1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser
The title pretty much says it all

Thousands of Birds Die Flying Head-First Into Walmart Parking Lot, Mistaking It for Water

by James Plafke | 5:41 pm, December 14th, 2011

Today in unfortunate bird news, thousands of migrating grebes crashed into a Walmart parking lot — as well as other similar constructions throughout Utah — because they confused it with a body of water. Wildlife officials said the duck-like probably mistook the parking lot for a safe resting spot, like a body of water, considering grebes are aquatic. Wildlife program manager for the southern region of the Utah Department of Wildlife Resource’s Teresa Griffin said the birds are “just everywhere,” and that people are even coming into the department’s office, dropping them off.

Griffin said the way the storm clouds over the city interacted with the city lights made the parking lot look like a flat body of water, so instead of landing to rest, the birds slammed into the pavement. What I don’t quite understand is, if they were landing to rest, why were they flying hard enough to slam into anything, even water?

Though many birds were killed in the downing, officials started to find many survivors, and have collected a total of 2,000 as of last night, which were subsequently released into unfrozen bodies of water. Griffin cites the community of volunteers for helping out with the collection of survivors: ”The volunteer effort in the community has been amazing,” she said. “People have been wonderful.”

Nice to hear that Utahns (yep, that’s what they’re apparently called) are taking time out of their lives to collect injured birds, but it’s a little disconcerting to learn that all it takes for thousands of birds to crash land into something is some clouds and city lights. Luckily, no one was reported injured in the downing.

(The Spectrum via The Daily What)

Relevant to your interests

  • DDD:

    Poor stupid birds :(

  • Mal

    More proof that Wal Mart is evil

  • Yourmom

    Stupid humans and their tar parking lots!

  • http://twitter.com/theomniarch Adil Kurji

    Given the wonders of water and broken surface tension its not surprising that concrete didn’t yield the same way. Brief perusal of nature videos and birds landing seems to corroborate that landing on water can be taken quicker then to land… I suspect this is why it was mostly slight injuries and complete confusion on the birds part and not a massive death total. 

  • Phil

    Another reason to advoid shopping at the ‘Downtown Killer’!!!!

  • V27jl

    So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.” (Matthew 8:31 NLT)

  • Cobaltcrazy

    more proof that global warming is apparent!! What’s it gonna take for human beings to realize the injustice we are doing to our planet mother earth!!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/FY7C37SAMUQJDJAIB7R24KX5MY Donald

    As a retired US Fish and Wildlife special agent I have seen Canada geese, during their migration, which often occurs at night land directly into an asphalt parking lot for over 30 years. It rains on the parking lot, and the lot is lit up by lights ALL NIGHT,
    the birds think it is water from that reflection and land right into it. Not uncommon. After hours stores should turn off their parking lot lights saving energy and birds.


Abrams Media Network click here for advertising opportunities

© 2012 Geekosystem, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram