On Watching the Birds and Being Noticed.

Just to add another little note to the changing of life’s landscape at the moment, the view to the heavens from my garden has taken on a new aspect. It used to be filled with house martins, with the occasional swallow mixed in, swooping and diving and riding the air currents in their hunt for airborne food. Now it’s a large flock of squawking gulls flying in circles and five or six buzzards drifting sedately on the breeze.

What’s interesting about the gulls is that they don’t all circle in the same direction. Some circle clockwise and some anti-clockwise, which caused me to wonder whether they have a version of right-handed and left-handed members in their society.

And that caused me to further consider the fact that most of what we know about birds and animals derives from the practice of scientists capturing and killing them, and then dissecting them to find out what makes them tick, which bits relate to other bits, and so on. I asked myself whether we humans have a right to kill other species merely to bolster our knowledge base just to prove how clever we are. Should knowledge be that important, or should we leave them alone, observe them without interfering, and be content with what we see? I’d be happier with that.

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And on a different tack entirely, I’ve discovered that there’s a new qualification abroad in today’s society. You no longer have to have a PhD or be a famous celebrity to gain approbation; all you have to do is make it known that you’re a Myers-Briggs INFJ and people want your autograph.