Something smells about raining poop mystery
Renters say home was hit with a flood of feces
Was it a bevy of birds? A plane poopsicle? A rogue manure spreader?
Two Brant County renters just down the road from Ancaster are seeking an explanation for a mysterious rain of what they believe to be poo that coated the side of their Colborne Street home a week ago.
The duo left a clean house Nov. 8 and returned that evening to find the west side of the building — as well as a patio and parked car — layered in multicoloured smelly splatter.
“It was like someone went crazy with a paintball gun,” said one of the renters, who didn’t want to be identified for fear of offending the landlord.
Reluctant close-up investigation convinced them the malodorous mess was feces.
The angry residents called the nearby John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport demanding an investigation, noting planes routinely overfly the house and some of the scattershot poop had a “blueish tinge.”
It is technically possible for an airplane to inadvertently drop “blue ice” — so-named after the blue disinfectant used in airplane toilets — but it is supposed to be a rare occurrence.
Modern airplane holding tanks cannot be opened by accident in flight, according to Transport Canada experts.
But in theory, faulty valves or other malfunctions could allow leakage in the air. At high altitudes, that leaking fluid would freeze and fall as ice.
Hamilton airport officials took a look at submitted photos and promised to pass on the report to Transport Canada. But they also dismissed the notion incoming planes to the local airport were responsible.
“After review, it was determined that aircraft using the Hamilton International Airport are unable to release lavatory contents,” said an emailed response from airport operations co-ordinator Chris Pearce.
“This can only be accomplished while on the ground as it requires manual turning of a number of valves to release these contents.”
He recommended the complainants contact Hamilton police instead.
Transport Canada said via email it has investigated 25 reports of alleged blue ice this year — including 18 widely reported cases of raining feces in B.C. alone — without a single confirmed plane poopsicle.
“The department’s review has not shown a connection to blue ice from any specific aircraft or operator,” a spokesperson said.
The renters are not satisfied with that response — nor do they buy the badly behaving birds theory, either.
The Spectator visited the property and saw plenty of colourful splotches on the home. The Spec also emailed photos of the mess to various bird experts.
Several were delighted to weigh in, if not conclusively.
“I have never seen anything like that. It doesn’t look like goose poop, but it does look like it could be fruit-eating birds, like starlings,” said Cornell Lab of Ornithology expert Ken Rosenberg via email.
“But I can’t imagine a flock ‘carpeting’ a vertical wall like that unless they were roosting on the roof .”
Songbird biologist Mike Cadman wasn’t willing to rule out geese completely.
“Geese do occasionally ‘let go’ en masse in flight,” he said by email.
Cornell ornithologist Scott Sutcliffe voted for a flock of cedar waxwings — if the culprits are birds.
But given the nearby farms, he also suggested it could just as easily be a “drive-by” manure spreading incident — or even accidental contamination from a passing “porta pottie truck.”