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Lynn Chamberlain / AP
A Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee frees some surviving grebes on Dec. 13 at Stratton Pond in Hurricane, Utah, after thousands of the birds crash landed throughout Southern Utah on Monday night.
Thousands of birds died on impact after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot and other areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground in what one wildlife expert called the worst downing she's ever seen.
Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the survivors after the creatures crash-landed in the St. George area Monday night.
By Tuesday evening, volunteers had rescued more than 2,000 birds, releasing them into nearby bodies of water.
"They're just everywhere," Teresa Griffin, wildlife program manager for the Utah Department of Wildlife Resource's southern region, told The Spectrum newspaper in St. George. "It's been nonstop. All our employees are driving around picking them up, and we've got so many people coming to our office and dropping them off."
Officials say stormy conditions probably confused the flock of grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird likely making its way to Mexico for the winter. The birds tried to land in a Cedar City Wal-Mart parking lot and elsewhere.
"The storm clouds over the top of the city lights made it look like a nice, flat body of water. All the conditions were right," Griffin said. "So the birds landed to rest, but ended up slamming into the pavement."
No human injuries or property damage have been reported.
Griffin noted most of the downings she's seen have been localized, "but this was very widespread."
"I've been here 15 years and this was the worst downing I've seen," she told the newspaper.
Officials said they were continuing a rescue effort that started Tuesday afternoon and included an enthusiastic group of volunteers. The surviving grebes were released into bodies of water in southern Utah's Washington County, including a pond near Hurricane.
"If we can put them on a body of water that's not frozen over, they'll have a better chance of survival," said Lynn Chamberlain, a wildlife department spokesman.
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Leave a Comment:
These birds sound like lemmings. I feel bad for them.
OOOOWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHH KAMIKAZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See what Walmart can do for our country!! They not only bring in worst products made in China and can make their parking lots a killing field for migratory birds as well. :(
Does this mean bird hunters in Utah are going to start setting up duck blinds around Walmart parking lots now?
Wal-Mart is going to start importing some anti-air munitions to guard against more instances of this clear act of war.
Ruken, are you saying "Target" was behind this?
No, it was the sudden stop that killed them!
This is not normal or natural. We will soon lose all that is good and gain the opposite.
It's that cloaked alien ship near Mercury that the government is trying to cover up. 1st the birds, then the cows, next it will be Z day!
D, ever heard of black ice? Southern Utah does not generally get cold enough to snow, but it can get cold enough for large areas of asphalt and concrete to ice over. I can easily see how birds would mistake the lot for a lake or pond. C'mon, how many times have we seen a bird think that a window is actually an opening and slam into it? They're birds, they don't know any better.
Sorry Catsclaw81, I disagree that birds don't know any better. I know they know the same reality about their planet as we do. I am not sure I know where the perception came from that animals were not intelligent. How can they live with the same reality of the planet when they cannot understand? They did not make a mistake because after some of them fell and died the others would not stupidly follow. There is enough evidence to suggest that the amount of pollutant in the air or geographical changes in the atmosphere can cause that to happen.
Bulla2, You are right about the birds knowing about the natural world but they don't know about the man made world. They hit wondows because they see a reflections of trees in those windows, and black ice can look like water. In places like Chicago the city lights confuse the birds, hence during migratory seasons millions hit these buildings and fall to their death. The city is working with the owners of the buildings to keep as many lights off as possible when the birds are migrating. It is not just birds, now many animals are killed by vehicles everyday? I can ride a tractor in the fields and see all kinds of wildlife but once I shut it off and get off the animals take flight. They have no fear of machinary just humans.
Of course this is the type of news that comes from my hometown...way to keep it real STG
as long as man continues to dominate the earth all wildlife is in danger!!!!!
When animals dominate the earth, man will be gone. How does that suit you?
daffy duck to sue walfart for illegal pavement ponds
It's another "a-flock-alypse".... Squack squack.... (see SNL...)
Trick here is when the leaders of the flock choose to land the rest blindly follow so you o not have to fool them all just the leaders. I read something else about massive bird and fish kills
kinda like war and politics...go here, kill there, fear this, hate that
More like voters who follow their propagandist to their eventual demise.
Guess this is why we use the word "bird brain" when referring to someone who is an idiot....
Not really, Long Haired...how many times have you seen humans accidentally bump into a glass door or birds fly into polished windows? Illusion is a tricky thing. We really don't need to wipe out MORE wildlife. I blame Walmart.
