Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hitchcock is Laughing

Birds.  Birds!  BIRDS EVERYWHERE!!  They're following me!  ACK!

I've mentioned before about the long desolate journey I have every day to work. And I've mentioned some of the ...odd ... wildlife I've seen. So last night, driving home, I was swooped by a bird.  (It may have been a bat, but who can tell when it's dark?)  It was an omen, though, of my pending morning commute.  (Cue the menacing "Twilight Zone" theme music here...)

This morning, I passed a rafter of turkeys.  They were congregated in the large area around (I kid you not) the Etowah County Bow Hunters range.  Maybe they had a death wish? Or maybe they were showing their machismo and daring the bow hunters to take the field?  I don't know, but they were looking at me as though *I* might be Thanksgiving dinner, not them!

Later, I saw a murder of crows perched among the branches of an enormous dead tree.  Can you say "creepy"?  Just imagine - the skeleton of an oak, filled with large black birds silhouetted against the rising sun.  Yeah.  "Creepy" about sums it up.

There's a beautiful creek area on my way to work, too.  It's a nearly mile-long stretch where the road crosses several creeks feeding into the nearby Coosa River.  What did I see?  Swans!  Black ones and white ones!  At least these birds didn't seem menacing in any way... but after my first two experiences - and the fact that Halloween approacheth - I'm staying on my guard!

1 comment:

Darren said...

I remember driving home one night about 10 years ago on October 31. The sun was setting, and 10 vultures were sitting on an old dead tree in the middle of a field, silhouetted against the red sky. It was one of the creepiest things I have ever seen.