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BULLYING : a “lone ranger” can’t survive
The 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds was based on a fictional story by Daphne du Maurier, the film was set in California’s Bodega Bay where the locals come under siege from birds, who for no apparent reason swoop down en masse, sharp in beak and claw. The very idea that birds would attack human beings seems outlandish, but did du Maurier have a premonition of events that were to happen fifty years after she wrote the book?
Recent events in England suggest that some species of birds are becoming more aggressive with attacks on humans becoming more numerous. Buzzards, birds of prey with a wing-span of up to two feet normally feed on rabbits, small birds and sheep carrion. They are common birds in England, and, once almost extinct in Ireland, they are now making a comeback.
They are now a protected species, but they were once regarded as a menace on the great shooting estates, where they were shot, poisoned and trapped, but for the buzzard it is now time for revenge. In recent years, they have attacked humans in rural Worcestershire, in particular targeting ramblers; it seems rather ironic that that one of the victims of these raiders of the skies is a former pilot in the Royal Air Force, Richard Briggs.
Mr Briggs, a regular walker had already been attacked twice by buzzards, apparently random attacks, but some years ago he underwent something much more frightening. He was walking in an oak wood when five buzzards swooped down on him in a concerted attack, inflicting wounds so serious that he required hospital treatment. In the same area, the previous day, a young woman out walking with her dogs was attacked and forced to run, fearing for her life.
Sea gulls were the main protagonists in The Birds, and it seems that they too are now becoming more aggressive, in the popular seaside resort of St. Ives in Cornwall gulls have become so smart and so ruthless that they line up on rooftops, sizing up their victims. One holiday maker had just purchased her lunch from a takeaway when five gulls dived on her; the birds seemed to have a strategy whereby they worked in groups with one bird snatching the food while the others attacked with beak and claw.
These avian marauders are not too choosy about their diet, chips, pies, pasties and ice-cream are all targets; things became so serious that one restaurant owner issued a warning, recommending that meals should not be eaten outdoors. There were calls for the birds to be controlled, but it is illegal to shoot them.
At the same time the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds agrees that there is definite evidence that sea gulls in particular are becoming more aggressive towards humans. It should be noted however, that our feathered friends are generally harmless creatures, desiring little more than to be left alone, but they will always welcome the seeds, peanuts and other food scraps we leave out for them.
We will leave the last word on sea gulls to the Welsh singer and comedian, Max Boyce, he wrote a song about the sea gulls of the resort of Llandudno. He describes a man and his wife sitting in deck-chairs on the beach when a low-flying bird drops a deposit on the man’s head, his wife offers him a tissue, but he replies; It’s no good, he’s too far away now.
My thanks to Nealie Butler from Castletownroche who rang to tell me that he heard a cuckoo near the Ballyhouras recently.
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