STOUGHTON, MA, 4/25/2001 - Thousands of flying insects tried to flee in terror before the onslaught of scores of ravenous, feathered demons of death. A shocked fly was heard to cry, "First they got my brother Ed, then my other brother Ed, and my other brother Ed, and my other brother Ed, ...." Unfortunately, the grieving dipteran was nailed before he could recount the full scope of the depredation of his family.

The carnage at Pinewood Pond was particularly gruesome as about 30 Tree Swallows, 15 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and 10 Barn Swallows engaged in their murderous spree. Consorting with these swallows from hell was a member of the notorious Tyrant Flycatcher family (well named for their nasty habits), an Eastern Kingbird, captured here as it contemplates further insecticide:

Sickened by this scene of carnage, your humble reporter retreated to Town Pond. The scale was different here, though the stench of slaughter still hung in the air. One of the guilty parties tried to adopt a pose of innocent indifference before this witness but no one would have been fooled.

And yet there was more to come. High above, beyond the range where its crimes could be proven by identifying the victims, the remorseless, relentless Chimney Swift was imposing its own reign of terror.

Who knows what horrors await the unsuspecting bugs of Stoughton tomorrow?