More specifically, the birds in Arkansas (and in other parts of the world, which were less emphasized) falling out of the sky. The instant I heard about this, I thought back to a video I had seen about the impending polar magnetic shift (I'll try to find it later) describing how it would likely cause certain species of birds to become disoriented. I don't remember if it suggested they would fall out of the sky, but I do remember it suggesting that there would be random points of magnetic North and South appearing throughout the planet, which would disturb animal life.

I did a Google search and found that I'm not alone in having this theory. I am not usually a "conspiracy theorist" and I probably wouldn't have thought much of any of this, except for watching the two shifty-eyed wildlife "experts" in Arkansas, who were were suggesting it was possibly caused by fireworks. If it were that easy to kill a bird (nonetheless thousands), then I would imagine hunters would have a much easier time with it.

Remember, too, they wiped out the passenger pigeon in under a century---and their flocks numbered in the billions.

Fireworks? They certainly scare the birds, but if it were the cause, then it would happen year after year - and that is not really the case is it? Unless of course there was a new chemical in the fireworks that is reacting to the birds' chemistry. In fact, wouldn't that be a great plot for a story - a stealthy country creates the opportunity for an invasion of a neighbor by selling chemical weapons to the populous as fireworks - on New Year's day, the invasion begins.

Looking into it a little further, is was noted that there were storms (including tornadoes) in the area. So the most likely explanation (and most boring) is that the birds got caught in an updraft, going so high that there was insufficient oxygen for them to survive. Later they simply fell from this location. There have been recorded incidents of masses of fish and frogs falling out of the sky, so birds should be no surprise.

One Climate Prof. said it was just the storms they have been having recently. It's happened before, the birds get sucked up by the winds, die, then get carried along by the winds. Winds stop they fall. He said if you check the weather pattern for the storm the birds follow the storms on the same course.

or if you like conspiracies someone in government was suppose to have said... they hit the debt ceiling.

For another... birds tend to group in same-species flocks, especially at night.

I'm thinking this is what they used to call "silly season" stuff---something strange-on-the-face-of-it, that newspapers could use to fill their pages when regular news was slow.

Once there was a flock of birds found dead here, everybody was freaking out, there was a chemical plant "near" (near here meaning on the other side of one of the largest lakes in America.) They interrupted all the TV shows with pictures of the dead birds. It was kindof a letdown when the trucker called in and told them what happened. They were flying behind him, taking advantage of the air situation behind the rig, and he had to stop suddenly and they all slammed into the back of the trailer.

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Yeah I remember the summer Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped was called the summer of kidnapping and there were so many stories about it, but kidnappings were actually down that year.

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What an awesome beginning for a story.

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I remember the summer Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped. It was called the summer of kidnapping, with so many stories about it, but kidnappings were actually down that year.

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Sad....