Grebe photo courtesy of Photos.com.

By Vickie Frantz, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

Dec 16, 2011; 12:20 PM ET

Migrating grebes slammed into ground in a St. George, Utah, Walmart parking lot on Dec. 15, killing nearly 1,500.

The birds were attempting to land and may have confused the parking lot for a lake, according to Lynn Chamberlain, Outreach Manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife.

The birds crashed landed sometime around 11 p.m. MST Monday (1 a.m. EST Tuesday).

“There were 2-4 inches of snow on the ground and there was heavy cloud cover,” said Chamberlain. The snow was lightly falling and the birds dropped to a lower elevation to avoid the storm.

Chamberlain said that this is not the first time this has happened.

“It has happened before and it is always the same kind of birds in the same kinds of conditions.”

It is possible that the grebes spotted the parking lot lights while looking for a place to land. The reflection of the lights on the snow may have given the parking lot the appearance that the surface was water.

The Utah Department of Wildlife employees worked at the scene to remove the birds that were killed and to rescue any of the survivors. Residents of Cedar City assisted the Department of Wildlife by bringing rescued birds to their office in cardboard boxes. Between 3,000 and 3,500 grebes survived the impact and have been rescued, Chamberlain said.

Once landed, the grebes need to be on water to take flight. The surviving birds were released into nearby bodies of water in Washington County.

“We would not have been able to rescue so many birds without the help of the residents.”