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Carpal Tunnel
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> must reason why some of this gathering of birds are willing to forgo feeding for the common good.
don't they trade off? I've watched flocks of turkeys do the same thing; a tom will stand watch for a while, and then another will take over. meerkats do it too, na?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
Don't they trade off? I've watched flocks of turkeys do the same thing; a tom will stand watch for a while, and then another will take over. meerkats do it too, na?
Exactly, etaoin, but what is the stimulus that promps, and the impetus that fuels, this seemingly altruistic example of avian behavior?
This is the $64 question.
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Of course I think. Every Saturday, need it or not.
And good thinking you do, good Faldage. Your burden is your over-filled mind. For many months of Saturdays you have filled your considerable brain with a statictical stadium of double-headers and switch-hitters while excogitating until the wee hours of night for the answer to that great burning philosophical question of all Baseballdom, namely "Who's on First?".
I am here to help. I am going to do your thinking for you.
Very slowly I am going to count to one hundred and then if you or etaoin and anybody else hasn't figured out the answer (to the bird question not the baseball question) I will give it here in the next post.
Last edited by themilum; 04/08/06 12:35 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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uh, basic survival of the species?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
uh, basic survival of the species?
...twenty-six...twenty-seven.
(So right you really are, etaoin. But since all actions of all lifeforms are directed towards the continuation of the species or else they don't continue, it would serve us better here if you would go ahead and burn an extra brain cell or two and try to be a little more specific)...now where was I?...oh yeah,
twenty-two...twenty-three...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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uh, maybe they get more girls?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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They get to watch Britney Spears sunbathing by her swimming pool.
They get to change the rhyme to three and twenty.
They compete to see who can perch on the tiniest, wavingest, whippingest branch of the old oak tree.
They get to shit on their mate's lover, who is feeding below them.
They get to spot acorns and then dive bomb to open them.
They get nearer to God.
They look pretty as desiccated Christmas Balls in season and out.
They are calling the other birds to prayer.
They are looking to see if the British are coming.
The air is better up there.
They get to watch and see where all the good chow is.
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Not half bad, inselpeter. Like I've said, you've got too much imagination to be a dry punctilious bird watcher. And of course you are right, from tree tops they can better see available food and Britney Spears as well as hungry hawks and kids with BB guns. But you didn't address the question at hand. I'll rephrase it... What is the instigating behavioral mechanism for some blackbirds to sit diligently at the tops of tall trees while all the other blackbirds merrily feed on the bountiful ground below ? Just who in the hell elected them as leaders?  Or, alternately, Why are these poor birds being punished while all other birds get to eat? twenty-nine...thirty...thirty-one...
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Pooh-Bah
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I certainly did address the problem. Your question, so it would seem, asks for behavioral incentives, and I provided several, of which one might be sufficient for a black bird. Poontang might be another. And I would hasten to add that this behavior in itself does not make them leaders, but guards. I will be interested to see what solution you offer, and what supporting evidence. Your speculations can be interesting but, all things being equal, one speculation is as good as another.
Anyway, I rather like birds.
An amateur naturalist friend of mine who, during his retirement, built two nature museums and inummerable nature paths on his property near Ludlow, VT, posted a 3x5 card on the wall that said something about avian metabolism and skull size, and then continued, "birds are not very intelligent, but they are highly emotional." He signed it with the name of an invented authority. It still makes me chuckle. apropos birds, only
Last edited by inselpeter; 04/08/06 06:56 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Ludlow, VT
pretty country down there. I have friends in Belmont.
formerly known as etaoin...
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...seventy-six...seventy-seven... Quote:
uh, maybe they get more girls?
Think a bit, etaoin. Winter birds are not like everready human bunny rabbits, they court only in the spring.
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I certainly did address the problem. Your question, so it would seem, asks for behavioral incentives, and I provided several, of which one might be sufficient for a black bird... And I would hasten to add that this behavior in itself does not make them leaders, but guards. I will be interested to see what solution you offer, and what supporting evidence. Your speculations can be interesting but, all things being equal, one speculation is as good as another.
Now inselpeter, you really must take care with your semantics.
In "speculations", as in everything, all things are never equal,
and since nothing at all can be "proved" absolutely, we are left with our attempt to understand the World by reasoning with words.
But we won't get far if you keep anthropomorphizing birds as "guards" and not "leaders". 
...seventy-eight....seventy-nine...
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