Ironically on the way to Swenson's farm, Bob and I had a terrifying encounter with a freak Hitchcockian murder of crows. O.K. they were not crows, but a murder of crows sounds much more dramatic than a flock of starlings. And it was dramatic. Were they starlings? Maybe they were grackles. I was too terrified to pay attention since a premature Hitchcock experience caused an irrational bird phobia (is that an oxymoron?) Anyway, some exciting New Zealand bird watching last year supposedly cured me of my old fears. Not so. Running down the road to the farm, I imagined what it might be like if these thousands of noisy black birds surrounded my own house/creamery.
As we walked home I noticed the birds were no longer occupying the same edge of the forest. Frightened that they may be flying quietly behind us with their eyes on the dog, I picked up the pace. As we descended into the driveway the chipper became clear. The closest birds must have been only about 100ft away, almost exactly the length of the creamery. Once inside, I realized the birds occupied every branch in sight from the kitchen windows. Facing my fears, I stood on the new back deck attempting to capture the experience on video. When the birds finally decided they had tormented us enough, the sky was black and chattering with starlings/grackles in flight.
Breakfast, made from perfectly orange egg yolks, was not easy to digest.
these images really pale compared to the reality of the experience (all the feedback sounding noise is actually fluttering bird sound).
6 comments:
They look pretty far away to me. How about giving up some more cathartic details of just what happened. Oops, what's that outside my window? A distant flock? Wait, wait. Nice birdies. Good birdies. No, no, stay outside... Aaaaaargh...
O.K. Dr.Twitch...so it wasn't quite a Tippi Hedren scalp lifting experience. However, the fact that they were high up in the trees may have made the experience even more terrifying. THEY have the power of flight.
As I said, these images are not representative of the feeling evoked when every single branch of the forest surrounding me was blackened by screaming birds. The sky was dark and chattering when they finally decided to move on and torment the next phobic.
What were they anyway?
Youtube says "we're sorry this video is no longer available," making positive identification difficult. The spring migration is upon us, however, so any number of species are making their way north in dense clusters, taking comfort in the safety of numbers. I suspect, whoever they were, they didn't mean to upset you.
how strange, shows up on my machine.
now I'm going to edit the last sentence for dramatic effect.
Pretty sure they were grackles.
those eggs are worth the terror!
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