(Posted by Jason Frank <[email protected]> via moumn.org) Today at 12:10 PM, I found 21 dead Tree Swallows in the middle of Lac qui Parle CR 12 at the south end of Sweetwater State WMA.
They were all clustered together within 10 yards of each other. Here are the facts: A few of them were mangled from having been run over by vehicles, but the majority were in pristine condition. That is, no evidence of external trauma: no swelling, no contusions, no lost feathers or broken bones, no bleeding. When I found them they were still soft and warm, so rigor mortis had not set in yet. Every bird's eyes were closed. >From this, I concluded: They must've all died at the same time, and appear to have fallen from the air collectively, as a flock. So, the question is: What could cause such a thing to happen? I cannot reasonably imagine 21 birds simultaneously starving or freezing to death and collapsing at a single location together. There were other swallows, and other insect-eating birds active, in the immediate vicinity at time of discovery. And if it had been impact- related, there should've been signs of trauma. I have photos. I have never seen anything like this before. For several years now there have been reports of large flocks of birds falling dead from the sky in similarly concentrated numbers. Has anyone come across such a scene before? If anyone has any theories or ideas, please share them with me. I have saved and frozen 7 specimens if anyone is interested in running some tests. Jason Frank Lac qui Parle ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
