Keep Watching the Skies

What actually killed the birds, which inspired Daphne du Maurier to write that short story which Alfred Hitchcock eventually turned into a 1963 thriller? Researchers say it was poisoned plankton, which entered the food chain, and which the feathered flyers eventually ingested. Here's more via an LSU press release on the harmful algae bloom, which LSU professor Sibel Bargu says are "naturally occuring" toxins. Mr. Hitchcock turned the natural phenomenon which occurred in 1961 into a malevolent force--an intentional but seemingly inexplicable attack by the birds of Bodega Bay on the humans of the area--and terrified the dickens out of Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, and the rest of us.