COMMENTARY | Just after midnight today, as I was heading for my car at the Walmart parking lot in Cedar City, Southern Utah, I witnessed massive amounts of birds fall from the sky. A severe winter storm was brewing with temperatures in the teens.
All around me were people in a state of confusion as wildlife activists were picking up these distraught creatures off the ground. I too joined in the activity, scooping up the birds with my bare hands and placing them in large boxes. Many of the birds seemed to have suffered acute physical trauma causing internal hemorrhage and death.
I text-messaged a couple of friends during the incident, who oddly enough, had also witnessed similar sightings around the same time at parking locations throughout southern Utah.
The event led to speculation of the crowds from end of the world, extraterrestrial life form as part of nefarious experiments, to massive poisoning scenarios. The otherwise healthy looking birds were of a grey bird variety with bright red eyes and duck like webbed feet. A rather common species in the United States that I later found out from wildlife activists at the scene.
It was a sad yet freaky evening for all who witnessed the event, leaving many wondering what makes that happen for the birds to drop from the sky.
A reputed theory is that the birds may have mistook the icy parking lot for an area of water and crash landed on touch down.
But the question remains, what were the birds doing awake at night?
I for one, came away confused and in awe at the situation for which I had just been a part of. The tiny birds looked so helpless and saddened in my hands. And I too, was overcome with emotion.
It reminded me of the song:
“Blackbirds singing (only this time falling) at the dead of night. … Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise.”
This puzzling phenomenon still mystify experts, and not everyone is convinced of recent findings.