Mystery as 'hundreds' of birds found dead in road

Soldato
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mass dead starlings is only a good thing. horrible vermin.
poison, I highly doubt it, there's nothing that would suddenly affect a whole bunch of them at exactly the same time thereby making them all drop in the same place.

I suspect it's a new Banksy.
 
Soldato
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Heard about this on my local news earlier. Apparently no dead birds could be seen in the fields either side of the road, only on the road and hedges that line the road.

Toxicology results should be interesting, the only thing I can think of is that something very nasty was released into the air along that road that instantly killed anything that flew through it.

Predators would have very quickly harvested the dead birds that fell away from the road. Most animals, including predators, actually try to avoid spending too much time on roads, especially at busy times, because they recognise that they are dangerous places to be.

(One of the problems with moving the clocks forwards/back is that you get a lot of extra roadkill because drivers change their timings and quiet crossing times suddenly become busy)
 
Soldato
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Predators would have very quickly harvested the dead birds that fell away from the road. Most animals, including predators, actually try to avoid spending too much time on roads, especially at busy times, because they recognise that they are dangerous places to be.

(One of the problems with moving the clocks forwards/back is that you get a lot of extra roadkill because drivers change their timings and quiet crossing times suddenly become busy)

Predators, and indeed scavengers which is what feed on carrion (animals that were killed by something else) wouldn't have worked that quickly and cleanly.
 
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Soldato
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Predators, and indeed scavengers which is what feed on carrion (animals that were killed by something else) wouldn't have worked that quickly and cleanly.


How quick are we talking about?

The article doesn't give time of day or how long after the event the surrounding fields were inspected.

I wouldn't expect food dead birds to hang around for long in a field in the middle of the country. (Especially if it was twilight at either end of the day)They only last a couple of hours in my suburban back garden.

Back to cause, these things are a bit of a mystery but some sort of flocking-error mass-air-collision or maybe a lighting strike (A strike through the middle of a flock could stun birds without burning or otherwise harming them in any way, if not dead already, hitting the ground at flight speed would finish them off)
 
Soldato
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How quick are we talking about?

The article doesn't give time of day or how long after the event the surrounding fields were inspected.

I wouldn't expect food dead birds to hang around for long in a field in the middle of the country. (Especially if it was twilight at either end of the day)They only last a couple of hours in my suburban back garden.

Back to cause, these things are a bit of a mystery but some sort of flocking-error mass-air-collision or maybe a lighting strike (A strike through the middle of a flock could stun birds without burning or otherwise harming them in any way, if not dead already, hitting the ground at flight speed would finish them off)

The article says a lady who was on her way to a Doctor's appointment spotted a huge flock of starlings in flight but when she was returning an hour later "they were all dead on the road".

Also, it's very unusual for there to be no trace after a predator kill or scavenge. There's always wings or at least feathers lying about.


Edit:
The latest is that the Police believe they now know what happened but are awaiting test results before releasing details. What could be revealing is that in the latest news report it is said that the birds were seen feeding on something on the road before they were found dead.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/mystery-hundreds-dead-starlings-wales-17405069
 
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Man of Honour
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Bird strike on an aircraft most likely, happens a lot more often than you would think especially during migration.

That many in close proximity would have to be a single aircraft hit and that is unlikely to have gone unnoticed and unreported.
 
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