What else can happen besides rain?

What falls from the sky? Bugs? Birds?

Is that a rain cloud? No, that's a flock of migrating starlings.

What would fall from the sky? Usually rain, sometimes hail and snow. But what about fish or frogs? Or blood or worms?

But how can something that is neither rain nor snow fall? In fact, these things do not really fall from the clouds. A more likely possibility is that they are picked up by waterspouts and fall to land when the waterspouts dissipate.

Sometimes it may just be a strong storm that brings insects to the surface from underground burrows or knocks birds off treetops, but people may misunderstand it and spread it as a strange story.

1. Spider Rain

The spider wove a huge web beside the tree.

PHOTO: AURORE MARTIGNONI /EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES

There are only 23 species of spiders in the world that live in groups. One day in 2013, a large family of one of these spiders, called Anelosimus eximius, fell from the sky in Lisbon, Brazil. They like to gather together in the evening to weave a huge web to catch their next meal. The web can be up to 19 meters high, and looking up at the spiders in the web is like looking at the stars in the sky. They usually just stay in the web and wait for food to fall into their trap, but if nature summons a strong wind temporarily, these spiders will be blown away together. When the wind weakens, the spiders will instantly lose their support and become a dense rain of spiders. I just hope that no one is nearby when this rain falls.

2. Frog

Thousands and thousands of frogs suddenly fell down, and even the bravest ones could not hold on.

Picture: RONALD LEUNIS/EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES

In 1873, a frog rain hit Kansas, and in 1882, a similar rain fell in Iowa. The most puzzling thing about both events was that there was no water nearby, so experts concluded that tornadoes from other places brought the frogs to the city.

The most recent frog rain occurred in Serbia in 2005, when a severe storm drove the frogs out of their habitat and onto unsuspecting citizens.

3. Meat

Pieces of meat fell from the sky, who could have imagined that they were vomited out by vultures.

Picture: PRAKHAR RAJVANSHI/EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES

In 1876, in Kentucky, the sky was clear and thin slices fell from the sky. These thin slices that looked like beef were about 5x5cm in size. After scientists took samples and analyzed them, they found that these "meats" were a mixture of cartilage, muscle tissue and lung tissue. D. Kastenbine, a chemistry professor from the Louisville School of Medicine, said that this mixture of connective tissue, fat tissue and muscle fibers was actually the stomach contents of a group of vultures, which they vomited down when flying through the sky.

Two species of vultures near Kentucky sometimes vomit in mid-air as a defensive measure to temporarily reduce their weight and make it easier to escape. This explanation sounds reasonable, but it is also really disgusting.

4. Blood/Red Rain

Here are some red rainwater specimens collected during heavy rains in Kerala.

Photo: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In 2001, southern India was hit by a red rainstorm. Colored droplets fell intermittently, sometimes yellow-green, but mainly blood red. At first, people suspected it was an exploding meteor, but research showed that the red particles extracted from the liquid were not sand grains, and even seemed to contain cells.

Another theory was proposed in a report published in Astrophysics and Space in 2006. The author Godfrey Louis believed that it was possible that fragments of a disintegrated comet were wrapped in raindrops in the clouds and fell to the earth. When they studied the cells in the droplets, they found that although these cells were inert at room temperature, they began to multiply when heated to 121°C. This is very unusual, but there is still no definite answer to explain why, even though red rain fell again in the sky of the same city in 2012.

5. Bird

A flock of red-winged blackbirds flies over a dead grass field in Oregon.

Picture: DANITA DELIMONT/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

On December 31, 2010, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Arkansas, and most of them were dead. A few days later, a similar scene occurred in Louisiana. The National Wildlife Health Center of the US Geological Survey said that there have been 16 similar incidents in the past 30 years. In the first two cases, the dead birds had signs of acute trauma. Experts speculate that the birds were frightened and died when they collided in mid-air. So why red-winged blackbirds? Because they are one of the most common birds in the United States, with about 200 million, they don't fly high, and their eyesight is poor.

6. Fish

Hundreds of dead fish are seen in the river after Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans Lake District area of ​​Louisiana.

Photo: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

As recently as 2010, hundreds of bass landed in a small Australian town for two days in a row. How can this be explained? Scientists say that waterspouts can reach speeds of up to 161 km/h, and that the updrafts common in tornadoes or thunderstorms are powerful enough to swirl fish over the ocean, carry them a long way, and then drop them when the updrafts lose momentum.

7. Ants

Photo: STEVEN KAUFMAN/GETTY IMAGES

When most people think of ants, the first image they have is probably a group of ants marching in a long line, moving in an orderly manner. They usually don’t think that they can also fall from the sky. But in fact, ants can.

Turtle ants are tropical tree-dwelling ants that can glide through the air. But they are not strong fliers and cannot glide very far. When they are in the air, they are usually falling. Turtle ants can control their descent during gliding, allowing them to quickly return to the tree trunk and run home. But when the ants forage on the outer ends of branches, they are often blown away by the wind, even if it is just a small breeze caused by a passing monkey.

Ants will sometimes deliberately fall from a tree if they feel threatened by a predator, such as a lizard, because they can control their fall and their hind legs help them grab onto branches in their path.

Tadpole Musical Notation compiled from science, translated by Qingkong Feiyan, reprinting requires authorization