Birds! Birds!

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.

Police in Beebe said dozens of blackbirds had fallen dead, prompting officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks Saturday night. It wasn't immediately clear if fireworks were again to blame, but authorities weren't taking a chance.

Later in the article scientists hypothesize that the fireworks sent the birds into a panic, causing them to dive-bomb and hit random objects, killing them.  There's just a few problems with that:

Earlier in 2011, this same thing happened.  They could not tell if the trauma came from striking an object or falling to the ground.  But there were no fireworks.

There were fireworks all around the country, so why just here?  Are we supposed to believe that there is some special sort of reaction in this small area?

It still doesn't explain the fish that died by the tens of thousands, and that happened at the same time.

I totally understand wanting to get the right answer here.  But let's try to do that, instead of slapping half-assed solutions on the problem and calling it solved, shall we?  I don't have high hopes for scientific standards in Arkansas overall, but even if you set the bar low this is ridiculous.