Dead Birds in Arkansas, Thousands of Dead Fish in Norway on New Year’s Eve

Mass animal deaths marked the end of 2011. Approximately 100 dead birds fell from the sky over Arkansas and thousands of dead fish washed ashore in Norway on New Year's Eve.

In Arkansas, 100 dead blackbirds rained down in Beebe, Arkansas, mere hours before the clock struck 2012. Officials in central Arkansas cited the birds had been spooked by fireworks set off by New Year's Eve revelers. The winged creatures began falling out of the sky at around 7 pm. Calls to police flooded in and local television networks reported that birds were raining down.

Beebe police Lt. Brian Duke said Sunday that officials ordered local residents to stop setting off fireworks after blackbirds started flying into objects and each other, crashing to the ground dead. The state Game and Fish Commission claimed someone targeted a blackbird roost and said there was evidence of fireworks at the roost. We know that there was evidence of fireworks set off in the middle of the roost, and it wasn't a coincidence.

However, some found the entire incident decidedly eerie. Just last year, on New Year's Eve 2010, over 5,000 blackbirds plummeted from the sky in another small town in Arkansas, near Little Rock. Jacob Landrum told Arkansas' KTHV television he was driving through the middle of town, heading towards the Church of Christ, when dead birds started falling from the sky. The birds were all over the parking lot and in the road on the way here, he said. It's kind of a strange thing two years in a row.

Now, reports of dead fish in Europe are surfacing. The AP reported that approximately 20 tons of dead herring washed ashore on Kvaenes beach in Norway on New Year's Eve. Then, suddenly, the tens of thousands of fish vanished. Some speculated that predators chased a huge school ashore or the fish were driven to the beach by a powerful Christmas Day storm, reports The Huffington Post.

These two reports coincide with New Year's Eve 2010 and the weeks in early 2011 when mass animal deaths were occurring around the world. Thousands of dead blackbirds fell in Arkansas and Louisiana. Millions of dead fish surfaced in Maryland. Tens of thousands of dead crabs washed ashore in the UK. Over 10,000 cows and buffalo died in Vietnam.

Some cited Mother Nature while others voiced conspiracy theories over the occurrence. The deaths sparked a media frenzy. National Geographic expressed its loss for words with an article entitled Why Are Birds Falling from the Sky? Even Google Maps got on board and tracked the mass deaths with a virtual map.

Now, in 2012 - a year linked to the end of the Maya calendar (and the end of the world) - it is happening again.

Paul Begley, a pastor at the Community Gospel Baptist Church in Indiana, does not think the mass deaths are any coincidence.

I was doing a live broadcast talking about bible prophecy and the end of the world, he said. And the birds started falling out of the sky again. Where's (horror blockbuster writer) Stephen King? He can't even write a script like this, this is God. It's not fireworks. If that was the case, on the Fourth of July every bird would fall out of the sky.