Mysterious bird deaths in Austin

[urbpan]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4454558.html

Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown early Monday after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets, but officials said preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the air.

As many as 60 dead pigeons, sparrows and grackles were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a main route through downtown. No human injuries or illnesses were reported.

The reaction to this event is interesting to me. "Canary in a coal mine" seems to be the implicit message of closing the downtown area to human business. An airborne chemical strikes me as pretty unlikely, as these three bird species aren't going to be clustered together where a concentration of gas would kill them all--what are we imagining here? A dense cloud of poison gas hovering over the city? Have they detained the Joker?

I do love an urban nature mystery, and I hope they figure this one out in a hurry. Hopefully some brainiac has made the step of ordering necropsies of the birds to see what killed them. My prediction is that they will find that the birds were deliberately poisoned.

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Grackle. That's a cool word. Grackle grackle grackle!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Here's what I wrote about Austin's grackles, in case you missed it:
http://urbpan.livejournal.com/366480.html#cutid1

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

I'd guess deliberate poisoning, too. People in urban/suburban Texas hate grackles as much as they hate pigeons. Personally, I adore grackles and their noises, but I seem to be very much in the minority.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm very confused by people who don't like urban birds. I'd like to understand it, but I don't think it's rational.

[interfecta.livejournal.com]

That's somewhat along the lines of attempting to understand the classification of fetal rabbits as fish -- a strange proposition with no doubt a stranger anthropological explanation.

On a side note, I wonder what response "the authorities" will take to this. Shaking a few scolding fingers in the vague direction of a perpetrator/s? Accusing someone of domestic terrorism? Something in the middle, or nothing at all?

[cyclelicious.livejournal.com]

Urban birds are fine, but pigeons and house sparrows are invasive species. Sparrows, especially, are bad, decimating native bird populations across the U.S. with their aggressive nest-taking and killing of eggs/hatchlings.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Right, but your average city-dweller doesn't know that. They just hate all the "flying rats."

As I'm beginning to understand, it looks like the grackles were deliberately poisoned, and the sparrows and pigeons were by-kill.

The grackles are a native (or nearly native, spreading from nearby regions) species that just happen to succeed in environments that humans have had great impacts on. I think, far from wanting to preserve nature, urban bird haters and their ilk have dreams of a sterile city, with no pesky wild animals or messy weeds.

[interfecta.livejournal.com]

What a yicky idea.

[skullfaced.livejournal.com]

I love grackles. Fortunately for me, there are /plenty/ in College Station, and the ones on campus are tame enough that I can get within a few feet to better admire the handsome plumage of the males.

And it's getting closer to spring here, which means soon they'll be singing in force!

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Y'know, being in the middle of _Silent Spring_ makes me so jumpy about EVERYTHING.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I was about to mention an interesting article I read recently on the internet about human attitudes towards urban animals, but then I realized it was your 365 species entry about humans. D'oh!

I remember visiting friends at UT in college and being warned about the annoying, evil grackles. Poor things.

[lavenderjones.livejournal.com]

How very sad...

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

All together now:
"Spring is here, spring is here
Life is skittles and life is beer
I think the loveliest time of the year
Is the spring. I do. Don't you? 'Course you do.
But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me
And makes every spring day a treat for me...
On a clear day you'll see
My sweetheart and me
As we're poisoning pigeons in
The park..."