I was transferring a post about birding Santa Cruz, California, from my old blog to 10,000 Birds when I came across a very interesting factoid which I’d like to share. (This may be the sort of information that North American birders learn at the feet of their mentors, but it was new to me so hopefully I’m not just filling space unneccessarily). Rather than just lay out the info in front of you though, I’ll ask a riddle: what links Daphne du Maurier, Santa Cruz, and Sooty Shearwaters with Alfred Hitchcock?

That’s got you thinking eh? Well, it turns out that in August 1961 there was a huge wreck of Sooty Shearwaters along the coast around Santa Cruz. According to local newspaper reports, “Residents, especially in the Pleasure Point and Capitola area were awakened about 3 a.m. today by the rain of birds, slamming against their homes.

Dead, and stunned seabirds littered the streets and roads in the foggy, early dawn. Startled by the invasion, residents rushed out on their lawns with flashlights, then rushed back inside, as the birds flew toward their light.” [Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 18, 1961]

Exciting stuff! I’m fairly sure that most 10,000 Birds readers would be absolutely exhilarated to see thousands of shearwaters suddenly appearing out of the fog one morning, but for most other people this would have been little more than a local news story destined to disappear into the Great Editorial Wastebasket in the Sky after a few days. However, it just so happened that one Alfred Hitchcock was at the time preparing to turn a Daphne du Maurier short story called “The Birds” into a horror film. He heard about the shearwater invasion and telephoned the newspaper from his Hollywood home to request that a copy of the article be sent to him.

In 1963, as film buffs will undoubtedly know, Daphne du Maurier’s tale of birds attacking an English village re-emerged as a disturbing vision of gulls and crows terrorising a Californian coastal town and Tippi Hendren was indelibly stamped on our memories screaming in genuine fear as enthusiastic prop men threw live birds at her for a week instead of the mechanised ones Mr H had promised would be used.

Cool eh? For more info have a look at Birds “Invade” Santa Cruz, California and “The Birds”.