground to a depth of half an inch. Many of the seeds had already started to germinate, and all of the seeds were from the Judas tree, which is found predominantly in the Middle East and Asia. There was no accompanying debris - just the Judas tree seeds.
20. FISH
About 150 perch-like silver fish dropped from the sky during a tropical storm near Killarney Station in Australia's Northern Territory in February, 1974. Fishfalls are common enough that an 'official' explanation has been developed to cover most of them. It is theorised that whirlwinds create a waterspout effect, sucking up water and fish, carrying them for great disatances and then dropping them somewhere else.
21. ICE CHUNKS
In February of 1965, a 50-lb mass of ice plunged throuh the roof of the Phillips Petroleum plant in Woods Cross, Utah. In his book, Strangest of All, Frank Edwards reported the case of a carpenter working on a roof in Kempten - near Dusseldorf, Germany - who was struck and killed in 1951 by an icicle 6 ft long and 6 in. around, which shot down from the sky.
26. HUMAN WASTE
On Sunday, October 18, 1992, Gerri and Leroy Cinnamon of Woodinville, Washington, were watching a football game on TV in their den with Gerri's parents when something crashed through the roof of their living room. 'I expected to see Superman soar through the hole,' said Leroy. Instead they found several baseball-sized chunks of greenish ice. As it melted, it began to smell bad. Tow days later the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the Cinnamons' roof had been damaged by frozen human waste from a leaky United Airline sewage system. 'It's a good thing none of us was killed,' reflected Leroy. 'What would you put on the tombstone?'
Unfortunately, falls of waste blobs are not uncommon. On April 23, 1978, for example, a 25-lb chunk landed in an unused school building in Ripley, Tennessee. Other attacks have occurred in Denver and Chicago. And then there's the story of the unfortunate Kentucky farmer who took a big lick of a flying Popsicle before he discovered what it was.
---
The Book of Lists, The Original Compendium of Curious Information, by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace.
That icicle tale makes quite an image...
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