How do the birds know when it’s time to leave?

AS I watched the flocks of swallows gathering on the telephone wires in preparation for their long flight northwards to Europe, I couldn’t help wondering whether we humans have the faintest idea how birds and animals communicate. How do the swallows know it’s time to start gathering for the trip? Who decides when it’s time for departure ?

I often see vast flocks of cormorants gathered shoulder-to-shoulder on the rocks at the ocean’s edge in front of my house and suddenly they will all take off together and form a skein of birds, heading in close formation toward Simon’s Town or Seal Island.

It’s amazing to see the mass take-off. They’ll be sitting there, apparently happily and probably discussing the weather or the latest cormorant cricket score; then, in an instant, they’ll all take off and head in the same direction.

Which of them gives the command that scrambles the squadron? Who decides which way they’ll go? Is there a king cormorant or a cormorant air traffic controller? If so how is he (or she) chosen?

There must be some form of avian communication to send out the instruction. I can’t believe they all take off together accidentally. Somebody must give a command.

When they are all sitting together on their rock do they put their brains into neutral gear, or are they deep in conversation?

“Listen up everyone, Charlie here says he spotted a shoal of fish to the east. Okay, let’s go for them. On the count of three we take-off. One, two, up!”

I am told that swarming insects like bees link their individual consciousness to form one combined brain and I wonder whether birds do the same. On the other hand, I often see cormorants fishing alone, so they must have the ability to think individually.

When the veld grass is in full seed there are always swarms of tiny seed-eating birds whirring about over the veld, chittering noisily together and I sometimes wonder whether they are communicating or making a sort of identifying noise, meaning something like “here I am, here I am.”

(I watch young people with their cellphones in shopping malls and I think that’s what they do too. “Here I am, here I am.” Maybe that’s the reason they call it tweeting.)

Or are they actually passing information, possibly rapid signals to avoid collisions?

Many of my friends are enthusiastic bird watchers and can identify the lesser purple-throated tattler and the long-tailed thrifty thrush at a glance.

I watch birds like an eavesdropper. I don’t mind what tribe they belong to, but can’t help wondering what they’re talking about.

Last Laugh

A politician was surprised to meet Satan during an international conference.

Satan drew the politician aside and whispered into his ear: “If you sell me your soul and the souls of your wife and two children, I can offer you the power to rule any country on earth.”

The politician thought about for a while and then said: “Okay, but what’s the catch?”