Reports of dead birds and fish still coming in from around the world

CLEVELAND - First, it was 5,000 birds falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas. That was on New Years Eve. The next day we hear reports of 100,000 fish dying and washing up along an Arkansas river. On Monday, another 500 birds were found dead near a highway just north of Baton Rouge, La.

Now, today we hear more bad news for wildlife. Thousands of dead fish washed ashore along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland in the past two weeks. In Brazil, its 100-tons of sardines and small catfish that have died.

So what gives? Are these kills related somehow? U.S. Wildlife Officials say large bird and fish kills are not uncommon things. In fact, there have been 90 mass deaths of birds and wildlife reported in the U.S. just in the last six months. Most succumb to disease or parasites. In Houston, Minnesota, a parasite infestations killed about 4,000 water birds between September and the end of November, 2010.

In Baton Rouge, officials believe the roosting flock of blackbirds were spooked by a noise and struck nearby power lines. The cause of the bird deaths in Beebe, Arkansas is still being debated. One theory says that fireworks from local New Years Eve celebrations may have spooked the birds causing them to become disoriented.  A biologist from Cornell University offers another plausible expalantion. He said the sleeping birds may have been sucked up into a thunderstorm by a strong updraft of wind. the birds could then have become disoreinted, injured by hail or lightning, before falling to their deaths.

As for the fish deaths, officials believe the unusually cold weather in maryland was responsible for the Chesapeake Bay fish kill. In Brazil, wildlife experts are still puzzled.