More Observations
Since writing the notes of last week I have tried to check my own previous experiences of birds in raids. On Sunday I was very conveniently bombed, but the only noticeable agitation among small birds was that among my four small infants as we lay in the grass. Later in the week I was walking by woods and water, where bird-life is extremely active and varied, during a two-hour air-battle in which two planes were shot down above me and machine-gun fire seemed almost continuous. The wind was northerly and cold, with bright sun, but instead of agitation among birds there seemed few birds to be agitated. A single heron took off like a heavy grey bomber from the frosted reeds, and the wren and the kingfisher which I see almost daily in the same places were there as usual, quite normal and quite unagitated, as if nothing were happening. Otherwise bird-life was scarce, and if there were a conclusion to be drawn, it might be that birds are being driven away by raids. Unfortunately for that theory there is also a scarcity of rabbits.
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