Earth ChangesS


Attention

More birds fall out of the sky, this time in Sweden

Christer Olofsson
© Björn Larsson Rosvall/ScanpixChrister Olofsson, rescue preparedness director, with dead bird in Falköping.

A county veterinarian has speculated that the birds that fell from the sky in central Sweden on Tuesday may have been frightened by fireworks, then run over by a car after landing on the road in the dark.

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, residents found 50 to 100 jackdaws on a street in Falköping southeast of Skövde. The incident echoed a number of unexplained incidents earlier this week across the southern US.

County veterinarian Robert ter Horst believes that the birds may have been literally scared to death by fireworks set off on Tuesday night.

"We have received information from local residents last night. Our main theory is that the birds were scared away because of the fireworks and landed on the road, but couldn't fly away from the stress and were hit by a car," he explained to The Local on Wednesday.

He added that they likely had difficulty orienting themselves in the dark and although they have received one report involving a vehicular collision with the birds, ter Horst believes they may have been hit by more.

"We will continue to look at whether there are other theories, but then we have to do an autopsy on the birds. The birds just now are in a car on the way to a laboratory in Uppsala. We don't know exactly what happened yet, but we will continue the investigation," he added.

ter Horst noted that he has also received some reports about pigeons, but the incident has happened too quickly to assume that it is related to the untimely demise of the jackdaws.

Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Magnitude 6.3 - Southeast of The Loyalty Islands

Loyalty Isld Quake_050111
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 at 06:46:17 UTC

Wednesday, January 05, 2011 at 05:46:17 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
22.304°S, 171.595°E

Depth:
135.9 km (84.4 miles)

Region:
SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS

Distances:
50 km (30 miles) WNW of Ile Hunter, Loyalty Isl., New Caledonia

315 km (195 miles) WSW of Ceva-i-Ra, Fiji

530 km (330 miles) E of NOUMEA, New Caledonia

1635 km (1020 miles) NNW of Auckland, New Zealand

Bizarro Earth

Victoria river mysteriously turns bright green

Image
© Jane London/HandoutThe water in Goldstream River, at Goldstream Provincial Park, Victoria, flows a bright green, Dec. 29, 2010.
Victoria, British Columbia - Horrified nature-lovers at Goldstream Provincial Park watched as the Goldstream River turned bright green late Wednesday afternoon.

The fluorescent green colouring appeared to start about 500 metres on the Victoria side of the entrance to the park and, over the course of an hour, the substance flowed down into the environmentally sensitive estuary.

By 5:30 p.m. the river, known for its dramatic salmon runs, eagles and other wildlife, was back to its normal colour.

Igloo

Freezing weather leads to south China evacuations

Beijing - Freezing temperatures have forced the evacuation of nearly 60,000 people from their homes and caused more than $200 million in economic losses in southern China, the government said Wednesday.

Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of more than 1,200 homes and forced the evacuation of 58,000 people across the southern regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported.

Freezing weather has also damaged nearly 300,000 acres of crops, including cabbage and rice, and caused about $203.8 million in economic losses across southern China, the ministry said.

Umbrella

Australia: Reptiles roam free as Queensland's flooding reaches highest levels yet, global seaborne coal market down 40 percent

Image
© UnknownAn aerial view of partially submerged houses in flooded Theodore in Australia' s state of Queensland
They have already been described as being of "Biblical proportions" but last night the Australian city of Rockhampton was bracing itself for even worse as flood waters were expected to reach their highest levels.

In the growing crisis military aircraft were rushing to get supplies to residents, to whom there is now only one land access route left.

Police were desperately urging people to stay out of the snake-infested waters, that have so far claimed the lives of three people.

More than 500 homes in the city have been evacuated but some residents are refusing to leave, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.

In other areas of Queensland, residents were beginning the recovery process, while others prepared for fresh floods.

The major highway through the city looks more like a major river. Were it not for the tops of road signs poking out it would be unrecognisable as one of Australia's main arterial routes.

