What a to do!

I was standing by the back door when there was suddenly the most awful racket! It sounded like a clip from ‘The Birds’ the Alfred Hitchcock film from the short story by Daphne du Maurier. In the story and the film, for some reason birds go mad and begin to mob and attack people; although the film isn’t as gory as today’s horror films, it is still really scary and creepy! It starred Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedron….

To return to my back garden birds… I don’t know what started it, but there was a massive fight between some rooks and jackdaws on one side and a flock of about a dozen magpies on the other. Joining in the mêlée were some starlings, and a few sparrows were yelling from the sidelines. Half a dozen different sort of seagulls whirled overhead, occasionally swooping down to give someone a peck or two. Above it all was a giant crow crying out harshly; eventually the crow got fed up with it all and waded in and sorted them all out. A magpie made an attempt to have the last squawk by landing on the highest TV aerial of the houses opposite, but he soon disappeared and order was restored. Now there’s just a rook sitting on a chimney pot, looking around, on the watch for any more trouble, keeping guard.