So True lol. Just that word came to mind right away when I read this article.
Can you navigate thousands of miles without a road map? Birds do so all of the time. So do salmon.
Funny how the birds choose a Wal-Mart parking lot in which to kill themselves.
Hmmm, mexican birds flying into a walmart. Nope. I'm not going there.
Like my wife kills my money
Wait, you're telling me the parking lots were in good enough shape to be seen as bodies of water when they were wet?
That's right. The undulations looked like waves, the broken surface like rough water.
The culprit is the asphalt on Wal-Malt's parking lot. It was like a mirage under the weather conditions prevalent at the time of grebes flying over. All parking lots should be paved in a color of asphalt that does not resemble darkened water to deter this type of accidental mass casualty by our avian friends. Where are all the nature lovers in Utah?
Um, most asphalt I've seen is black. Just plain black. Where have you seen colored asphalt? Besides, when it is nighttime and covered in slick ice, it can be dark and shimmery no matter what the surface color.
Still, you'd think the yellow lines might have been a warning or something.
humans are dominate KILL ALL WILDLIFE they prey on each other WTF
Just goes to show that WalMart's for the birds. Buy AMERICAN!
Why can't this sort of thing ever happen to politicians?
In other news, Walmart now plans to carry duck meat in its frozen foods section. Prices are expect to vary with flock migration patterns.
For me, there's a lesson in nature... and this was wildlife (nature) vs. civilization. It got to me, made me feel an intense sadness for the destruction of these wild birds. At the same time, I was impressed by the outpouring of human beings determined to help them as best as possible.
The lesson? Appearances are deceiving, proceed cautiously through life? Yes. Kindness of an alien species (us in this case)?
Kindness, although unexpected, and certainly not to be counted upon, is a quality of enrichment, of survival... for those needing to be helped, and those who are helping.
Bye george, isn't that around the same place in utah, where the 26 million bees overturned during the summer or some months ago, talk about the birds and the bee's in the beehive state, no wonder people arn't getting married as much as they used to,ect........jff
They probably just realised "oh god, we're in UTAH"
Paint stop signs on the parking lots. Wait, birds can't read. Put parrots and mynah birds on the parking lots to tell the other birds to stop.
Why do about 98% of the comments here just make jokes about this? It's a really sad commentary on some people's sense of 'humor'. This is no more comical than when pods of whales beach themselves - for reasons we don't really understand.
And how about the human drivers who actually crash into other vehicles parked on the side of a highway, or run over the emergency personnel who are there to help the stalled vehicle.
Yeah man, let's laugh at them too!!! Wow, the jokes we could make about those idiots - or isn't that 'funny?'
Vicki, 98% come on! Your math is off because most of the posts are true stories!
Serious story:
The state bird of Utah is the sea gull, because thousands of them got blown off course many years ago, and ended up in Utah and saved the harvest by gobbling up millions of cricketts that had descended onto the fields during the summer of 1848.
Utah has a thing with storm-blown migrating bird flocks.
Not sure I believe your story about the gulls being storm-blown, we do have large bodies of water here that attract water loving birds. I see them all over the place around Utah Lake.
Thanks for the correction. I thought I had remembered a storm, but apparently the gulls were already nesting on the Great Salt Lake, and just exploited what was in their own backyard. Good to learn something every day.
Oh, the humanit---never mind.
Avianity?
missedmark & KZNo2,
Although it's late for you to ever see this posting, if you happen to see it, you two should take that show on the road. Best laugh I've had in a good while.
This reminds me of a WKRP episode where they threw turkey's out of a plane because they thought they could fly. I'm not makeing light of the situation, in fact it makes me sad, I'm just saying.
Loni Anderson......'nuff said.....
As God is my witness ... I thought turkeys could fly.
Wild turkeys can fly, just not the fat white birds they call turkey on Thanksgiving tables.
@missedmark9751 !!! Way to go!!
Cue Les Nesman: "Oh, the humanity"
Same thing happens all the time on that stupid blue football field at Boise St.
Maybe the birds ate some of those funky berries that make them drunk and cause them to go berzerk.
Beev those birds were texans
Actually very slight changes in earth magnetic fields which exist worldwide can cause directional errors in birds. And a large parking lot lit up with high intensity, high voltage lighting is enough to cause such a change by interacting and interfering with the normal fields. It is not only birds that are affected by this but sea life, butterflies, and numerous other of our creatures can be also affected by man-made causes.
One more reason Wal Mart should vanish from the earth.