Weather Phenomenon Blamed for 100s of Duck Deaths on Iowa Highway

This story might be the strangest story you read today. In every storm there is a tragedy, but I never imagined anything like this.

Hundreds of migrating waterfowl are on the move south, from the wetlands and marshes of Iowa, what happened to these ducks that were on the move is shocking and sad.

What likely took place on Highway 20 in Woodbury County, Iowa, wasn't common but it has happened before, when extreme cold weather collides with a strong front like it did on Tuesday night.

While the birds were on the move, the extreme wind and rain across the Iowa roadways resembled the same marshes and wetlands the migrating waterfowl call home. While it is very hard to determine what exactly happened, speculation is that these ducks wandered onto Highway 20 and were killed by passing motorists.

State conservation officer Steve Griebel, of Woodbury County, after receiving several calls about something strange happening, had this to say about what he saw on Highway 20:

“I counted over 200 dead ducks on the highway, and can only imagine how many dead ones were out of sight in the ditch. It was all different species, mostly bluebills, but there were mallards, buffleheads, teal. It must have been an epic migration.”

Extremely cold weather and a powerful storm front colliding is pretty common in parts of the Midwest during the month of November. The most famous was on Armistice Day in 1940, when it went from temperatures in the mid-50s to more than a foot of snow, resulting in 150 people and thousands of livestock dead, according to wgntv.com.