...my heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird -- the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! The Windhover
Bonnie Milette, a C2S member, sent us this truly amazing and uplifting link.
Dylan Winter and the Starling Murmurations
As starlings gather in the evenings to roost, often they will participate in what is called a murmuration — a huge flock that shape-shifts in the sky as if it were one swirling liquid mass. Often the behavior is sparked by the presence of a predator like a hawk or peregrine falcon, and the flock's movement is based on evasive maneuvers. There is safety in numbers, so the individual starlings do not scatter, but rather are able to move as an intelligent cloud, feinting away from a diving raptor, thousands of birds changing direction almost simultaneously. The question that has had scientists stumped is how a bird, hundreds of thousands of birds, can elude the nearest danger, sense the shift and move in unison? The group protects its members. Safety in numbers -- but even more.
Sometimes, we can just watch and wonder -- there are things that are beyond our ken.