Wednesday, August 20, 2008

On the same planet but in different worlds.

To live near a lagoon means to have many neighbours.
These neighbours are mainly the birds who live by the hundreds in the shallow water.

Of course there are more animals around.
As there are coyotes, snakes, lizards and rabbits.
But they are present in a discrete way and are rarely seen.

There are also the cows and horses that come to drink the salty water of the lagoon and eat the grass that grows near it.
But they are always afraid of the Fuso Szulc and remain at a safe distance.
Hence, binoculars are used to observe especially the horses.
Because horses are fascinating to look at.
They live in a world of themselves and it is very challenging to get an idea what is going on there.
Horses are also delighting to watch for the way they move.
It has an elegancy and harmony that is most inspiring.
They move like in a permanent slow-mo.
Not that that they are slow or retarded.
They seem to have reached a state of enlightenment from where movements come completely in tune with the grass growing.

Most of the attention of the observer the birds get.
Now that they are used to the Fuso Szulc and a man moving around it, the birds have come to understand there is no danger coming from the visitor.
They continue their daily life and come very close to the encampment of the human.

Typical for the birds is that they all look the same.
There are about 20 different horses coming to the lagoon and several of them look in a way that they can be recognised and identified.
But birds are all identical.
There are not even young birds and older ones.
They all seem to have the same age.

Most dominating bird in the lagoon is this one:



No idea how it is ornithologically called.
It has long legs and a long upward beak.
It considers itself the king of the lagoon.
It tolerates a smaller species but any other bird coming close is in trouble.
When occasionally a sea gull accidentally happens to like to inquire what the lagoon is about, immediately one or two Kings of the Lagoon get airborne and loudly chase away the intruder.
This is spectacular to see because they operate like dive-bombers.
They don’t even hesitate to attack and chase away very large Men at War-birds, three times their size.



The other kind of bird very present in the lagoon is this one:



They live in large groups and spend the whole day roaming the shallow water looking for food.
What is incredibly remarkable of this bird is that frequently all of them at a magical moment suddenly get airborne.
Why that particular moment is not to understand.
There is no sign, warning or other trigger.
It simply suddenly happens.


Next, they do some spectacular flying manoeuvres above the lagoon.
They fly in a group of one to two hundred of them and make many sudden twists and turns.
It seems there is some magical force directing these aero-acrobatics because the hundreds of them change direction together in perfect sync.
This way, that way, upwards, downwards and all hundreds of them exactly at the same time.
And never a bird crashes into another one.
While they fly at high speed.



All these birds live in groups and this they manage to do in a certain harmony.
Sometimes they have things to settle it seems and they threaten or chase each other, but it always ends peacefully like nothing happened.

Obviously these birds have an incredible high level of collective consciousness.
We humans have a consciousness of ourselves and keep that very private.
We are not very good hooking up our consciousness to that of others and have it operate as a shared consciousness.
We do know that we have a subconscious collective consciousness, but we have allowed that to vanish.
But among birds, the ones living in groups, it seems that there is hardly a private consciousness.
And this is understandable: a single small bird has very little chance of survival.
When they are by the hundreds together, their sheer number protects them.

In order to keep the level of collective consciousness high the birds in the lagoon use their voice.
Constantly they communicate with each other by making sounds with their voice.
To inform each other they are there.
And of course to give warnings.

Very surprising was to learn that this constant chirping and twittering goes on even at night.
These smaller birds seem not to sleep.
They need to continue to audio communicate and the question is what in fact they are talking about.
Or is it only a way to inform the others of being there?
That these birds need to feel they are all there and OK?

Birds are living creatures, just like us.
We share the same planet.
But in fact birds and humans are like aliens for each other.
On the same planet but in different worlds.







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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful pictures and observations, birds are fascinating! Sharing with us their routine in the lagoon brought about similar annotations in my daily life in the mountains and at my tidal river escape.

Anonymous said...

The first bird pictured is an American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana).