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Originally Posted by Scott
[Prehistoric...]Thats the word I was looking for!  |
Flying reptiles
and birds were around in the time of the dinosaurs.
Walk too close to a Great Blue Heron, and he will take off. The loud, annoyed call he makes then: "KROI'NK!-KROI'NK!-KROI'NK!", sounds
positively prehistoric.
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Originally Posted by Scott
You could hear his wings beating and it sounded like huffing and puffing.
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That's the sound made by air as it flows over his "primaries" -- the long, asymmetric flight feathers at his wingtips that provide lift. (Aircraft wings are modelled after them -- for lift).
If the wind is strong enough, sailors can hear this sound crossing their sails -- two
really big primary flight feathers). But birds make "noise" in flight even when not flapping.
At the Grand Canyon National Park, I was viewing the magnificent scene over a concrete wall that was deflecting a very strong wind sharply upwards.
A tree swallow appeared, and soared motionless in the wind just above my head. You could hear the whoosh of the wind over his little form.
It was a sailor of the waters listening to a "sailor of the air". So cool.
