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What's with the dead birds on the beach?

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We were out in our kayak on Thursday and saw one dead black bird floating on the 2nd sandbar. It was about 1 pm when we saw it. I didn't think anything about it.
 
wallymom said:
Maybe it's just a fluke, but when I was walking on the beach this morning (close to Goatfeathers) I saw around 12 dead birds on the beach within about a half-mile. Several different kinds. Anyone have an idea of why there are so many? I've been walking this beach for five years off and on and have never seen this many dead birds!
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I noticed the dead birds yesterday and the day before between Inlet Beach and Seacrest/WaterSound. Two egrets, two dark seabirds, the rest were yellow and red breasted small birds. And distressingly one hummingbird. They appeared to have washed up from the gulf. Also I noticed Man-o-War and other jellyfish.
 
Well, Don Ware came and walked the beach this afternoon. He took about 6 of the birds with him. He believes they were Audubon's Shearwater birds and Wilson't Storm-Petrels. We didn't see the two white birds but I speculate they were egrets based on the photos Don had in a bird book. After he left our beach he went to Beasley Park and found 6 different species of birds, also dead.

He's guessing that one explanation is these birds are in the process of migrating and they got caught in the storm and basically were exhausted.
 
Here are a couple of red/black, orange/black and yellow/black song birds. Could they be one or more of these?

Scarlet Tanager: migratory bird, but usually spends summer farther north:
scarlet-tanager.jpg


Orchard Oriole: Also migratory..not sure where they hang out in the summer:
OrchardOriole-709489.jpg


American Goldfinch: Some migrate, but some might also spend all year in the area:
American20Goldfinch.jpg


I'm very sorry to hear about this as I am an avid "birder". I hope it doesn't continue to happen! :(
 
Dave Rauschkolb said:
I would suggest this hypothesis, They got caught in the cloud of smoke created by the oil disaster in the Gulf?
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Perhaps so - although this video needs a transcript due to wind, I believe that is what she is trying to say happened.

Dead birds on SGI beach; oil rig explosion causing environmental hazards - CNN iReport

and after looking at this photo I would agree that it has to have played a part in the dead birds.

Oil rig explosion could become one of deadliest industry disasters in Gulf | - NOLA.com

Thanks
G
 
We saw more dead birds this morning. I went ahead and took photos. WARNING: If you don't want to see dead birds on the beach, don't look! One of the birds was similar to some we saw earlier. One is a larger bird with a black beak, long legs, and looks like black feathers. I hate to see all these different species dead on the beach.
 
I didn't see any dead birds today, but there were some weird patches of brown foam/stuff in the water that I thought might be from the oil.
 
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