I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning and do my run. No mean feet, it was wildly windy and grey and angry looking.
As I scanned the skies I noticed gulls and crows edging and banking into the gusts. Then diving into them, oncoming, beak first, before spinning one-hundred and eighty degrees and shooting, arrow-like, in the opposite direction.
Then I came to the end of the mostly sheltered lane, flanked on both sides by a dense spaghetti of gnarled branches and barbed bramble creepers. This would be full of birdsong, green and gapless in a month or so. And I turned the corner onto the main road and headlong into the fifty mile per hour gusts. My eyes started to water and I wondered how you never see birds wiping their eyes. How do they protect them, they don’t even have eye lashes!
Birds have the largest eyes, relative to their size, in the animal kingdom. They do have two eyelids that operate similarly to other vertebrates but they do not use them for protection or cleaning like we do. These are simply for sleep. They do however, have a transluscent nictating membrane that sweeps horizontally, like a windscreen wiper, and an oily secretion that prevents the eye from drying out in sun or wind. So, now I know.
It is well observed, that windy days always tend to raise the energy levels of school children. Some of ours were finding self-control more challenging today, but despite this it was a good day. And as I left work, walking to the car, I noticed two more gulls simply playing in the gusty wind which, by then, was much tamer.
Finally, there’s lots in the news that starts with the words “A year ago today..” as we get ever nearer a year since the first lockdown. A year ago tonight three-thousand Spanish fans came over to England to watch their beloved Athletico Madrid side take on Liverpool at Anfield. The last fully attended sporting event. Spain had a full ban on mass gatherings and sporting events at that time. We didn’t.
The Bald Birder 