WITH SO MUCH NONSENSE BEING TALKED ABOUT THE BIG BIRD-KILLS THIS WEEK, I WANTED TO PLACE THEM INTO SOME SORT OF PERSPECTIVE

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/01/wildlife&fsrc=nwl

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Blackbirds down

Jan 5th 2011, 16:28 by The Economist online

Incidents of mass wildlife mortality are quite common

THREE thousand blackbirds fell from the sky in the American state of Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. The cause has not yet been determined but preliminary laboratory tests revealed acute physical trauma. Fireworks may have been to blame. While the incident was alarming, it is not unprecedented, according to America’s National Wildlife Health Centre which monitors wildlife mortality events across America. One of the biggest such events occurred in 1986, when 30,000 Ohioan blackbirds and starlings were poisoned over a period of eight days. Our chart shows the incidents that caused the most wildlife fatalities in 2010.