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closeBALD EAGLE — Last Friday morning, many commuters on their way to State College observed a strange event.
For the CDT/Mark Nale
Randy Carlson, manager of Lion Country Supply, holds two dead geese that were killed by a strange atmospheric condition on Feb. 27 outside the village of Bald Eagle.
During the thundershower on Feb. 27, some unseen force knocked a flock of Canada geese from the air near the Bald Eagle exit of Interstate 99 in Blair County.
Richard Bishop of Tyrone witnessed the last few geese fall.
“I was just coming under the underpass after exiting from I-99,” Bishop said. “We were on our way to Ohio when I saw this blur of something dropping from the sky. When we got closer, there were dead geese all over the road in front of us. They were scattered over about 150 yards near where Route 350 breaks off to head to Warriors Mark. None of the geese was moving.”
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Charles Wilt happened by at about the same time and moved the dead geese to the side of the road.
“A couple of birds appeared to have been run over by cars after they fell, but most of them didn’t show any outward damage,” Trooper Wilt reported. “I thought that maybe they had been struck by lightning.” Trooper Wilt observed no live geese.
Lion Country Supply manager Randy Carlson and employee Phil Allison, of Alexandria, also investigated the strange event. On his way to work, Allison had been driving through that area at about the same time as Bishop. Allison reported that he came upon the geese just a minute or two after a loud clap of thunder.
“The geese were all over the road and also along the edges and even back in the woods,” Carlson said. “It just seemed that they dropped from the sky stone dead. Maybe they were struck by lightning.”
Pennsylvania Game Commission officer Steve Hanczar investigated the incident and collected nine geese for examination at the Animal Diagnostic Laboratory at Penn State University.
According to Terry Clevenger, dispatcher in the Southcentral Office of the PGC, a total of 56 geese were involved, but counts by Carlson and others put the number at 44.
“A necropsy was performed at PSU on the geese, and they all had crushed breastbones and trachea, with no sign of electrocution,” Clevenger said. “Although they are continuing the investigation, the most likely explanation is that they were thrown to the ground by a severe downdraft during the storm.”
Game Commission veterinarian Dr. Walter Cottrell agreed with the assessment of damage, but hedged on the possible cause. “The geese all had quite severe trauma to their undersides, including massive bruising and crushed breastbones. It is no doubt that they died from hitting the pavement or ground, and the force involved was more than just a bad landing. The avian pathologist who examined the geese detected no burns or lesions that might typically result from lightning.
“It must have been a quick but painful death,” Cottrell said in a phone interview. “It might have been a combination of poor visibility, wind, and disoriented geese.”
Penn State professor of Wildlife Resources Margaret Brittingham fielded several reports from friends who suspected lightning when they saw all the dead geese shortly after the storm. Brittingham questioned whether geese could even be electrocuted in mid-air. Cottrell declined to comment as to whether birds could be killed in mid-air by lightning.
Whether the incident was caused by downdraft, lightning, or a combination of factors, all agreed that this was a very unusual event. The PGC gathered up the remainder of the geese on March 3. The investigation was still continuing at the time of this writing.
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