Dozens of dead geese plunge from the sky into an Idaho parking lot

Conservation officer Jacob Berl came across a shocking sight Saturday night – more than 50 dead geese had plunged into a parking lot near his Idaho lab. ...

Dozens of dead geese plunge from the sky into an Idaho parking lot

Strange.

Seems odd that lightning would cause something like this. An airborne goose doesn't have an earth ground to complete a circuit, the lightning shouldn't have any effect on them. I could understand it if they were on the ground as I've seen this with cattle when lightning hits a nearby tree, but not geese in the air.

Hail I could believe a little easier, but hail does not appear to be the cause given their stomachs blown out and all.

Plus, with all the birds in the world, and all the thunderstorms, you'd think this would happen all the time if it can happen at all.

Very strange.

Maybe they the geese simply realized that they were in Idaho and flew into the ground out of shear boredom. This post is for a little levity this morning..........I've seen lighting hit a tree that starlings were roosting in (black birds)....the ground was covered in dead black birds. But I agree this is damn weird .

Or someone has put out poisoned bait to kill a flock of birds that have been roosting in a particular field. This has been done many times.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

Gosh, Idaho is a heck of a lot less boring than Nebraska...and there's lots of geese in Nebraska!

a reply to: stormcell

But that wouldn't kill 50 of them all at the exact same time. It could easily kill 50 (or more) geese, but they'd all succumb to the poison at different times so they'd be all over, not within a couple hundred feet.

ETA...Plus, poison wouldn't 'blow their stomachs open'.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk Don't get me wrong......I love Idaho. I wouldn't eat if not for Idaho. I am self proclaimed potato fanatic.......Could have been rapid drop in temperature that caused the geese to collapse in flight due to extreme cold within the storm cell?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk


Are they Canadian Geese? They're so stupid they probably got run over by a truck while up there flying.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

I don't know, geese are some pretty hearty birds when it comes to cold.

I've seen geese happily cavorting around at -40F. Pretty hard to believe temps could get much below that in a storm.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Well, Snow Geese, and they're even dumber still, but trucks driving around in the sky is a bit worrisome.

Possible though, I guess.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well, it sounded good.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Canadian Geese always fly in formation....the flying V. They do this for real reasons, but one side of the V is always longer. Do you know why that is ? Answer below












There's more Geese on that side.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Darn it, I hate reading about these things, I love me birds.

The lightning spark/flash without grounding is still able to injure/kill. It's a combination of the intense heat from the electrons and the shock of which, and the probably earsplitting sound, would be enough to fell any creature.

The only grounding really is the geese going splatto.

Let's ATS this up a bit.......I'm not sure but they probably fly into a ginormous UFO mother ship. I'm not saying it was aliens....but we all know it was aliens.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Could be a rare phenomenon like a down burst also lightning dosent have to hit too kill if a lightning strike is big enough it can create quite a large vacuum in its wake, the air rushing back is what causes the thunder clap, I can see a big enough shock wave from that to rupture bird organs.

a reply to: auroraaus

Beat me to it!

originally posted by: openyourmind1262
Canadian Geese always fly in formation....the flying V.

Stop spreading false information, Canadian Geese never fly. They just amble about, real slow and methodical while crapping everywhere.

a reply to: auroraaus

Yeah, the arc-flash radius is indeed probably pretty large around a bolt of lightning. And, there is a fair amount of concussion as the moisture is vaporized.

Good point.

I wonder then, why doesn't this happen all the time? (???)

Probably does but the birds aren’t always geese they do yearly migrations and the birds don’t always fall in parking lots. Dead birds in the bush get ate up fast.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I've heard Alka seltzer will rupture seagull stomachs, I'm sure geese would be no different.

Or it could have been Reptilian lightning. Way more dangerous than regular lightning.

Though most likely it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

Yep...because...

...Aliens!

I think they would be ok to eat. I'd want to make sure that they were cooked thoroughly though.