Thunder Birds

You know how you see birds hang around on telephone poles or high power wires and they never get electrocuted? I mean when was the last time you went outside and saw a cloud of smoke and feathers? Probably never right? I always see birds hanging around high power wires and there's one question that's on my mind: how do birds sit around on high voltage power lines without getting electrocuted!? I've seen birds on power lines all my life, but this question never seemed to be so important until I started this project.

This week I also saw a squirrel run up a telephone pole. I immediately thought, "Okay, there's some sort of secret that no one has told me yet. How come birds and squirrels can go up on telephone poles without getting electrocuted?" I was really intrigued by this and researched the topic. I found a scientific explanation to this little question.

I found Wonderopolis and found an answer. "Electricity flows by the movement of electrons through conductors," says Wonderopolis. "Electricity flows along the path of least resistance." Electricity needs to keep flowing constantly, so it needs a conductor to interrupt the flow and that's when something gets electrocuted; birds aren't good conductors of electricity. "Their cells and tissues do not offer electrons an easier route than the copper wire they’re already traveling along," (Wonderopolis). Since the birds don't provide the electrons with an easier route, the flow of electricity stays uninterrupted and it keeps flowing as normal.

Through my journey of finding out an answer to this, I found a cool video! This video is really unbelievable. It's a short part of the song, "Birds on the Wires," by Jarbas Agnelli. He created this while, "Seeing a picture of the birds and decided to see what music the birds were creating," explains Agnelli. If this video caught your attention and you want to see the whole thing, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkRg_FZdLgw.

Agnelli is really creative! I liked the idea of making music out of where the birds were sitting on the wire. They really look like music notes when you think about it. I couldn't have thought of doing something like that. I just can't get over the idea that someone can create music from seeing birds hang around. Now that I see this, I wonder if birds are trying to give us the gift of music; after all, their chirping is really pleasant to hear. 

Work Cited

"Do Birds Get Shocked When They Sit on Wires?" Wonderopolis. Verizon Foundation. n. d. Web. 8        Nov. 2014.

It's All About The Hoppers

As the weather starts getting colder and colder, I've noticed people stay indoors more than usual. The cold weather makes everyone stay indoors because no one wants to be freezing outside when they can be warm and toasty inside. Birds migrate to warmer climates, bears hibernate and humans stay indoors for longer periods of time. So why don't some birds migrate?

I always thought birds migrated so they wouldn't be cold here in Sparks. I always saw flocks of ducks flying south and thought they were tired of the cold so they moved to a warmer climate. Then, I would see other ducks stay here and struggle to stay warm, but I never had an answer to why they stayed here if they were always so cold. I always wondered this, but I never seemed to care enough to find an answer. It's not that only ducks do this, but they are the only birds I saw do this.

Now with the observations I'm doing with this project, I've noticed that kestrels do this too. I never understood why birds didn't simply migrate to a warmer climate instead of staying in cold ones. I saw my kestrel just sitting there in its nest and thought to myself, "why doesn't she migrate to a warm climate and come back when spring begins here?" I researched this and it turns out they stay where their food supply's at not because it's warmer where they migrate to. "Birds migrate to follow the availability of food," says Simmons, on Audubon Magazine, "their movements are driven by where they can find the food that they are designed to eat and compatible habitat." 

It's a lot like what people do; they move to where the money's at. Money is human's grasshopper. Kestrels love to eat large grasshoppers as much as most people like having money. Money turns the world for people and grasshoppers turn it for kestrels. It's funny how something can be so valuable for someone and other things for others. 

Work Cited

Simmons, Hugh. "Why Do Some Birds Migrate, and Others Don't?" Audubon Magazine. N. p. 9              Nov. 2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.