BellinghamHerald.com (excerpts):  St George, UT - Thousands of migratory birds were killed or injured after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot, football fields and other snow covered areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground in what one state wildlife expert called the worst mass bird crash she'd ever seen.  Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the injured survivors after the creatures crash-landed in the St George area Monday night.  By midday Wednesday, volunteers had helped rescue more than 3,000 birds, releasing them into a nearby pond.  There's no count on how many died, although officials estimate it's upwards of 1,500.  "They're just everywhere," said Teresa Griffin, wildlife program manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource's southern region.  "It's been nonstop.  All our employees are driving around picking them up and we've got so many people coming to our office and dropping them off."  Officials say stormy conditions probably confused the flock of eared grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird likely making its way to the Mexican coast for the winter.  The birds plunged into a Cedar City Wal-Mart parking lot, football fields, highways and over miles of property that had been blanketed by about three inches of gleaming snow.  A high-profile crash in Arkansas in January killed about 4,500 birds, mainly red-winged black birds.  More than 175 mass death events, in which more than a 1,000 birds died, have been reported to the National Wildlife Health Center in the past ten years.  Griffin said the Utah downing was notable among the ones she's seen because it was so widespread.  Downed flocks were reported all over Cedar City, as far as 30 miles south.  "I've been here 15 years and this was the worst downing I've seen," she told the newspaper.   

Commentary:  The Bible says that in the last days animals will die in mass numbers, "The land will mourn and everyone that dwells in it will languish, with the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, yes, the fishes of the sea will also be taken away" Hosea 4:3.  An astronomical number of fish, birds and mammals have died just since the start of this year.  You can go to a Google map of points around the world where animals have died in mass numbers, and read the accompanying article if you click on the marker in that particular area:  Link to Google map.