The tiny little town of Beebe in Arkansas had a pretty turbulent start of the new year. Not only did its inhabitants witness a flock of red winged blackbirds spontaneously drop out of the sky on New Year’s Eve. Now they also have to deal with another herd of strange animals; Flocks of tourists. Apparently the rare phenomenon has attracted quite a lot of people from all over to travel to tiny Beebe who want to gawk at the birds’ carcasses. As you do. The reason for the birds’ death is still not entirely clear, however according to Karen Rowe of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission “The birds suffered from acute physical trauma leading to internal haemorrhage and death. “ Some scientists believe that the birds’ trauma was caused by loud fireworks which led them to fly into roofs, cars and also each other eventually plummeting towards their death. Rowe didn’t confirm whether the mystery was now solved and added that more tests will be performed on the dead birds’ bodies. But the mystery didn’t stop at that. To make the whole thing even more spooky more dead animals were found nearby Beebe. Apparently thousands and thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of the Arkansas River in North West Arkansas which again baffled scientists of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. I do admit that it all sounds very mysterious and these events would make a very entertaining episode of the X-files series. However I’m not sure what I personally find the stranger phenomenon; the flocks of birds dropping out of the sky and the schools of dead fish washing ashore or the herds of humans flocking to Arkansas who have nothing better to do than to spend time and money and not to mention their extremely precious vacation days to watch a bunch of dead birds. Only in America!
