Saturday Reading

Ecclesiastes 5-8.


Some thoughts about birds, as I was outside a lot of the day and my mind had a tendency to think on such things.

Why do birds seem to know other birds are birds? If any other type of animal approaches them, then birds fly off. But not other birds.

I routinely see mourning doves and sparrows and cardinals all congregating around my birdfeeders and peacefully settling in, even though they are different species of birds.

It's like the birds have formed secret societies. They know who is "in" and who is "out".

They must have done this, because not all birds are welcome in the social network. You never see pigeons hanging with hawks. Hummingbirds aren't "in" either.

When did this happen? Has it always been this way? How do they recognize each other? Instead of a secret handshake, do they have some sort of wing flap that let's the others know they're in the club?

Do they have initiations, like gangs? I've long suspected this, considering how often my car is doused with crap.

And did you ever notice that birds never sing off-key? They never hit a sour note when they are singing. Why is this? Humans can't do this. We supposedly have a higher functioning brain. Yet we cannot execute perfection.

If there's a perfect argument against evolution (besides the eyebrow), it has to be this one. What are the odds that all bird singing is so melodic and never off key, just by chance?

It has to be that they were made that way. If this ability was just randomly developed, there'd have to be some clinker notes evolve in there some where.

But there aren't. The aesthetics are brilliant.

And I've come to call our backyard bird feeders, because of the volume of birds that turn out, "The Place To Be". Frank Costanza would be proud. The only differences are the birds don't play pool and don't take off their pants in my back yard.