The Birds

When Alfred Hitchcock's movie 'The Birds' came out in 1963 it was advertised with the blurb, 'The Birds Is Coming.' The English teachers were having a field day. The posters that were appearing on buses and in subway stations showed a picture of black birds filling a sky, a picture of Hitchcock pointing to them, and the ominous warning. The above image is close to what those posters looked like, but is not exactly as I remember them.

No matter. It is the wording of the warning, or the announcement, that had the English teachers using it as an example of subject/verb agreement. Now class, should it be 'The Birds are Coming?'  Birds after all is plural.

Is this just using bad grammar in order to draw attention to the movie? Certainly, but it turns out not bad grammar. Grammar with a loophole, if you will.

After the class offers their is/are opinions the teacher explains that 'The Birds' is a proper noun, a title, and is singular, so therefore "is" is the correct subject/verb agreement. No matter how wrong it sounds, it is correct. Teachers loved the ad.

Now nearing the completion of my sixth year of retirement I can point to many "old man" type of activities that I've fallen into. The last two years have seen me add feeding-the-birds-when-it-snows to my retirement activities. And for several years now I've taken to adding bird houses I've built to the yard. I always say I'm providing affordable housing.

Even my wife has gotten into the activity, although a little less directly than myself. She has suggested the mixture of seed and suet pellets to buy for their diet. Home Depot has a dedicated section to those who engage in this activity. Alone, I'm not.

Let me tell you, they don't all fly south for the winter. In fact, I wonder if any fly south at all. Perhaps robins. I don't see any robins right now.

Yesterday was the first day after the nor'easter that blew through here and dumped about six inches of snow and sleet, that has now turned into a hard crust of ice. I don't even leave footprints in the snow right now, the top has frozen into such a crust. It would seem you could almost go ice skating on it.

Thus, yesterday's feeding attracted more birds than ever. When my wife came home from work she asked if we got any visitors. Did we ever! I think they came from out-of-state there were so many. I immediately thought of the movie 'The Birds' because the snow-covered-picnic table at times was covered with birds of several species: sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, juncos, mocking birds, crows, I think, and some I really don't know.

They ate so much yesterday that so far today I'm only going getting squirrels, not the photogenic flock I now want to take pictures of. Cardinals are beautiful, and really stand out in the winter. My guess is they are now so heavy they can't fly, but instead need to lighten their load and poop on the snow. I'm sure this is not really the case, since I do see some flying around. They are just not hungry right now.

Right now, the birds are not coming.

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