Bygone birding: The smog-ridden night that up to 300 starlings fell out of sky to be killed by road traffic

                                                                                  

Starlings - freak incident in Lincolnshire

The following report from a reader appeared in the July 1959 edition of British Birds magazine 

Fog persisted nearly all day at Sleaford, Lincolnshire, on 9th February,1959, but at dusk it became a dense blanket with its base more or less level with the top of the church spire. 

There was almost a complete lack of breeze. 

Next morning, the main thoroughfares in the northern half of the town were littered with dead starlings over a distance of half a mile. 

The information was passed on to me after the roadmen had been at work for some time, but from their estimates and an examination of the unswept parts, a total of 250 to 300 dead starlings seemed reasonable. 

All appeared to have been injured by impact in some way.

It was learned later that, on the night of the fog, a large roost formed in the village of Leasingham, two miles north of Sleaford for the one night only, though flight lines passing in a northerly direction had been noted for a fortnight previously.

A random selection of seven starlings, and also a house sparrow found dead in the area, were sent the same day to Dr. A. R. Jennings, at the Department of Animal Pathology, Cambridge. 

His report stated that deaths were largely due to asphyxia resulting from severe smog.

It is suggested that flocks of starlings entered the Sleaford area on their usual south-to-north flight line, were gradually overcome by smog concentrated under the thick fog blanket and descended to the roads in the northern half of the town. 

Here, being unable to fly, they were probably killed by heavy traffic. 

No birds were found in gardens or on traffic-free roads, and only one or two odd ones were reported in other parts of the town. 

W. M. Peet