Have you ever wondered why so many birds get hit and killed by cars ? [ Or maybe you are surprised at how few of them do .] [After all, there is no "correct" number] [As far as I know] Here's my theory .... For a start, there hasn't been enough time, evolution-wise, for birds to change their behaviour ..... I suppose cars became plentiful about 60 years ago. That's only 60 generations of "new" birds. But the main factor, in my view anyhow, is this ... Throughout 99.9999999999999% of the time that birds have existed, anything that was big tended to be slow. Yes, I know that a few large animals are quick ... but I don't think they would have enough impact to alter the course of evolution. And they probably aren't after birds. Rockfalls ..... they move quickly but tend to be accompanied by hefty noises... and they're not exactly common.Avalanches ... slow,rare. So birds would have an inbuilt sense that big things weren't going to hit them any time soon. But ... when the car came along .... that algorithm was busted. And they haven't rewired themselves yet ... through the very slow process of bumping-off enough of them to alter the course of evolution and wipe out the set of genes that say " big=slow". And I don't think they will ever need to ... because surely they will outlast us humans. I do hope so. There .. that's that sorted. Or maybe not. Maybe there's much better theories out there. Let me know if you can enlighten us. But for now, here's an unusual thing ... a cover version that's better than the original. I first got to know about Welsh band Catfish and the Bottlemen because I hoped they would do some Welsh songs ... but they don't. But .... their songs are extensively "covered" by "ordinary people" .... and this version of " Cocoon" is streets better than the Catfish's attempt at it.... now that's a rare and beautiful thing ... off we go then .... [By the way, car radiators can be a rich source of moths .... they get squidged on them, often in hefty numbers. ]
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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