The ice has finally melted. Now we can attend to more pressing matters, like what killed those 63 birds on January 8th. Was it an infectious pathogen, or, more specifically, the 21st-century's chic and sensational pandemic to-be: birdflu? A vengeful restaurateur with handfuls of strychnine? Severe melancholy?
According to the Statesman, the scientists at Texas A&M have finally weighed in with their official bird probing results. Apparently, and more disgustingly, the birds were "heavily parasitized." When the temperature dropped that fateful evening, the birds, with some help from their parasites, dropped too.
Seem like too facile an explanation for you? Why all the spacemen suits? Why not send the carcasses to UT? Is our "homeland" really secure? Well, Austinist has found the semi-official conspiracy theory -via Newsvine- and offers a link here for your consideration. Neither Rikki Rockett nor Bret Michaels, with his lush, pouting lips, could be reached for comment.



I remember when that album cover was 'banned' in some stores for being too controversial. Those were the days.
...and then there was Cannibal Corpse.
I too find the TAMU explanation bullshit. As PinkDome noted earlier today, we just had a much worse and much quicker cold snap, and yet no huge batch of dead birds showed up.
TAMU just pulled this out their ass because they just couldn't figure out for real why the birds died, I'm betting.
Mike,
Maybe the birds already weakened by parasites have already died?
Or flown south for the winter?
I noticed that during the Austin Ice-Capades 07 the birds I saw were sporting a heartier plumage. Some more possible options as to the bird deaths:
I KNEW IT WAS SAFE TO COOK SOME OF THEM UP FOR DINNER AND BREAKFAST. MAN, I'M HUNGRY AND DEPRESSED.
If it wasn't Poison who killed those birds, then it must have been dIRTy WoRMz.