BEEBE, Ark. (AP) -- Mayor Mike Robertson says all the dead red-winged blackbirds that fell from the sky on New Year's Eve in Beebe have been picked up from streets, sidewalks and yards.
Robertson said 12 to 15 workers for U.S. Environmental Services, hired by the city to do the cleanup, wore environmental-protection suits for the task Saturday and Sunday. The mayor said the last dead bird was picked up in the town about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock about 11 a.m.
But Robertson said speculation on the cause of the unusual event is focusing not on disease but on some weather-related event or on fireworks that alarmed and then shocked the birds.
He estimated that a couple of thousand birds fell from the sky about 11 p.m. Friday.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)