ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S "BIRDS"

I was more than a little suspicious of the enormous black crow hopping along the path a few metres in front of me on yesterday’s early morning walk. Throwing a glance over his shoulder now and then he kept on hopping, I thought maybe he was injured, but it wasn’t until I almost caught up to him that he finally took off and landed on a lamppost. Observing me keenly as I approached, those steely eyes followed me as I walked past the lamppost and continued on. I couldn’t resist looking back to check his whereabouts, I didn’t trust him, and although he was still watching me he obviously had no evil intentions, as no screeching missile came my way to attack the peacefulness of the morning.

We have quite a population of them round here with peckers big enough to take your finger off I reckon, let alone pluck your eye out or terrorise you en masse Alfred Hitchcock style. Ever the master of suspense, my first viewing of Hitchcock's The Birds as a young teenager scared the living daylights out of me, don’t think I’ve looked at a crow since without a healthy sense of respect and a decent dose of mistrust.

Very different scenario from this afternoon’s coffee at an outdoor café. Brushing the crumbs from my plate on to the ground, not the usual thing I would do in a café but in this case quite warranted, I waited to see which sparrow was the bravest as they darted in and retreated at a great rate of knots in their attempts to pick up every tasty morsel on offer.

Brought to mind another bird feeding episode some time ago in which I came to the conclusion birds like junk food just as much as any other species. Tossed out some stale bread for the locals, both white and multigrain (must’ve been a while ago as I haven’t eaten white bread for years), broken up into sparrow sized pieces. Well, they do only have little biddy beaks. Was sitting at my desk in the study looking out on the back yard when down they came, one by one, and what did they head for? The multigrain bread with all the seeds and grains you’d expect birds to naturally gravitate to? Nope, every single one of them went for the white bread, and only later in the day did I notice the multigrain was finally gone.

I guess we humans are not the only ones who don’t always know what’s good for us.