Up to 300 starlings have been found dead on a road in North Wales despite being seen flying overhead just an hour before.
Hannah Stevens, from the village of Bodedern, said she was on her way home on Tuesday when she came across the gruesome sight of hundreds of dead birds littering a road.
According to North Wales Live, she had seen a “massive flock” of starlings flying overhead before.
An hour later, the birds seemed to have “dropped down dead from the sky”, said her partner Dafydd Edwards.
He said: “I counted 150 last night but I gave up as there’s just hundreds of them littered everywhere.
“My partner spotted it when she was on the way to the doctors yesterday late afternoon.”
Edwards said he didn’t believe Stevens when she called him to tell him about the dead birds and went to scene to see for himself.
“It’s very strange, I can’t put my finger on it,” he said.
The couple reported the incident to the North Wales Rural Crime Team, who reportedly counted around 225 dead birds on the road and in the hedges.
No dead birds were found in the fields on either side of the road.
North Wales Police Rural Crime Team is investigating the incident and said: “Some [of the birds] have been seized for tests. At this stage we are keeping an open mind as to the cause of death.”
PC Dewi Evans said: “We’ve got officers from the animal and plant health agency here who are going to seize some of these starlings with a view to having them examined to look for poison for example or any other thing that might have killed these animals.
“It happened yesterday evening at around 3.40pm, so if you have any information or if you might have seen it happen here because it is very strange, please let us know.”
RSPB Wales told the Independent: “We at RSPB Cymru are concerned to see this and are keen to ensure that this incident is investigated by the authorities.”
Any witnesses to the phenomenon can contact the North Wales Police Rural Crime Team.
