Death from Above

A flock of more than 100 starlings were recently found either dead or dying in the front yard of a single house in Somerset. Experts, of course, are baffled. If by "baffled" you mean "trying to determine a cause of death using their expertise". Many of the birds had bloody, broken beaks, which suggests that their cause of death had something to do with a medical condition known as "acute faceplanting". Some are hypothesizing that a bird of prey was pursuing the flock and frightened them into making a sudden downward change in direction. This would explain why all the birds were found in such a small area. But the owner of the house isn't so sure. And she worries that whatever caused these birds to drop dead will affect her grandson or her two cats. She believes the birds may have been poisoned from eating too many pesticide-laden crops, since, she says, starlings are "greedy in nature". But this theory doesn't seem to hold much water considering no such poisons have been found in their systems. Also, their goddamn beaks were smashed into the ground. More details here.