Imagine coming home to find seventy-six dead starlings in one’s garden. That is what happened to Julie Knight of Coxley, Somerset, England, recently. One would normally expect poisoning to be the cause of mass starling death, at least from an American perspective, but an investigation came to the conclusion that the birds mistook the driveway for a reed bed and just flew into the ground. There are many tales of loons and grebes mistaking a wet road or parking lot for a lake with disastrous consequences but I think this is the first time I have come across such a situation with passerines.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
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