Out on the front lawn yesterday I saw the dog sniffing at a patch that looked discolored. Even... blue? I went for a closer look and sure enough, there was a bluish area about the length and width of the kitchen table. Looked at first like there was some kind of growth on it -- fungus? weeds? -- that would have popped up just since the night before. How?
Of course, a closer look explained:
But it didn't explain much.
Apparently a flock of birds landed on my lawn, molted like crazy, and vanished.
Do birds molt in bunches?
I looked up group molting online, and most of what I saw was about chickens -- how to make them molt, why to make them molt, how to stop the molting, and so on. Apparently sickness, exhaustion, completion of the laying cycle, and reduced lighting can all cause molting in gangs of chickens. I assume this applies to other birds as well.
If they had just laid a passel of eggs, I would think they'd be with the eggs, not on my lawn. So maybe I had a sick flock camping out on the lawn. Or perhaps they had just flown in from their winter haven in Arkansas and boy were their wings tired.
Or maybe it was the change in the light. Sun's coming up later now than it was on Saturday -- reduced lighting, eh? See where I'm going with this?
#blameitonDST
P.S.: Speaking of nature, I'd like to thank the animals fighting outside the bedroom window at 1:30 this morning. Yes sirree, woke me up good and solid for a while. Then my mind started to contemplate Hillary vs. Donald and I began hoping for death.
Thanks, nature. (Glares at nature.)
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