Frozen flight feathers cause barrage of birds to fall from the sky in central Pennsylvania

On the morning of Jan. 16 the phone at Centre Wildlife Care in Port Matilda, Pa., was ringing off the hook, according to Robyn Graboski, who has been in wildlife rehabilitation for 35 years.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said. “My phone has been lit up all morning with calls about grounded grebes.”
It appears the culprit for the “fallout” was a jet stream of arctic air that froze moisture on the bird’s flight feathers during their nocturnal migration. Unable to remain airborne, a barrage of birds fell from the sky.