Birds Invade Town: Thousands Of Crows Descend On Pennsylvania College

Agent_286 · Feb 16, 2012

Birds Invade Town: Thousands Of Crows Descend On Pennsylvania College

Huffington Post | Posted: 2/14/12

Thousands of crows have descended on a small Pennsylvania college town, disrupting life for students and residents who have had to deal with relentless noise and bird droppings that sound "like raindrops falling," CBS Pittsburgh reports.

Residents of California, Pa., a town 35 miles south of Pittsburgh, which is home to the California University of Pennsylvania, said the birds start arriving at dusk and hang out overnight, leaving a huge mess on the tops of houses, cars and everything in between.

"At 7 in the morning, it's louder than my alarm," resident Jess Priest told Channel 11 News.

"It's really bad. It keeps us up at night. They go to the bathroom everywhere. Our cars get destroyed," another resident, Jen Sasko, told the station.

Bree Robinson, a student at California University of Pennsylvania, told reporters that residents have been trying different tactics to scare off the birds, but nothing seems to work.

"One day I was so mad I said I was going to build a scarecrow. I didn't know if they actually worked. I put it in the tree and it didn't," Robinson told CBS Pittsburgh.

As for the California University of Pennsylvania, staff members have tried setting up laser lights and diffusing a plant-based "fog" to keep them off campus property, according to the Associated Press. Unfortunately, the birds have responded by moving to other areas of the town.

Earlier this year, residents of La Grange, Kan., were puzzled when thousands of black birds settled into the town at night and took off in the morning in large hordes, Wave3.com reported.

When residents contacted city officials to find out why the birds were invading, they were directed to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which distributed canons to scare them off.

But experts interviewed by CNN about the La Grange invasion told reporters that among starlings and other birds, the behavior is not that uncommon and is called "murmuration."

The phenomenon of mass bird deaths may be even more puzzling. Earlier this year, hundreds of dead birds in Arkansas and Norway fell from the sky, possibly due to fireworks or a depletion of food, though neither of the two theories have been confirmed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/birds-invade-town-pennsylvania_n_1276765.html
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There have been many new episodes of weird bird and animal behavior that have surprised ornithologists that study bird behavior, such as unexpected large amounts of birds crashing to earth in the middle of winter, others very far off their migratory flight patterns, others attracted by ice think it is a lake and crash onto highways.

When the timing of migration is off, it is for some reason such as looking for food, a shifting of climate patterns, ie: el Nino, or loss of habitat due to climate change, pollution, or soil contamination dooming the growth of plant life.

Taxcutter · Feb 16, 2012

Wanna get rid of them? Fill up a crop chemical application plane with a solution of Dawn dishwashing detergent and spray it over their roosts at night.

Anders Hoveland · Feb 25, 2012

Birds have already invaded my university. Every evening it is like something out of Alfred Hitchcock's film!

waltky · Sep 9, 2014

Granny says dis story is for the birds...

Climate change threatens 50% of US birds
Wed, Sep 10, 2014 - CALL TO ACTION: A study, considered conservative, says 314 North American bird species face dramatic declines. Ten states plus Washington could lose their state birds

Half of North Americas bird species, from common backyard visitors like the Baltimore oriole and the rufous hummingbird to wilderness dwellers such as the common loon and bald eagle, are under threat from climate change and many could become extinct, a study said. If present trends continue, 314 species face dramatic declines in population as warmer temperatures push birds out of their traditional ranges. Ten states and Washington could lose their state birds, the study said. It is hard to imagine that we are not going to lose some of these birds permanently, said Gary Langham, head scientist for the National Audubon Society and leader of the seven-year study. The scale of disruption we are projecting means that many familiar sounds, and many familiar birds that people may see in their backyards and on their walks, that help them define a place for them, may no longer be there.

The findings are much bleaker than a US government report in 2010 on the fate of North Americas birds, which suggested ocean and Arctic birds would be the most vulnerable to climate change. An updated version of that report was due out yesterday. The Audubon researchers said that on present trends, 126 of the 588 bird species in the study would lose more than half of their traditional ranges and would go into decline by mid-century. Another 188 species would lose their range by 2080.

A bald eagle returns to its nest after catching a fish at the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in the US state of Maryland

Maryland would lose the Baltimore oriole, the mascot for the baseball team as well as the state bird, which would no longer be able to breed in the mid-Atlantic. Louisianas brown pelican is under threat and Minnesota would lose the common loon, its state bird, which would be unable to survive in the continental US. Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont and Washington DC would also lose their state birds, the study said. The bald eagle, once considered a success story for US conservation, could lose 75 percent of its range by 2080. Some birds, such as the trumpeter swan, would lose virtually all of their range toward the end of the century, the study said. The study said 274 birds would maintain or increase their ranges under climate change. However, even if the birds find room to expand, they could face renewed competition from other species, as well as new predators.

