Today in 1961, a news report in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about a strange bird event along the coast of California.
This event was so strange that it actually ended up shaping an iconic movie about a strange bird event.
The headline of that report tells the story pretty well: “Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes – Thousands of Birds Floundering in Streets.”
Eyewitnesses say there were huge numbers of birds called sooty shearwaters, that just showed up in town acting really weird.
There were piles of birds that were sick or had already expired; others were confused, and some were even hostile.
The Red Cross had to give tetanus shots to people who’d been bitten, and utility crews had to deal with power lines the flocks of birds had downed (!)
At the time, experts thought the birds might have gotten lost in some fog and followed streetlights into town, then kind of panicked when they realized they were lost.
Some locals thought the bird invasion was the result of a germ warfare attack; a few others thought it was legitimately the end of the world.
Decades later, scientists solved the mystery: a bloom of microalgae known as Pseudo nitzschia.
Several types of Pseudo nitzschia can produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid.
Plankton and fish ate the algae, and the birds ate the plankton and fish, which sent the toxin up the food chain.
The birds weren’t trying to terrify nearby humans; they were drugged up and disoriented.
Environmental and wildlife officials now monitor for these algal blooms to minimize their effects on birds and sea lions and other creatures.
But that all came later; back in 1961, word of this strange story worked its way further north in California, where movie director Alfred Hitchcock was working on his next film.
It was based on a novel about a town where a town in California was suddenly being terrorized by huge numbers of birds!
Hitchcock asked someone to send him a copy of the newspaper story about the sooty shearwaters, and a few elements of the real life bird invasion ended up in the movie “The Birds,” like the speculation about birds getting lost in the fog.
The newspapers wrote about Hitchcock taking inspiration from the real life event, and the director made sure to point out that while he loved a bizarre happening as much as anyone, the bird invasion was not a publicity stunt for the film.
“Merely a coincidence,” he said.
This week in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, the King Coal Show.
It’s a a little over a week of events recognizing the area’s coal mining history, along with food, parades, fireworks, a carnival and the annual Coal Queen Pageant.
Does Old King Cole drop by the King Coal Show?
Here’s the real story behind Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ (Popular Science)
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