Photo Shoot: The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock ’s move “The Birds” came out in 1963, starring Tippi Hedren , Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy . As kids we never saw the movie in the theater, but by the early 1970’s it was a staple for late night TV, which was where our neighborhood kids found it during sleepovers. Filmed in Bodega Bay, California, it had all the Hitchcock cinema techniques for a good thriller. The attacking birds in the movie started out as gulls and then the crows and sparrows arrived, by the thousands. The underlying theme was the birds were fighting back after years of abuse from humankind.

Photographing birds has always been a rewarding passion. The only times they turn defensive is during nesting season. The common terns on Monomoy Island pressed their case against the media many years ago during a tour of the nesting shorebirds led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which manages the sanctuary. Media members were equipped with yellow hard hats that had short wires attached. The headgear served two purposes, kept tern poop off our heads and protected from pecking head strikes.

But as autumn arrives, flocks of migrating birds often conjure up mind’s eye images from the movie. Walk along remote Cape beaches and the reward for going the extra mile, coming upon large gatherings of shorebirds getting ready to migrate, or stopping along our shores to refuel as they journey south. The aggressive nesting common terns of summer are now heading as far south as Argentina.

But for sheer joy of flight, nothing can compare to the swallows, gathered up in huge numbers taking to the wing, synchronized flying at its finest. I’ve been lucky to witness this twice so far this September. The second time did indeed feel like being an extra on the set for a scene in Hitchcock’s film as thousands of birds took off around me. A present from Mother Nature as the days grow shorter, the nights longer and colder.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: The Birds