THE BIRDS
New York Post
PETER FEARON
May 16, 2001 -- Novelist Daphne du Maurier wrote the story that inspired the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror flick "The Birds" - and now, her son has been terrorized by creatures eerily reminiscent of those in his mom's work.
Christian "Kits" Browning, du Maurier's 60-year-old son, and his wife, Olive, have been viciously attacked several times by pairs of seagulls nesting outside the cottage where the literary legend once lived in Cornwall, England.
Recently, scores of gulls massed to attack them, and an armed pest-control expert had to come to the rescue.
"They built their nest on a stone pillar in the garden," Browning told The Post. "Every time you try to go out, the mother starts screeching and the dad sits on the roof and literally dive-bombs you."
Faced with feathery fury, Browning called in an exterminator.
"We had to get a hit man," Browning said. "He was prepared to take them out with an air gun. I really didn't want them shot, because some people would object . . . and anyway, it's bad luck."
The exterminator, wearing a hard hat and protective gear, distracted the mother by waving a stick and quickly stuffed the nest and eggs into a bag.
"All the other gulls within half a mile, scores of them, came and circled and attacked to protect the female."
The Brownings took shelter inside the house.
Now, they wonder if the super-protective gulls will retaliate.
"We're told they can actually recognize someone who has interfered with a nest," Browning said.
Du Maurier was inspired to write the apocalyptic short story "The Birds" after witnessing similar behavior.
"She was walking and saw a farmer, who had plowed up worms, surrounded by gulls flying around his head. She suddenly thought, ‘Supposing they attacked.'" |