Igloo

40,000 'devil' crabs wash up on Kent coast after dying from hypothermia in freezing sea

Thousands of dead crabs have washed up along the Kent coast, with environmental experts believing the cold weather in Britain is to blame.

The velvet swimming crabs - also called devil crabs - are thought to be victims of Britain's coldest December in 120 years, which left sea temperatures much lower than average.
Image
Triste hallazgo: El Dr Alasdair Bruce, uno de los expertos que estudia los cangrejos muertos. Es el segundo año seguido que las playas han quedado colmadas de cangrejos

More than 40,000 of the crabs - Britain's largest swimming crab - are littering beaches around Thanet, along with smaller numbers of whelks, sponges and anemones.

Coastal warden Tony Sykes said: 'We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.

'They could also be attracted to these waters looking for kelp, to feed on.

'We believe the sudden temperature drop causes the crabs to suffer from hypothermia and die.'

It is the second year in a row that icy temperatures have killed sea creatures in such large numbers.

Attention

Hundreds of dead snapper washed up on New Zealand beach

Dead snapper in New Zealand
© DesconocidoPesca del horror – peces muertos flotando y sobre las orillas en la Península de Coromandel
Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches on the North Island of New Zealand, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

The mysterious incident came as the southern United States was hit with a second unexplained mass bird death within a week.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

"It was so surreal," she said. "It's such an incredible waste - it could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel."

Hourglass

Now HUNDREDS More Birds Fall from the Sky in Kentucky and Louisiana and Tens of THOUSANDS of Dead Fish Wash Ashore

More dead birds and fish
© AP PhotoHundreds of dead birds lay along the side of the highway in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, about 300 miles south of the thousands dead in Arkansas
The mystery over thousands of birds raining from the sky in America deepened today after hundreds more plunged to their deaths in different parts of the country.

Scientists said that New Year's Eve fireworks might have been to blame for the 3,000 blackbirds that died in a small town in Arkansas.

But they were forced to order more tests last night after 500 birds plummeted to the ground 360 miles away in Louisiana on Monday and dozens more died in Kentucky.

And just a 100 miles away from the Arkansas mass bird kill, at least 83,000 dead and dying fish washed ashore - possibly as many as 100,000.

The Internet has been abuzz with conspiracy theories about secret government testing and a looming Armageddon.

Experts insist a link between the bizarre incidents is unlikely.

Comment: For more information and additional analysis of the strange events in Arkansas read

And They March! The Strange Tale of the Beebe Blackbirds


Cloud Precipitation

Icy Rains Force 58,000 to Evacuate in Southern China

Image
© ReutersFrozen plants are seen as vehicles travel on a highway in Guiyang, Guizhou province January 3, 2011.
Torrential icy rain across five provinces in southern China has forced 58,000 people to evacuate from their damaged homes, causing economic losses of $203.8 million, the ministry of civil affairs said on Wednesday.

Freezing rain has pummeled the provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou in the past few days, killing one person and causing more than 1,200 houses to collapse, the ministry added.

The harsh weather in southern China, where winter is usually relatively mild, has damaged 142,400 hectares of crops in the provinces that produce rice, timber and coal and caused economic losses of 1.35 billion yuan ($203.8 million) as of Tuesday, the ministry added.

In southwestern Guizhou province, 22,800 people were forced to evacuate from their homes on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Igloo

More than 20,000 Evacuated from Homes in Southern China Due to Freezing Temperatures

Image
© unknown
Freezing temperatures have forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from their homes in southern China, as the region braces for more temperature drops in the coming days.

Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of more than 200 homes and forced the evacuation of 22,800 people across the southern province of Guizhou, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday. Thousands of cars were stranded and some ice-covered roads were closed, the report said.

"People, especially those living in the mountains and the elderly, are being evacuated from their homes," a Guizhou Meteorological Bureau official, surnamed Zhao, said Wednesday. "Roads and homes with poor infrastructure are being impacted by the icy conditions."