Migratory Birds - Survival of the Fittest!

Hi Guys,

Yesterday morning, I saw a few migratory birds flying over my head. It has been quite some time since I saw them. As soon as I saw them, my mind became so happy. It was then that I realized how much I missed watching these birds. I am not a keen bird watcher, but I enjoy seeing the flock of birds, their amazing pattern and the sheer strength displayed.

The great evolutionist Charles Darwin said that only the fittest will survive. The migration of the birds can be attributed to their survival. It is etched in their genes that they must travel in order to survive. I wonder how the evolution must have taken place. Identifying a place where they can be safe and travelling back and forth every year.

This bird (the white one) is known as the Great White Egret. It is a partial migratory bird (only a part of the species will migrate). It is commonly found in North America and it migrates to south Asia in the winter. I found this bird in a lake that was near my home. I took this photo a year back (on 25-12-11)

Many of the birds travel more than 10000 miles each year with the hope of surviving and creating their successors. The whole story is that they need to travel back another 10000 miles again. This process continues.

Over the time they have evolved in such a way the birds know exactly what they are doing in migration. Before the migration period they start conserving energy and store the food as Fat in their body. Some species of birds don’t stop in between during the migration. A bird species in New Zealand migrates to the northern Hemisphere without anywhere in between. They cover a distance of more than 6000 miles.

Most of the birds travel in a particular route all the time. These routes are genetically imprinted in the birds. They travel along a particular mountain range, coast or any other easily identifiable landmark. Most of these routes are designed in such a way that they consume less energy. Mostly we can see that their destination also remains the same. A particular butterfly in Northern America migrates from Mexico to USA and back to Mexico in a circular pattern. By the time, they complete a journey three generation of butterflies’ passes away. It is genetically programmed in such a way that when a newer set of butterflies come into life, they know exactly where to go.

Also, you must have seen the birds travelling in flocks. Most of the time they are V shaped in nature. This reduces the total energy spent by the birds in order to fly. The bird at the head directly counters the wind and it deflects the wind and the pattern is in such a way that the other birds are not affected by wind. After sometime, the head bird is replaced by some other bird. It is said that this process conserves around 15% of the energy. It increases the speed of the birds by around 3 miles/hour.

It is just mindboggling to know the amount of energy the birds spent in order to survive and pass on their genes. As I write this article, there must thousands of birds flying all around the world migrating from one place to another with the hope of surviving. At the end of the day, it is the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and these birds are born to survive.

Happy Reading!!!

Things that Crossed my Way!

Hi Guys,

There were some corrupt files in my computer for the past few months. They were slowing down all the processes and hence I decided to set things right. I thought it will take lesser amount of time, when I sat yesterday evening. But when things seemed to be right, newer problems kept coming. Finally I set things right by today afternoon. I had to spend nearly 5 hours to right things. It was just frustrating.

Missing Beautiful Things

A few days ago when I started to college, I noted that a plant in my garden was full of flowers and it just looked stunning. It’s called as Idly Poo in Tamil and later learnt that it is called as Jungle Geranium in English. The flowers used to be in a bunch and it will be bright red in colour. Even one bunch of a flower will look beautiful and that day there were around 20-25 bunches and it appeared red all over the place. It was gorgeous. I have seen lot of flowers and still this one remains my favorite.

A whole view

A closer look

This plant has been in my house for a long time and I still remember my childhood days when I used to pluck the flowers to drink the sugary nectar. The taste will be wonderful and hence there will be honeybees around this plant. I have got many stings from those bees.

It also made me realize that in the quicker pace of life, we miss many small yet beautiful things.

Amazing Nat Geo

These days, I watch Nat Geo Amazing in National Geographic Channel. There are lot of interesting facts portrayed all over the program. The biggest advantage is that the time period Nat Geo takes to cover a fact is so less, that you can learn 4-5 things even if you watch for 10 minutes. It shows us a new perspective on lot of things. It covers Weird but True facts, slow motion videos, top 5 ratings on a certain things and simple principles behind complex things. Click here to go to the Nat Geo Amazing online channel.

Another program I watch is Mission Army. Nat Geo offers a chance for a common Indian to be on Indian Army. Though I’m not very much interested on the competition, I do watch the Indian Army facilities that are being showcased. The facilities are awesome, the training sessions are rigorous. Last week they were showing about Paratroopers, who are airborne soldiers who can handle any situation. Any one in army can apply for it and nearly 70% of them eliminated in the painstaking training. The training tests your mental ability and physical fitness.

A soldier was saying that he needed to run for 60 kms with all the bag and things. He was saying that after some time his legs were falling out and he was doubtful whether to continue or give up. He was saying that it was not a test for the physical fitness, but the mental ability. To be simple, they are very very brave people, because of whom we sleep comfortably each night.

Return of Birds

A few months back, in my Enjoying Nature post, I mentioned about the arrival of migratory birds. These days I can see those birds return to their home. They travel as a flock of 5-7 birds and generally they are in V shape. Seeing them reminds me of Determination. They fly over 1000s of miles in the hope of finding a new shelter and then returns back home when summer sets in here. They repeat it every year to make sure that they survive.

That’s it for now.

Happy Reading!!!

Enjoying Nature!

Hi Guys,

It is quite long since I wrote. I am having my semester exams and have to concentrate on that. Just, finished my Thermal Engineering exam and did it quite well. Also, thanks for the overwhelming response for my previous post on Vaigai River. This time my Indiblogger Rank (Indiblogger is a website that supports Indian bloggers) has went up to 73/100 which I have never imagined of taking.

I don’t have very much to write, but will write a very words of how I enjoyed nature in the past few days.

The first delight was Migratory Birds. As the Northern parts gets freezing cold in winter, birds living there travel 1000s of miles to tropical region. My locality is sort of a hub for these birds as there is a lake nearby. The birds will be filled with lot of colors (unlike our usual black and white birds). A blue bird (that I later found to be a Kingfisher) frequents often. Yesterday I saw another bird which was peculiar. Its body was yellow and feathers were coffee brown. It had sort of a long tail like structure. When it flew the tail like structure expanded and offered it stability. Well, the total time I saw the bird was less than a minute it was just awesome. 

The blue color kingfisher that frequents often (this photo was taken last season)

Apart from these birds, if you look at the sky these days you can see flock of birds with superb formation flying synchronously. It will be superb. As I go to terrace in the evening to study I can watch at least 3-4 wonderful flocks a day. Some will be flying in pairs whereas some flocks will contain even 20 birds. These birds are an inspiration to me. See, how tirelessly they from North pole to here for days in the hope of finding food and shelter here (also a few days later they must fly back to the North Pole). We must learn confidence and determination from them.

Another wonderful being I saw was a Dragon fly. Dragon flies are abundant in our locality, but I have never seen them keenly. A few days before I saw picture in which dragon fly was amazing in its appearance. I became interested. Yesterday I had a chance to watch it closely when it was sitting on a cloth line. It was just awesome. Each and everything on its tiny body had structures. Its wings were divided into patterns and were equally colored on both sides. Its body was filled with minute hairs and its head was so beautiful. Well, it was just nice.

The picture of dragon fly that inspired me to look at dragon flies closer

Thats it for now. Will see you soon.

Happy Reading!!!