Slightly OT - dead birds

[Daveyk]

Went for a ride this morning in towns west of Boston. There were an unusual number of dead birds on the road. Any theories on why this may be... time of year, weather, coincidence, bad omen?

[Dead Man]

You're probably going to die.

[eddief]

canaries in a coal mine. climate change. we're next.

[Daveyk]

Thanks. I feel better now.

[QUOTE=Dead Man;2183814]You're probably going to die.

[nighthawk]

If near the road... car strikes. If near buildings... ran into the glass. More this time of year? Many species have just completed their migration north returning to breeding/nesting grounds.. so that could account for the uptick.

And.. momma bird never taught them to look both ways before crossing.

[MattTuck]

probably just coincidence. Not saying that birds aren't in decline due to habitat loss and pollution, but a single ride is unlikely to be a representative sample.

If you are interested in this kind of thing, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great citizen science program called eBird (any time) and The Great Backyard Bird Count (next one is in February).

http://gbbc.birdcount.org

[Tickdoc]

Sometimes pesticide application can cause a large die-off like that.

[PacNW2Ford]

Plus, birds have a very fast metabolism, when they bonk, they die.

[dgauthier]

Originally Posted by Daveyk

Went for a ride this morning in towns west of Boston. There were an unusual number of dead birds on the road. Any theories on why this may be... time of year, weather, coincidence, bad omen?

How many? Five: it's seasonal, and you just never noticed before. Five thousand: we're all going to die!

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by dgauthier

How many? Five: it's seasonal, and you just never noticed before. Five thousand: we're all going to die!

Or he just rode past a wind turbine... or a cat lady's house!

[Dead Man]

Originally Posted by nighthawk

or a cat lady's house!

I was a PM for a commercial construction company that did a lot of assisted living facilities... I was just absolutely appalled by the number of dead birds that surrounded all the bird-feeders all the old ladies had posted outside their patio doors. Bird ladies brought 'em in, and cat ladies' cats just had a damn hayday

I mean we're talking hundreds of dead birds carcasses around these buildings

[Daveyk]

It was more than five and a lot less than five thousand.

I am going with seasonal affect + bad day coincidence.
Then, once I started noticing it seemed like an epidemic.
Each one became more memorable than the last.

The pesticide explanation is bothersome and plausible.

Originally Posted by dgauthier

How many? Five: it's seasonal, and you just never noticed before. Five thousand: we're all going to die!

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

Sometimes pesticide application can cause a large die-off like that.

Furdan (carbofuran) the pesticide blamed for bird deaths has been ban is the US since 2007 or so.

[Seramount]

what species...?

all the same or a mixture...?

details help.

[Richard]

Maybe an outbreak of West Nile virus. It kills birds in relatively large numbers.