A movement outside my window caught my eye. I planted a snaky, helical red metal pole (originally intended to train up twining vines or tomato plants), to signal the mowers to stay away from a red-bud sapling.
A male cardinal landed on the pole. The pole began to oscillate. I could see him compensating with a side-to-side movement of his head, to keep his eyes trained steadily forward. I pictured what his spine must be doing.
This reminded me of a brilliant Mercedes commercial showing the same kind of function in chickens. Find it and laugh. It’s really pretty marvelous. Look for “youtube mercedes chicken commercial.”
As was my little male cardinal, pretty marvelous. Who flew off, apparently unimpressed by his own brilliance.
