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This reminds me of Prof. McCanney stating in one of his books that creepy crawlers would be fleeing the ground because of the excess presence of electricity. From an email from John DiNardo:

Check the soil for an absence of, or extermination of, insects and worms. When earth vibrations and stresses occur, there is a percussive/pressure related effect on huge masses of rock against one another. These rock-against-rock percussions and stresses result in what is known in the field of electricity and magnetism as the piezo-electric effect,
wherein electric voltage is generated. Considering the enormous masses of rock involved in these geophysical actions, not only are high voltages generated, but high electric currents can result from these voltages, when the electrical conductivity of the ground is great enough due to soil moisture and accompanying soil and rock salts disassociating from
the state of electrically neutral ionic compounds to electrically charged ions, which act as electrolytes, electric charge carriers, greatly increasing the electrical conductivity of the ground soil and rock. The piezoelectric voltages generated are on the order of thousands of volts, so it becomes obvious that these phenomena would electrocute underground life forms, such as insects, worms, and toads. Those that are not electrocuted would be severely stung so as to cause them to flee up out of the ground. This is one of the signs that I suggest your Missouri and New Madrid fault zone listeners look for. And the extermination of insects and worms could be a sign of an impending earthquake following severe ground stresses. As for the complete absence of birds, imagine a bird scratching and pecking into the ground for insects and worms, and being mildly stung, while finding unpalatable dead and rotting insects and worms. This would cause the birds to migrate to other areas for food. Now, if what your caller says is true, that the birds have gone to nearby wooded areas for better eating prospects, visit the woods close by and report your observations to the audience.

John DiNardo

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080513-toads-predict-earthquake-dead-china

http://scienceforums.com/topic/594-piezoelectric-earth/

"For some time, earthquakes and piezoelectrics have been associated, and it is generally postulated the effect was associated with quartz-bearing rock. Earthquake lights are often cited as evidence of the piezoelectric output, but little is known on how the electric charge associated with an earthquake moves in the earth and what determines its polarity.
The big 1960 Chilean and 1964 Alaska earthquakes produced observable effects in the ionosphere and serious studies have been underway to identify the mechanism."