Dear Steve
The thought occurs to me: are peacocks a flightless bird? I don’t recall ever seeing a picture of a flying peacock, let alone an actual bird. The impression is that if they can fly, they must be a glorious sight.
Peacock Flying High – Watch the Amazing Peacock Flight – YouTube
Yes, they can, and yes, they are.
I don’t know where the nearest peacocks are to us. Probably one of the stately homes. In the meantime, I’ll talk about birds I can see. In particular pigeons; they remind me of the military transport aircraft, the Hercules C130, Fat Albert’s as they are called. You know when a pigeon is about because you hear that clap of their wings as they try to gain height in their ungainly way.
Compare the relative ungainliness of pigeons with gulls in flight. I love sitting on the waterfront; when there is even the slightest breeze, the gulls glide serenely, just gently moving the tips of their wings. They make it look so easy and breathlessly graceful. I think there is possibly a degree of jealousy there; birds make flying look easy. Whereas to any attempt to achieve flight on our part, no matter how graceful it might look to people, we have to spend ridiculous amounts of energy to get in the air. In reality, we come nowhere near their gracefulness.
I have to mention, as we are talking about flying animals, dragonflies. Watching a dragonfly in the garden is a delight. I can quite happily sit and watch a dragonfly as it moves across our garden, or if I am at a reserve, its natural habitat, the beauty and ease of their movement really is a sight to behold. Their manoeuvrability is delightful to watch. I know our closest machine, the helicopter, is noisy and ungainly in comparison. But I can’t help it that dragonflies remind me of them.
All the Best
Bill
Link to the previous letter to Steve; XXXIV – Lots of Natural History
2 thoughts on “2156 – Letter to Steve XXXV – The Beauty of Flight”