I’m sure you knew about the 5,000 red wing blackbirds that fell to their deaths in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, but did you know about the 100,000 Drum fish that went belly-up in the Arkansas River at the same time? How about the 500 blackbirds, starlings, and sparrows that dropped dead in Kentucky? Or the 450 red wing blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds that died in Louisiana? Or the millions of spot fish that carpeted the Chesapeake Bay?
You were mistaken if you thought the carnage was an American phenomenon. During the same first few days of the new year, 100 tons of sardines came ashore in Brazil, 40,000 Devil Crabs washed up in Britain, 50 jackdaws bit the dust in Sweden, 1500 endangered and protected Sooty Shearwater birds died in Chile, and hundreds of (eyeless) snapper littered the beaches of New Zealand.
The blame has alternately been assigned to fireworks, an atmospheric disturbance, a microburst, high altitude hail, Nostradamus, and the Antichrist. The scientific community has promised a definitive answer in February. Or maybe August.
I’m glad I’m a prose-titute and not an apocalyptician.
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