Sterling, Kansas - A central Kansas family hopes to learn what caused the deaths of dozens of birds that fell from trees outside their house.
Elizabeth Stange says it started with one or two birds tumbling to the ground Thursday afternoon, followed by dozens more. The Sterling woman told KWCH-TV that the birds all died within minutes of each other.
By evening, Stange says, she and her family collected about 50 birds from their driveway and yard.
Stange says a local veterinarian told her the birds probably ate something poisonous. But a few were sent to Kansas State University for a closer look.
At one point, Stange's family worried about leaving the house for fear of being hit by a falling bird. She calls the episode bizarre.
Animals
Wethersfield Connecticut -- A rough winter is causing a smelly spring. Dead fish are popping up in ponds and reservoirs across Connecticut, and while it's a natural occurrence, it's more widespread thanks to this year's winter weather.
Wethersfield's 1860 reservoir is a picturesque place and serene spot. For Nate Wierzbicki, it's his back yard.
"If I'm home, I'm out there," Wierzbicki said. "If I'm free I'll be out there catching some sun and some bass."
Sea turtles continue to wash ashore along the Gulf, forcing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to scramble and figure out what is causing the spike. Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Huffington Post were first to publish blogs about the sea turtle deaths in Mississippi.
Since then, the national media picked up the story. Last Friday, NMFS released a statement with some details about its investigation:
Since then, the national media picked up the story. Last Friday, NMFS released a statement with some details about its investigation:
In the past few weeks, we've seen an increase in turtle strandings in the northern Gulf, primarily in Mississippi. The spring time is the typical time when turtle strandings in this region begin to increase, but the sharp increases in recent days are of concern to us....NOAA Fisheries is in contact with the states of MS and LA regarding current trawl and other fishery activity that can result in turtle by catch and mortality. In addition, tests will be done for biotoxins, such as those from harmful algae blooms, which are common in the Gulf. ...All causes of death, including petroleum, will be investigated when possible based on decomposition. During a necropsy, the full GI tract is examined for product or evidence of oil ingestion. Additionally, samples are taken for PAH analysis. In addition, all turtles are being carefully examined for signs of external oiling.
Dead dolphins spotted with oil have been washing up in eastern Louisiana.(Courtesy of Gulf Coast Exploreum )
New Orleans - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that eight months after the Deepwater Horizon oil well was capped, dolphins are washing ashore in east Louisiana with some oil from that spilled on their bodies.
Spokeswoman Kim Amendola says the dolphins had spots of weathered oil.
Blair Mase - NOAA's Gulf Coast stranding coordinator - emphasizes there's no way yet to know why the dolphins died. She says the most recent dolphin bearing BP oil was found two weeks ago.
© BBC
The rats are unlikely to stay in the desert for long.
The rats are unlikely to stay in the desert for long.
A mass migration of rats is under way into the inland deserts of Australia after a run of high rainfall seasons, scientists say.
The native long-haired rat, or Rattus villosissimus, normally lives in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory and in western Queensland.
But now it has been spotted in Alice Springs for the first time in 25 years.
"Some of them get up to about 30cm [12in] long - fair lump of a rat," livestock manager Chris Giles said.
"They will run around and hide under a little bit of shrub there, and you can get pretty close to them," Mr Giles, a stockman on the Northern Territory's Lake Nash Station, told Australia's ABC News.
"I nearly caught one the other day."
Plymouth, Minnesota -- Like a lot of Minnesotans, Bruce Wahlstrom was happy to see the ice disappearing from his lake he lives on.
Then, he noticed what was underneath.
"I actually saw it last night as the ice started to melt back," said Wahlstrom. "This morning, it's just tons of dead fish."
Hundreds of dead fish are washed up on Wahlstrom's property on Schmidt Lake in Plymouth, or floating in the shallow water. He knows the recipe for a fish kill: Early, heavy snow piles up on the ice, making it impossible for sunlight to reach the bottom of a lake. The lack of natural light then keeps plant life from creating oxygen. If the winter is long enough, and the heavy snow lasts, fish eventually run out of oxygen to breathe and die.
© News4Jax.com
St. Augustine, Florida. -- A little after midnight, St. Augustine police discovered thousands of bristleworms swimming in Vilano Beach.
Cpl. Brandon Embrey, of St. Augustine Police was one of the first to find these creepy crawlers, and he said he couldn't believe his eyes.
"There had to be millions of them, I couldn't see the bottom. All I could see was red," said Embrey.
Embrey also said they started to disappear because mullet were attacking them.
Dr. Quinton White, a professor of marine biologist at Jacksonville University, saw the video from Vilano Beach and said it was a classic bristleworm mating frenzy. He said it happens every year when salt water warms up.
It's unclear what has killed hundreds of fish in a Northside pond.
Jacksonville, Florida -- People living near a Northside pond said toxic chemicals from a construction site may be what has killed hundreds of fish.
Residents who live near the pond off Oak Lawn Road said they've enjoyed the pond for years, calling it a place of relaxation where they can appreciate nature and do a little bit of fishing from time to time.
But they said that, over the weekend, the pond developed a strong odor and had dead fish floating all over it.
© Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development
Webbed Trees
Webbed Trees
"Any kind of vegetation that was above ground was affected, literally every kind of tree and bush," Watkins said of the widespread spider webs.
While unusual, trees cocooned in spider webs are not unprecedented. Scientists have reported similar webs in other parts of the world, the tropics in particular. In 2007, for instance, a superintendent at Lake Tawokoni State Park in Texas discovered a giant spider web among the trees.
Watkins said he didn't know which type of spider was responsible for the tree cocoons in Sindh. But in the case of Lake Tawokoni, scientists determined that dozens of spider species were spinning the communal webs.
© Unknown
In NSW alone there have been 87 confirmed cases of the unidentified illness.
While tests conducted by the NSW Department of Industry and Investment have ruled out Hendra virus, AVA president Dr Barry Smyth believes the illness may be the result of a mosquito-borne disease.
"Diseases associated with mosquitoes are very uncommon in normal years," he said.
