Hitchcock's "The Birds" was a documentary

[LVSteve]

Apparently there is a killer gull in loose in London's Hyde Park. Seems he has been actively hunting pigeons for five years or more. Pigeons or gulls, tough choice.

BBC News - 'Huge' killer seagull picks off Hyde Park pigeons

 

[Will Carry]

You got to love the Brits. We had a murder of crows that used to use our bird bath to clean their kills. They were killing all kind of birds from Robins to Cardinals. My Daisy Buck to took care of that murderous murder.

 

[EQGuy]

Where I duck hunt I hunt on a levee separating 2 ponds. I try not to shoot a duck so that it lands in the pond my boat is not in as by the time I get to the duck the gulls will have picked it clean of flesh. If I hunt along the near by slough if a duck falls in the slough you have to get it before the Harbor Seals make a meal of it.

 

[LVSteve]

You got to love the Brits. We had a murder of crows that used to use our bird bath to clean their kills.

I get grackles bringing lizards to the birdbath. Maybe they think they can soften them up for easier eating. I've watched a grackle dunking the lizard several times and clearly getting frustrated that the snack is still rubbery.

 

[soFlaNative]

Great White herons snatch baby ducks, fly across the water then slam them on rocks a few times to soften them up.

Must be brutal being a bird.

 

[shouldazagged]

Jekyll Island, Georgia, has the biggest grackles I've ever seen, at least twice the size of the ones we have here in the lower Midwest. Enormous buggers. I was fishing off a tiny pier below the hotel where my late wife and I were staying, and was using shrimp for bait. It was windy, and the stiff breeze was noisy in my ears, but I heard a fluttering sound behind me. I turned, and six feet from me the entire rail was lined with these huge birds. They sat there, shifting from foot to foot, and staring at me with big yellow eyes, and I swear the hair stood up on the back of my neck. A real Hitchcockian scene.

Then they began stealing my shrimp and cleaned me out. I'd shoo a couple away, and while I was doing it three others would raid the bait. Evil, gangster birds!

 

[Mcwsky09]

My dad saw a hawk take down something and tear it apart on the hood of a car outside where he worked at the time.

in my yard I have seen woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, a number of less distinctive birds that I am not qualified to id by species as well as some large predatory birds which did not get close enough for me to identify.

I have heard stories of small pets being carried off not far from here by large birds.

 

[Class III]

Up at our duck lease we have a problem with Bald Eagles. We have a nesting pair about a mile from our blind. When they hear the shooting they show up for a free breakfast.

We've been feeding this same pair for about 10 years. We always leave the first bird or two on the water for the eagles.

We clean our harvest at the boat ramp and leave the carcass for whatever wants to sneak out for a free meal. Most of the time if taken after dark it's by either bobcat, raccoon, fox or skunks. During daylight it's almost always taken by birds, primarily crows.

Class III

 

[6518John]

Jekyll Island, Georgia, has the biggest grackles I've ever seen, at least twice the size of the ones we have here in the lower Midwest. Enormous buggers. I was fishing off a tiny pier below the hotel where my late wife and I were staying, and was using shrimp for bait. It was windy, and the stiff breeze was noisy in my ears, but I heard a fluttering sound behind me. I turned, and six feet from me the entire rail was lined with these huge birds. They sat there, shifting from foot to foot, and staring at me with big yellow eyes, and I swear the hair stood up on the back of my neck. A real Hitchcockian scene.

Then they began stealing my shrimp and cleaned me out. I'd shoo a couple away, and while I was doing it three others would raid the bait. Evil, gangster birds!

That's because they are a different species than what we have in the Southeastern/Southwestern interior. We have Common Grackles, the coastal birds are Boat-tailed Grackles.
Boat-tailed Grackle, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

 

[LVSteve]

That's because they are a different species than what we have in the Southeastern/Southwestern interior. We have common Grackles, the coastal birds are Boat-tailed Grackles.
Boat-tailed Grackle, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Same here with the Great Tailed Grackle. They look like streamlined crows.

 

[6518John]

Up at our duck lease we have a problem with Bald Eagles. We have a nesting pair about a mile from our blind. When they hear the shooting they show up for a free breakfast.

We've been feeding this same pair for about 10 years. We always leave the first bird or two on the water for the eagles. Class III

This is why Ben Franklin wanted our National Bird to be the Wild Turkey verses the Bald Eagle. He considered the Bald Eagle to be a glorified vulture.

 

[Old TexMex]

Same here with the Great Tailed Grackle. They look like streamlined crows.

The Streamlined Crows.....isn't that a band?

 

[6518John]

Counting Crows.
http://countingcrows.com/

 

[6518John]

Same here with the Great Tailed Grackle. They look like streamlined crows.

You are dead on Steve. They are actually crossing territory with Common Grackles on their eastern range, although your Great Tails are primarily a Western coastal and interior bird.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great-tailed_Grackle/id

 

[Old TexMex]

Common Grackles would be a good name for a band too...

 

[6518John]

Great White herons snatch baby ducks, fly across the water then slam them on rocks a few times to soften them up.

Must be brutal being a bird.

When you understand where birds came from, you see why they are such bad boys and girls. Remember this the next time you see that "innocent" Cardinal or Sparrow at your feeder. (I love the hawks and falcons because they exhibit no hypocrisy about the skeletons in their closet-and I assure you there are many)!
Birds: The Late Evolution of Dinosaurs | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

 

[soFlaNative]

Not surprised a bit. If the butterfly in China had flapped one more time or the asteroid missed landing in the Gulf we might be the ones hiding in the trees.