On 8 Mar, 08:42, Weatherlawyer wrote:
WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by
torrential rains, a Territory town has had fish falling from the sky.

The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and
Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of
Katherine.

"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said,
"They fell from the sky everywhere. "Locals were picking them up off
the footy oval and on the ground everywhere.

"These fish were alive when they hit the ground." [That's always the
way of it.]

Lajamanu sits on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometres
from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliott and even further from the coast. But
it's not the first time the remote community has been bombarded by
fins from above.

In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a
similar incident captured international headlines.

The small white fish are believed to be spangled perch, which are very
common through much of northern Australia.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological
conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly
region.
[I like this man's thinking.]

He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the
phenomena to occur - but no tornados have been reported to the
authority.

"It's a very unusual event," he said. "With an updraft, (fish and
water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet.

"Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body - but we haven't
had any reports," he said.

Loads more good stuff on hehttp://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/c/sc...oring-enigmas/

We are not alone:

"The birds were close together when they died as most of the corpses
fell within the 12ft diameter of Mrs Knight’s garden. Several were
still alive and had to be put down when a vet arrived.

The flock “fell” from the sky at 4pm on Sunday.

The sky was raining starlings.” RSPCA animal welfare officer Alison
Sparkes was alerted by police and discovered that most of thMs Sparkes
said: “It was a remarkable sight and I’ve never seen anything like it
before. Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound and then the birds
just hit the ground. They had fallen on to the ground in quite a small
area, about 12ft in diameter.

“Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were
trying to escape a predator such as a sparrow hawk and ended up crash
landing.”

Lloyd Scott, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said it
was unlikely that the birds had simply flown into each other.
Starlings are well known for their spectacular displays of co-
ordinated flight.

Mr Scott said: “Starlings relate each movement to the seven birds
closest to them when flying around in a murmuration. They are
hardwired into doing this and on instinct they stay away from each
other. This is one of the oddest things I’ve ever heard about. We’ve
certainly never come across anything similar.”

The best guess is that the flock was simply startled and flew into the
ground at speed.e birds had broken beaks, broken legs and wings and
abdominal injuries consistent with impact, but were otherwise in a
healthy condition.

Five surviving birds were taken to the RSPCA’s West Hatch wildlife
centre in Taunton but had to be put down because of their injuries.

Ms Sparkes said: “It was a remarkable sight and I’ve never seen
anything like it before. Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound
and then the birds just hit the ground. They had fallen on to the
ground in quite a small area, about 12ft in diameter.

“Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were
trying to escape a predator such as a sparrow hawk and ended up crash
landing.”

Lloyd Scott, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said it
was unlikely that the birds had simply flown into each other.
Starlings are well known for their spectacular displays of co-
ordinated flight.

Mr Scott said: “Starlings relate each movement to the seven birds
closest to them when flying around in a murmuration. They are
hardwired into doing this and on instinct they stay away from each
other. This is one of the oddest things I’ve ever heard about. We’ve
certainly never come across anything similar.”

The best guess is that the flock was simply startled and flew into the
ground at speed."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7057494.ece

I can't imagine that starlings would be floored by fright at an hawk
as the flocking ability is a defence against that sort of thing.

The "Whooshing noise" would be the sound of the flock. How about
electrickery?