Tipi Hedren’s Worst Nightmare

Sure, crows and Western Gulls are big and mean, but if Hitchcock had really wanted to scare his audience, he’d have had hordes of Yellow-eyed Juncos descend instead.

With that crazed stare and sinister shuffling gait, these birds, gentle as I know they really are, always give me the willies. Last weekend we watched them creepily crawl through crusty snow at Bear Canyon, fearlessly approaching to within arm’s reach–and causing me to take an involuntary step backward.