He brings the bodies to the shore, where he sees thousands of gulls hovering over the sea. Nat returns home to collect the bodies of the dead birds, but cannot bury them because the ground has frozen solid. Jim, a cowhand, is similarly unconcerned. Trigg of the previous evening’s battle with the birds, she is dismissive of his story, positing that it was simply the weather. He sees his daughter Jill onto the school bus and then visits the farm to check on the Triggs. The next morning Nat insists to his wife that the sudden cold snap and east wind are to blame for the birds’ behavior. When day breaks, fifty birds lie dead on the floor. Nat ushers the children out of the room before wrapping a blanket around himself and fighting with the birds until dawn. He rushes to their room to find the window open and dozens of birds diving about in attack. Nat scatters them away with his arms, only to hear cries coming from his children’s bedroom. Upon opening it, half a dozen birds swarm about his face. That evening, Nat awakens to an insistent tapping on his window. Trigg asserts that the weather must be causing the birds’ behavior, and predicts it will be a hard winter. Upon finishing his work for the day, Nat tells the farmer Mr. Nat Hocken, a war veteran and farmhand with a disability, observes that there seem to be more birds than usual clamoring restlessly over the sea. On the third of December in a quiet, seaside town, the season shifts abruptly from autumn to winter.
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