Murmurations
No one knows why they do it. Yet each fall, thousands of starlings dance in the twilight above
England and Scotland. The birds gather in shape-shifting flocks called murmurations, having
migrated in the millions from Russia and Scandinavia to escape winter’s frigid bite.
Scientists aren’t sure how they do it, either. The starlings’ murmurations are manifestations of swarm
intelligence, which in different contexts is practiced by schools of fish, swarms of bees and
colonies of ants. As far as I am aware, even complex algorithmic models haven’t yet explained
the starlings aerobatics, which rely on the tiny birds’ quicksilver reaction time of under 100
milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions and predators in the giant flock.
Despite their tour de force in the dusky sky, starlings have declined significantly in the UK in
recent years, perhaps because of a decline in suitable nesting sites. The birds still roost in
several of Britain’s rural pastures, however, settling down to sleep (and chatter) after their
evening ballet.
Two young ladies were out for a late afternoon canoe ride and fortunately one of them
remembered to bring her video camera. What they saw was a wonderful murmuration display,
caught in the short video – URL is below. Watch the variation of colour and intensity of the
patterns that the birds make in proximity to one other. And take a look at the girl in the bow of
the canoe watching the aerial display. Enjoy.
Strut’s second day of Table Work
I train for the schutzhund 3 from the start and do not take a dog in a trial until they are trained all the way through. That way it is a short course through the titles and better scores along the way for the dog is very advanced and confident. Prey drive is the drive for the toy or sleeve if the latter has always been presented as the reward, starting a leather rag, and I get those from you 
, progressing to the bite pillow, juvenile arm and finally the full arm. The dog still thinks of this as a moving target and not the man. Defense is when the dog is trained to want to bite the real deal and it is out of territorial aggression or pissed off aggression as you saw in the table work. The development of the defense drive brings an intensity to the hold and bark and bite work in general kind of changing the character of the bark. The goal is to have that carry over to the hold and bark in the blind for the sleeve for it instills in the dog more fight drive which is a combination of both drives—prey and defense. Strut was always high prey so we needed to let her know what defense was and the table work accomplished this. Polo would never need that for he is in bigger defense than prey all the time as he is border patrol bred. All of the males on his mother’s side are working police dogs, a lot more civil in their makeup, always looking for what they have to protect. Strut’s father is a very serious dog who Molly says you do not take for granted even when you know him so she comes by her defense side honestly though innately she is very loving and social.
Xanja vom Haus Reinuis, SchH1, KKL1a
Xanja vom Haus Reinuis, SchH1, KKL1a, mother of Ajax vom Adlerbach, BH, HOT,
Berro vom Adlerbach, SchH3, and grandmother of Adlerbach’s Ajan SchH3, HOT, all of who live with me, along with Polo z Danaru, SchH3, HOT, and Strut vom
Eichenluft, BH, HOT at 15 mo. Strut is my next working line breeding female after she gets her schH3 next year. Xanja will be 14 in July and these pix were taken of her enjoying a romp today, Barb
