The Birds

Who doesn't remember the Hitchcock thriller "The Birds"? Where the rich socialite, Melanie, is attacked by birds in a small California coastal town while delivering a pair of love birds as a practical joke?

Well, I had my own "birds" encounter today. No, not in a small California coastal town. I was in my little corner of Montana. Oh, and there were no lovebirds either. And, I'm glad to say there was no blood shed. There I was walking along a paved trail, admiring the mountains, when I saw a snake. I stopped to take a picture of the snake, when it slithered into the tall grass along the trail. A dark brown bird landed on the branch of a bush nearby. I told the bird he had scared the snake away, and continued walking.

I turned around, because I had decided to walk a different way to get back home. Only to find the initial bird, had been joined by a second bird. Along the trail there is a barbed wire fence. As I walked, the birds played leap frog over each other to get to the next fence post I would be walking by. Here is where it all got kind of creepy and Hitchcockian. The birds started to squawk. I looked straight above my head, to find a third bird hovering over me. I walked faster, the bird hovered faster. I stopped, the bird stopped. So, there I was a bird hovering over me, and two birds playing leap frog on the fence post, ahhhhhh! Who me panic? I was worried about the hovering bird diving at my head, and getting tangled in my nest of blond hair!

I tried to tell the birds I wasn't there to get their babies. I told them they had to worry more about the snake than me. I tried to reason with them. Woe, wait, listen to me, I tried to reason with three birds. Okay, so maybe, I was having more of a "Smile, you're on Candid Camera" moment! It wasn't until I crossed the road that I turned to look for the hidden camera.