The Birds!

The Birds

The Birds

Watch out! The Birds are coming!

Once in a while, red-winged starlings congregate in my neighbour’s tree. You know they are there without looking, because of all the noise they make!

And you can just about make out the ‘red’ on the outstretched wings of the one flying off at the top left.

 

Alfred Hitchcock directed the scary movie ‘The Birds’ in 1963. Shortly after watching this movie as a 16 year old*, I was alone in the house, when I heard a funny tapping noise near the back door.

I went to investigate and saw, through the glass panels of the door, the dark shape of many large birds pecking away on the step!

I got such a fright!

It took me a while to realise that the dog’s food bowl was on the top step and several birds had come down to eat up the scraps. The sound of their beaks pecking on the tin bowl was what I had heard.

Still, it really did give me a fright! Just shows what your imagination can do.

 

post script: No, I wasn’t 16 in 1963! Cheek! I watched the movie on TV long after it was made!

 

35 thoughts on “The Birds!”

  1. Pingback: Four and Twenty Blackbirds . . . | Mad Cap Dog

  6. HN

    exotic looking tree made more interesting with the blackbirds. The birds start to sing where I live very early in the morning…4AM – and very loudly.
    I like that Hitchcock movie too 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      They are loud, aren’t they? I remember being woken at 4 am by the dawn chorus in England when I was a kid. Luckily, dawn is never that early here in Cape Town. 🙂
      Hitchcock movies are great fun 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Garfield Hug

    Birds all decked out…I can imagine them calling….eerie…Hitchcock’s Birds😨
    Nice photo and if I think positively, it looks like a christmas tree with a lot of patridges ha ha! Me and my imagination 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    1. scifihammy Post author

      haha You’re right! Nearly one bird per branch! Very festive 🙂 And if we had any sense here, we’d have Christmas now in June, our winter! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Laura

    The starlings here also make a lot of noise. I like the way the birds are on the tree. It does remind me of a Christmas tree.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Genie

    That’s a lot of birds in one place.
    Where I live, birds aren’t as plentiful as that, especially this year, everyone is wondering where all the birds have gone to, mostly crows around. It’s been unseasonably hot for months and now really cold, so the birds must be confused and maybe flown elsewhere.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      These starlings do tend to go round in large flocks: quite fun when you look out of your window and they are all over your lawn! 🙂
      I suppose the weird world weather is upsetting the birds natural migrations?

      Liked by 1 person

  13. pensitivity101

    Ah, The Birds. Good film. We have the understudy starlings here at the moment (scores on the lawns and in the trees)! Your picture looks like Nature’s Christmas Tree. Who needs baubles and lights? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Midwestern Plant Girl

    We’ve got the non red wing by us. They love to hang out in large groups and squawk their little hearts out.
    I’m not a fan of horror movies. I will freak out for days.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Well, those old Hitchcock movies are the only horror I’ll watch – the modern stuff is just too gruesome. 🙂
      btw I was wondering if you knew why there are ants in my camellia flowers (yesterday’s post)? I can’t see that they are eating anything, and no aphids. You’re my Go To plant expert! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

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