'No one knows why more than 200 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in South Jersey.'
Just ahead of Thanksgiving, scores of dead birds rained down on Cumberland County.
It was the second time in less than a month that saw birds mysteriously die, with a similar
incident occurring in a North Jersey farming area earlier this year.
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=979]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=979)
“They just fell from the sky,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
spokesperson Larry Hanja told philly.com.
Following the most recent incident, DEP’s division of Fish and Wildlife cleaned up
the birds and collected some to send off to the state lab for necropsy, toxicology
and histopathology tests.
“We did ascertain that the birds suffered trauma and internal bleeding from hitting
the ground,” Hanja told the news outlet. “But what made them fall from the sky in
the first place ... we can’t say for certain.”
Hanja said experts still can’t fully rule out pesticide poisoning, but testing on
wheat seeds from a nearby farm also yielded no answers.
The seed had been treated with the fungicides difenoconazole, mefenoxam
and sedaxane as well as the insecticide imidacloprid, but none of those chemicals
are harmful to birds, Hanja told philly.com.
This isn’t the first time birds have rained down on New Jersey — in 2012, a die-off
of blackbirds in Millville was traced back to a farmer’s legal use of an avicide.
Thanks to their large population, no permit is required for farmers or other
landowners to poison blackbirds if they're causing damage...'
SOURCE:
“We did ascertain that the birds suffered trauma and internal bleeding
from hitting the ground,” Hanja told the news outlet...'
So did they fly into something they couldn't see?
Just ahead of Thanksgiving, scores of dead birds rained down on Cumberland County.
It was the second time in less than a month that saw birds mysteriously die, with a similar
incident occurring in a North Jersey farming area earlier this year.
“They just fell from the sky,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
spokesperson Larry Hanja told philly.com.
Following the most recent incident, DEP’s division of Fish and Wildlife cleaned up
the birds and collected some to send off to the state lab for necropsy, toxicology
and histopathology tests.
“We did ascertain that the birds suffered trauma and internal bleeding from hitting
the ground,” Hanja told the news outlet. “But what made them fall from the sky in
the first place ... we can’t say for certain.”
Hanja said experts still can’t fully rule out pesticide poisoning, but testing on
wheat seeds from a nearby farm also yielded no answers.
The seed had been treated with the fungicides difenoconazole, mefenoxam
and sedaxane as well as the insecticide imidacloprid, but none of those chemicals
are harmful to birds, Hanja told philly.com.
This isn’t the first time birds have rained down on New Jersey — in 2012, a die-off
of blackbirds in Millville was traced back to a farmer’s legal use of an avicide.
Thanks to their large population, no permit is required for farmers or other
landowners to poison blackbirds if they're causing damage...'
SOURCE:
“We did ascertain that the birds suffered trauma and internal bleeding
from hitting the ground,” Hanja told the news outlet...'
So did they fly into something they couldn't see?
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.
