Eat till your full of it!

The above pic has nothing to do with the topic, but I did want to let everyone see the clan. Please note that the one girl in the back is just a friend of one of the grandchildren who happen to be there.



Watched something of interest this week about eating and the food chain process. I was watching the news, so as normal I was in my chair, feet up and remote in hand. When the news is on everyone knows not to both me for I am focused on the trials and tribulations of the day.. Thats when I noticed something going on outside. Luckily it was commercial break so I was not missing something important like who was going to run for President.

Anyway, what I saw was a swarm of dragon flies outside the picture window. They were darting all over the yard as if they were Nascar drivers spinning at 200mph. Thinking this was really cool, I watched as they filled the viewing area. So if you think about it, it was really like watching Nascar on a big screen window.

Soon, I saw what they were trying to avoid/get away from. A swarm of Swallows (birds) moved in and were having a feast on dragon flies. I came to the conclusion that the dragon flies had been to the back KOI pond enjoying the water and the birds moved in. They boogied over the house for safety. Of course the birds followed and were having their fill of the delectable mobile meals. It was very apparent that a swallow could out-turn a dragon-fly, thus the show was short lived. (notice the play on words here?) You can also look at it this way. It was Fast-Food at it's best.

Like I stated the show ended and I went back to watching the news or what was left of it. Then about 45 minutes later, more birds caught the corner of my viewing eye. It appeared at first that it was a bird hurt and couldn't fly back to a close by tree. Or it was a swallow that had become injured in the high-speed turns they were making while eating.

Then I saw 2 of them repeat the same thing at once. They would fly into my view and then fall to the ground. Thinking this was so weird and that I may have hurt birds all over the yard, I got up and went over to the window. What I saw next simply amazed me! Never had I seen a group of birds do this.

Looking out, I saw about 12 or 15 birds all lined up in a row, roughly two wing-width apart. They were all moving ahead, much like people do when they are looking for a lost child wanting to search/cover 100% of the area.

Every once in awhile a bird would fly into the air to a height of 6 to 12 feet, grabbing a bug out of the air. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they had learned to flush their meals out of the grass and whoever saw it got it. I never saw 2 birds go after the same thing, so I guess they had a honor system.

After they had swept the area, they then moved of in random order and re-swept the lawn looking for more lunch. They didn't look organized after that, so I may have witnessed a fluke of happenstance, but I like to think not.

Of course I also thought of the Alfred Hitchcock movie called The Birds. What if they had seen the movie at a drive-in and realized they could work together? What I had just witnessed was a training exercise much like our military and they were practicing to stalk any one of us for food!

Think about it and then start looking over your shoulder!