Tag: animals

How do birds hear the calls of species of bird other than their own? Is it like background noise that they can talk (sing) over, filtering out everything but the calls of their own kind, like how you can talk over the murmur of a cocktail party until the second somebody says your name? Or is it more like something they consciously observe and work around, like waiting for your turn to speak in a group conversation flitting between several different topics?

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Early springtime view of bare trees over green-brown fields under a sky dappled with clouds.

Either way: is such communication strategy an instinctive or a learned behaviour? It seems likely that at least part of birdsong communication is gained after hatching because birds from noisy cities are louder than their country cousins (although you wouldn't know it, to listen out of the bedroom window of my rural home, this morning!).

Just a moment's curiosity for the morning.

Not quite ready for wintering indoors, our village's hardy sheep are enjoying pasturing in the large field near the school this beautiful but chilly morning.

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Warm colours break through scattered clouds from a winter sunrise over sheep grazing in a scrubby pasture.

Something I've long enjoyed about Automattic gatherings is the opportunity to meet some the most diverse characters you'll ever find in one place.

But today was the first time I've ever been at a beachside disco that was attended by a foraging racoon.

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A slender long-tailed racoon stands on wooden decking in front of lush tropical vegetation.