The researchers drew on more than a century of observations from birdwatchers, as well as a 40-year historical record from the US Geological Survey, combining the data with 17 climate models. Audubon chief executive David Yarnold described the findings as a call to action. The group is calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, as well as measures to preserve habitats and give the birds a better chance of survival. Langham said that the study did not take into account other factors associated with climate change such as rising sea levels, which can flood marshes and other bird habitats with saltwater; drought, which can kill off insects and other food sources; or extreme storms. As a result, it was likely to be a conservative assessment of the threats facing birdlife, he said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/09/10/2003599437
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See also:

Growing threat to American birds, says report
9 September 2014 ~ In less than 50 years, some states such as New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, have lost almost half their bird populations.

Martha the passenger pigeon, who died 100 years ago, is being remembered this month as a prescient symbol of what can happen when man meets nature. A comprehensive new report finds that many more American bird species could meet the same fate. Passenger pigeons were once the most common bird in North America - if not the world- but rapid land development in the 19th Century forced them from their natural forest habitat. Huge flocks descended on farms, destroying crops and livelihoods, and their doom was sealed. Considered a major pest (and a valuable source of meat and feathers), they were relentlessly hunted down. On 1 September 1914, round about noon, Martha, the last of her species, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Ectopistes migratorius, once numbering in the billions, joined the ranks of the dodo and the great auk.

The evening grosbeak is a new addition to the endangered birds list

One hundred years later, it is tempting think that we know better. But as a new report today makes clear, birds across the US are in deep trouble. "Right now, about a third of all bird species in the US are in decline," says Steve Holmer of the American Bird Conservancy, one of the 23 organisations that contributed to the State of the Birds report, the most comprehensive review of bird trends and data ever undertaken in the US. "The decline points to a very broad-scale problem where we're seeing habitat loss and a variety of threats," he says. "We're particularly concerned about the birds that live in deserts and grasslands in the West, such as the sage grouse. These lands are being heavily used and there's a great deal of oil and gas development, so it's created a huge conservation challenge." Birds living on the coasts are faring no better. Almost half of all shorebird species, such as ruddy turnstones, red knots and piping plovers, are either endangered or at risk of becoming endangered.

Conservation has helped the loon survive

In Hawaii the situation is even worse. "Hawaii is the extinction capital of the world," says Pete Marra, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Migratory Bird Center. "We've seen about 10 extinctions in the past 40 years and all 33 species of endemic Hawaiian birds are in trouble." Avian malaria is one of the biggest threats facing Hawaiian birds. The birds have no natural immunity to the disease. "There are other invasive species there like cats, rats and mongoose," says Marra. "Biologists are working very hard to create enclosures to protect bird populations and keep those invasive species out or even remove them."

Birds brought back from the brink of extinction
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waltky · Jan 27, 2017

Uncle Ferd thinks he got the bird flu `cause his g/f always hen-peckin' him...

WHO warns of worrisome flu in China
Fri, Jan 27, 2017 - CAUSING CONCERN: Avian influenza typically infects people who raise, slaughter, sell or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases

After a spate of deaths from bird flu among patients in China, the WHO has warned all nations to watch for outbreaks in poultry flocks and to promptly report any human cases. Several strains of avian flu are spreading in Europe and Asia this winter, but the most worrisome at present is an H7N9 strain that has circulated in China every winter since 2013. China has reported more than 225 human cases since September last year, an unusually high number. As the nations Lunar New Year vacation starts, live poultry shipments increase and holiday travelers often spread the flu.

The fatality rate is not yet known, because some victims are still hospitalized, but WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said this week that China had more than 1,000 cases in the past four years, of which 39 percent were fatal. All countries must detect and report human cases promptly, she said. We cannot afford to miss the early signals. The flu typically infects people who raise, sell, slaughter or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases that worry health officials.

Travelers rest on a bench at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station ahead of the Lunar New Year in China on Wednesday. China has reported more than 225 human cases of avian flu since September last year and holiday travelers often spread the disease.

Both were older men with a history of poultry contact. One apparently infected a daughter who cared for him and the other his hospital roommate. The Hong Kong Department of Health this week warned residents traveling to mainland China to avoid live poultry markets. More than 9 percent of samples from markets in Guangdong Province contained the H7N9 virus, a substantial reading, the department said. The swabs are typically taken from cages, sewage gutters, feeding troughs, and chopping and defeathering machines.

Since November last year, nearly 40 nations have reported finding potentially dangerous flu strains in poultry flocks or in captured or dead wild birds. They include a new H5N6 strain, H5N8 and H5N5. There have also been sporadic cases of H5N1, a strain with a 60 percent fatality rate that caused great alarm more than a decade ago. It has caused almost 400 confirmed deaths since 2003, but has not evolved the ability to transmit easily between people. Since the highly contagious, but relatively mild H1N1 swine flu circled the globe in 2009, the world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic, but not at all well enough, Chan said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2017/01/27/2003663903
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Margot2 · Jan 27, 2017

Sometimes when you have a warm spell this time of year they eat fermented berries, get drunk and fall out of the sky.

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