Grackles Hitch ride to the UK

FLOCKING BEHAVIOUR OF VISITOR IS STRAIGHT OUT OF DIRECTOR'S CLASSIC THRILLER

- Stuart Winter

GRACKLES. The word claws at the craw like a bad bout of heartburn.

One look at these evil-eyed birds garbed in oily-black mourning dress and screeching ungodly wails induces indigestion faster than refried beans and fiery fajitas.

Dread still wells in my stomach recalling an encounter with untold thousands of greattailed grackles cackling along utility lines strung over the dusty streets of a one-horse Texan town.

Alfred Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier never made birds look so gruesome, sound so satanic.