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 great-tailed 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.