A woman was left spooked as she came across dead birds lying on a road in Pembrokeshire.
Michaela Pritchard said it looked like a “massacre” as she traveled on the road between Waterston and Hazelbeach at around 8 pm on Thursday evening.
She said she did not hang around as it was such an eerie sight and instead phoned Pembrokeshire council to report what she had seen. She said they were already dead when she came across them.
Around 200 birds have been found dead on a road in Pembrokeshire. Drivers were greeted with an “eerie sight” and it’s a mystery as to what happened.
Another man in the area at the time said he heard a loud noise before several birds rained down on his car. Ian McCaffrey, who works in Waterston, said the birds fell out of the sky just after he heard a large “electrical”-type bang.
McCaffrey said: “When I left work last night (Thursday), I heard a bang and then a load of birds landed on my car. Every now and again you will hear a bang that is coming from what I think is a crow-scarer that farmers use.”
“However, this bang was more like an electrical bang – not quite as loud as lightning, but similar. It’s like there were hundreds of birds in the sky and all of a sudden they just died and fell to the ground. It was quite surreal last night, to be honest with you – not something I have ever experienced before,” he added.
Claire Eaton, who lives close to the road, went out at 11 pm and said it was “traumatic” to see. She thought the birds had “died on impact” and even managed to scoop one of the stunned birds up and take it home, still alive. She is planning to release it later today.
Eaton said: “About an hour before, I was at Neyland Marina walking my dog and I saw a big flash and I didn’t think anything of it. Maybe something spooked them and they flew into the pylons.”
The nature lover said she strongly believed that whatever was behind the incident was “man-made”, adding “I feel quite passionate about it – I think we should respect wildlife more in general.”
There was seemingly little explanation for what caused around 200 birds to die so suddenly, with some pointing to the nearby Dragon LNG gas company plant as a possible cause.
A spokesperson for Dragon LNG said there had been nothing unusual at the plant on Thursday and it was carrying on work as normal.
She added: “It’s in the vicinity but its normal operations at Dragon LNG. There was nothing different at the plant.”
Theories have spread locally about why the birds died – including electrocution or even the possibility of the starlings hitting the road surface after being chased by a bird of prey at dusk.
Pembrokeshire Council said it was aware of the incident. A spokesman said: “We received a call at around 9 pm on 10 February regarding a number of dead starlings on the Hazelbeach Road, Waterston.”
“Officers attended the site and there were around 200 starlings found dead on the road. The authority undertook a clean-up and removed the dead birds from the site. There is no clear indication as to the cause of these deaths. We have reported the incident to the Animal and Plant Health Agency,” he added.
It is not the first incident of its kind in Wales, in December 2019, hundreds of starlings were found dead on Anglesey. Theories ranged from birds hitting the hospital windows to chemical involvement, with some even claiming that the 5G network was to blame.
Such was the furor, the RSPCA revealed they would be meeting with hospital representatives as part of an investigation into the bizarre incident. According to the RSPCA, the birds were spooked by a larger bird, possibly a bird of prey, and in an attempt to flee, flew straight into the hospital windows, failing to see the glass due to the reflection.
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