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Folks in a Lincolnshire village are in a flap after being splattered with bird droppings.

For weeks now, tens of thousands of starlings have been forming murmurations at sunset over Great Gonerby, near Grantham, and while it is a beautiful sight to behold, what they leave behind has become a bit of an issue.

Ever since the birds started swarming the village a couple of weeks ago, they’ve created an immense mess, coating entire cars and homes in their poop.

As the Mirror notes, at first, locals were left wowed by stunning sunset displays of clouds of birds swirling overhead – but said it quickly turned into a “nightmare”.

One villager said: “Everyone found it fascinating to start with but now they’re fed up with it.”

The fed-up villagers have been forced to wash their vehicles and windows daily while others are only leaving home with umbrellas for protection from the ‘bombardment’. Dad-of-two Drew Hammond, 31, a drainage engineer, who lives with partner Katie Kennett, 32, said:

“It was amazing to see at first but the aftermath is terrible. Our car got completely peppered in it. I’ve watched neighbours wash their car every day. I have a terrapin in my back garden too, his pond is littered with poo. The kids play equipment we’ve had to cover so they don’t gets plastered as well.

Katie said the birds were becoming a “big pain” via the BBC.

“Even just going out the front door you end up with poo on your hands because it’s all over the handles,” she said.

The phenomenon has become a particular problem for their daughter who is blind.

“My daughters blind so when she’s not using her cane she uses the hand rails but we’ve had to tell her not to touch things. Going down the step she uses the railings but all the railings are peppered with poo. She’s an independent little girl and she won’t let us help her. It was nice at the beginning – but not anymore. It is the first year they have been here since we moved in six years ago and it is a nuisance.”

“We hope it will disappear soon,” he said.

Image: Drew Hammond


Another resident, Andrew Comtois, said he’s had to get his bucket out five times, adding that the bird has even released their droppings on people’s heads. Some might say that’s good luck, but not when the bombardment in your backyard is compared to scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film The Birds, according to another local Terry Hill, 67, a grandad-of-one.

He added: “I suppose its nature and you have to accept it but I just could not believe the mess they are leaving. We are getting torrential downpours of droppings. I’ve seen people walking down the street with umbrellas on clear days and evenings so they don’t get splatted with poo. It’s been like something from The Birds.”

The huge swarm often turns the sky black at dawn and dusk as they prepare to feed or roost for the night. Jonathan Brown has resorted to covering his car every evening to protect it from the birds.

“It’s a pain but it’s whether you want to see out of your windows in the morning,” he said.

“They’re [the birds ] a thick black cloud, and you can hear them and you can hear the showers of poo coming down.”

While a frustration for some, the sight of the murmurations often draws a crowd. Keiron Johnson advised the few who gather to watch and take photographs to expect the “pitter patter of poo”.


[source:mirror&bbc]