Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Wonders of Nature?

I sit here staring out my window when I'm supposed to be working. After a week of bitterly cold weather, it's suddenly (within the last 2 hours) 52 degrees!

I watch the small bird (a robin?) outside my window taking a bath in
the ice water and wonder.. how can such a small animal that by
necessity for flight, has almost no meat/fat on it's body take a bath
in ice water and not be cold... Yet I sit here in a heated home with
slippers, socks, jeans, a heavy shirt, and a flannel shirt on, sipping
hot tea, and I'm chilled.

Is the bird cold or not? Does it have B.O. (that's "Bird Odor") so bad
that it has to take bath no matter how cold it is? Does it perhaps
think the seemingly warm weather will keep it safe even though it is
freezing it's butt off? WILL the weather keep it warm enough
until it dries?... or will this little bird take flight, turn into a
block of ice and drop like a rock?

I know they are warm blooded. I also know the feathers and plumage keep them from losing body heat as quickly as we do; but if I was to wrap myself in a nice warm quilt, soaked in ice water, and then stand in a 20 MPH wind, I wouldn't last very long. Will the bird?

Yes, today is a busy day for me.


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