Hi Tweets,

Michael Dossett writes:

>Birds need
>to eat more to maintain their weight, during high pressure periods, their
>bodies require far less.

Wouldn't that depend on the type of high, Michael? During Arctic high
pressure, such as we've just experienced, the birds need to increase their
food consumption to produce enough body heat to survive the cold.

Likewise when lows approach: they're likely genetically programmed to stoke
up seriously when they begin to feel the changing pressure gradient in
either direction because the cold of an Arctic High can kill them if body
heat drops too low from lack of food, or in the opposite direction, the
incoming precip, whether heavy rain and snow can can obstruct their access
to food. Similarly, food is heat, and in the case of heavy rain, a wet bird
could become hypothermic quite quickly.

In case you might think humans are exempt from that sort of thing, check out
the shortage-panic buying in a Florida or Georgia supermarket when the
forecast is for a hurricane to make landfall in the area. In the birds'
case, instinct; in ours, the weather channel's talking heads.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)