bird invasion In Small US Town Brings Visions Of Hitchcock (Photo Alastair Rae)
Kentucky Bird Invasion Mirrors Hitchcock Film
Residents of the small town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky have been victimized by millions of European starlings and blackbirds descending on their area this winter, an event that is reminicent of suspense master Alfred Hitchock’s masterpiece thriller movie “The Birds.”
The swarms of birds coming to roost in the small Kentucky town north of Nashville are bringing health risks to both human and animal residents with piles of white bird feces accumulating everywhere.
David Chiles, an official with the local chapter of the Audobon Bird Society reports that climate warming is a likely cause for the birds to gather in Kentucky rather than flying to regions much farther south.
“The weather, the climate plays a big role,” said Chiles, the bird enthusiast who also teaches biology at Hopkinsville High School.
“They somehow establish a roost south of where the ground is frozen solid,” he explained. “They are ground feeders, feeding on leftover crops and insects. If the fields are frozen solid, they can’t feed.”
“I have seen them come in, and there are enough that if the sun is just right, they’ll cloud your vision of the sun,” said Hopkinsville-Christian County historian William Turner. “I estimate there are millions of them.”
Although no attacks by birds have been reported on either humans or pets, town officials have hired an exterminator to rid the town of their unwelcome guests.
Many residents, however, have discovered that the noise from the air cannons used to scare away the birds is scaring dogs and children as well.
On The Web:
Bird invasion brings real-life horror to Kentucky city
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-usa-birds-idUSBRE91I16Y20130219
