Winter approaching
Though the autumn weather was calm, it changed rather rapidly and soon turned. One night Nat woke up and heard the wind in the chimney: “not the storm and bluster of a sou’westerly gale, bringing the rain, but east wind, cold and dry. It sounded hollow in the chimney, and a loose slate rattled on the roof. Nat listened, and he could hear the sea roaring in the bay. Even the air in the small bedroom had turned chill”. The image of weather changing gives coldness and apathy to the manner of narration and serves as a background for further events.
Birds
Birds become the main image of the story: “Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. They rose and fell in the trough of the seas, heads to the wind, like a mighty fleet at anchor, waiting on the tide.” Such a great amount of birds cannot but inspire fear and horror, and the most terrible thing is that no reason is clear for birds gathering in these clouds, and their motives are also unclear. “They stretched as far as his eye could reach, in close formation, line upon line.” Nat, the main character saw “gulls circling, hundreds of them, thousands of them, lifting their wings against the wind. It was the gulls that made the darkening of the sky. And they were silent. They made not a sound. They just went on soaring and circling, rising, falling, trying their strength against the wind.” The image of the birds creates the feeling of helplessness.
Sounds
Along with the images appealing to vision, there are images of birds that appeal to hearing: “Muffled sounds came from the windows, from the door. Wings brushing the surface, sliding, scraping, seeking a way of entry. The sound of many bodies, pressed together, shuffling on the sills. Now and again came a thud, a crash, as some bird dived and fell.” Attacking all senses of the imagination, the author creates a perfect image of terror.
The fight
The author depicts in detail a fight between Nat and the birds: “A black-backed gull dived down at him from the sky, missed, swerved in flight, and rose to dive again. In a moment it was joined by others, six, seven, a dozen, black-backed and herring mixed. They kept coming at him from the air, silent save for the beating wings. The terrible, fluttering wings. He could feel the blood on his hands, his wrists, his neck. Each stab of a swooping beak tore his flesh.” The scene of such an aggressive attack from the side of birds fills the story with feeling of human powerlessness against the nature, which is represented here in the confrontation with deadly birds.
