Birds In Flight

Last night I went to a meeting of my master naturalist group at Carlos Avery. All the way there I worried about that poor she-wolf of Mexican descent that was released by some person crazy enough to open the gate with a wolf right there. I did not want to be the one to strike and kill an endangered wolf with my car on my way to a master naturalist meeting. I knew it had been seen on Coon Lake and I had to go around that lake to get to the meeting. I am glad to hear the wolf was cornered in New Brighton and is now home where she belongs. Our speaker was Carroll Henderson, author of "Birds in Flight." I brought a copy of his book and he was very kind in signing it for me. He described the physics of flight. We learned about things like thrust and drag and gravity and lift. The way Henderson described it made sense to me although I can't explain it all now. He compared bird anatomy to airplanes. He talked about the albatross and how their long wings allow them to fly for a month at a time just by riding the air currents. He showed how some bird wings are for distance, like an albatross, others for speed (kestrel), others for quick lifts (pheasant), and others for acrobatics (tern). He was a fascinating speaker. He takes all his own photographs. The time just sped by. He's full of fun facts. Hummingbirds eat sugar - the human equivalent of how much sugar they eat in a day is 350,000 pancakes. I'm glad I have the book so I can review the material we had last night.