talk a lot, pick a little…

Book review:

What the Robin Knows:

How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World

Jon Young

Boston: Mariner Books-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012

241 pages

“Just as scientists have identified elements of human speech that reflect a speaker’s emotions, field experiments have shown that the calls of many animals provide listeners with information about objects and events in the environment. Like human speech, therefore, animal vocalizations simultaneously provide others with information that is both semantic and emotional.”

p. 105 from What the Robin Knows

The birds talk to each other. All species of birds and many species of other animals also listen to birds. Both prey and predator species listen to the birds. We can listen to birds.

I suspect that Young’s widely experienced detail must be a bit deceptive. I suspect there is more randomness than Young explains. If there weren’t some randomness, the predators would have figured out the patterns long ago.

…and some other thoughts: suppose the birds are really talking…what if your dog can talk and chooses not to?

* * * * * *

“Fishering,” by Brian Doyle

…what meets the eye…

click here

My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”