Today’s photos come from ecologist Susan Harrison at UC Davis. Her captions and notes are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
“The Birds” at Bodega Bay, California
Today’s post has only a few actual birds, and is more about the greatest-ever avian-themed horror movie: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” filmed at Bodega Bay, California and released in 1963. Most readers probably know this, but here’s a plot summary: A wealthy San Francisco woman, Melanie, becomes obsessed with a man named Mitch and pursues him to his family ranch at Bodega Bay, bearing caged lovebirds as a gift. The local seagulls and crows become demonically possessed, attacking first Melanie and then the townspeople. Terror, death and an exploding gas station ensue.
On a recent visit to the University of California’s Bodega Marine Lab, with the weather too windy for much wildlife photography, I took some photos along the tourist trail to “The Birds” locations.
Here’s the town of Bodega Bay, showing the sport-fishing docks where Melanie rents a skiff to motor across the harbor with the lovebirds:
The town sits on Bodega Harbor, on the left (north) side of this photo. The bay proper is on the right (south), separated from the harbor by the long peninsula known as Doran Beach:
The fishing pier in the movie is gone, but here’s a neighboring one of similar vintage:
The ranch house to which Melanie travels seeking Mitch was built for the movie on a property called the Gaffney Ranch. The landowner, Rose Gaffney, led a successful fight to stop construction of a nuclear reactor at Bodega Head and her land later became the Bodega Marine Laboratory and a marine conservation area. Mitch’s house site is now the marine lab’s dorm complex. Here’s an aerial view of the lab with Bodega Harbor behind it (from Coastview.org):
Here the lab is just visible behind the rugged cliffs of Bodega Head. What a place for a nuclear reactor, right where the San Andreas Fault meets the sea!:
The Tides Restaurant was a key location in the movie and remains a mecca for Birds-related tourism:
Today’s Tides Restaurant scarcely resembles the movie’s charming little roadhouse, which burned down in 1968:
Tippi Hedren, who starred as Melanie, made annual publicity visits to The Tides until at least 1995. The restaurant’s memorabilia includes autographs by Hedren and co-star Suzanne Pleshette, who played Annie, schoolteacher and ex-girlfriend of Mitch:
Tippi Hedren suffered much abuse from Hitchcock during and after the filming of The Birds, and her career stalled after she stopped putting up with him. Her iconic look as Melanie inspired a themed Barbie doll, one of which sits on a shelf at the marine lab:
At the Potter School, Annie’s schoolkids were terrorized by crows and seagulls thanks to a visit from Melanie. The real school was built in 1873 and had just been condemned when Hitchcock’s crew came scouting. The Church of St. Teresa of Avila also appeared in the movie:
Finally, here are the most sinister-looking birds I could find on my visit.
Seagulls (Western Gull, Larus occidentalis and/or California Gull, Larus californicus), playing all innocent around a tidepool:
Snowy Plovers (Anarhynchus nivosus) looking like they just murdered someone and aren’t talking:
Common Loon (Gavia immer) with devilish eyes:
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) looking like a mascara’d goth:
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in noir-ish sunset lighting:
Great narrative and I love the descriptions given to the birds at the end.
More or less a random comment: Bodega Bay is the only place I have seen brown pelicans, a salt water species, together with white pelicans, a fresh water species close enough to capture in a single photo.
This was a very enjoyable and informative read. And wonderful photos. As a bird bander, I am readily persuaded that there are birds out there that have been demonically possessed. If Tufted Titmice were the size of Blue Jays, I might not still be among the living.
I love this one! Thank you for sharing.
Ah, if only I could step into my phone screen…, I mean not to star in a reboot of The Birds, but just get some fresh salty air…
Love the narrative—and the movie!
I love your narrative of the town and the birds. Although I’ve visited Bodega Bay many times (typically coming from U.C. Davis to visit the Marine Lab), it’s great to learn the town’s landmarks as they relate to The Birds movie. I especially like knowing that Mitch’s house site is now where a part of the Marine Laboratory’s dorm complex sits.
Ah, the memories. Growing up my dad drove our family to Bodega Bay several times and it was always socked in with drizzly fog. Bless Rose Gaffney! You got me with the Snowy Plovers who “aren’t talking”. Too funny. Always love your adventures through my childhood stomping grounds. Thanks, Susan
One of my uncle’s talked about spending part of his youth growing up in Bodega Bay when his father, a U.S. Coast Guard warrant officer, ran the light house station at Point Reyes. From your photos, it looks like my uncle led a wonderful life.
Just an aside, but relevant, in the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Vertigo’, the house my mom grew up in is shown at the 40:03 mark in the director’s cut. Her father, the U.S. Coast Guard officer, was in charge of the Fort Point station when the Golden Gate Bridge was being built above it.
This was a particularly delightful and eclectic RWP post!
A delightful post! Thank you.
Love this! Brilliant movie, seen it several times. Would really like to visit that area one day, shame it’s not a bit closer to NZ.
Great photos and great commentary! Thank you for sharing!
Fabulous post! The goth merganser is sick. (Not medically ill, but “rad” sick)
What a fun post! Thank you.
Chaotic seabirds observed in Capitola and Santa Cruz in 1961, presumably under the effects of domoic acid toxicity, may have inspired Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds”.