Update: Thousands of birds fall from the sky in Beebe

Just before folks in Beebe rang in the New Year, many witnessed an uncanny resemblance to the Hitchcock movie "The Birds." About 2,000 black birds fell from the sky off Windwood Drive, leaving quite the mess to clean up.

Folks Today's THV spoke with initially thought the birds were poisoned because they are what they call a nuisance around this time every year, but they are surprised to hear it is more of a mystery.

Stephen Bryant recalls, "Millions, millions fly over every night. You look up at the sky and it's just black and then last night at about 10:30 I came out here and saw a bird drop."

In a matter of hours on New Years Eve thousands of birds fell from the sky to their death.

Melissa Weatherly says, "I immediately called mom because I had to go to work, I said you have to come get the kids and get the dog because I don't know what's going on." She continues, "It was horrible; you could not even get down the road without running over hundreds. It was that bad."

The mystery is unraveling like scenes from a movie, dozens of U.S. Environmental Services crews spent the day picking up the birds, walking between homes and climbing on roofs with protective hazmat suits and breathing masks,.

Charles Boldrey stands outside watching the crews, "Nobody knows, I asked these guys who are out here picking them up and they don't seem to know anything. Nobody seems to know anything. It just kind of freaked everybody out."

Officials with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission flew over the area and determined it's a one mile stretch. There are a variety of dead black birds, mostly red winged and a duck was also found.

No one has been evacuated because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) air test came back clean for toxins.

Weatherly is skeptical, "They're walking around in masks and I'm wondering do we need the same thing because what makes that happen for them to drop out of the sky like that."

Katherina Yancy with Today's THV found one bird still living. It was confused, injured, continuously walked in circles and didn't make a sound or attempt to fly.

Officials will confirm their findings when they get the test results, until then they are giving these possible scenarios: lightning, stress, high altitude hail or startled by fireworks, but neighbors just want answers.

Bryant says, "Something out of a movie and Hazmat people are walking around not telling us anything."

Boldrey adds, "I'd like to know. Kind of spooky, you never know what's going to happen."

The birds should be cleaned up by Sunday. Game and Fish Commission's Karen Rowe says poisoning doesn't appear to be the case and strange events similar to this have occurred across the globe a number of times.

The City of Beebe held an emergency city council meeting Saturday morning to approve paying the U.S. Environmental Services to clean the neighborhood.

Sixty-five dead birds have been sent to off for testing.

Source:  http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136195&catid=2

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