On a warm and sunny afternoon, while walking back to the parking lot along the grassy approach to Lake Michigan the other day; Barbara noticed something interesting. "Look what's going on there," she said. I looked at the scores of swooping and diving Barn swallows zipping through the air in a particular section of the lush lawn. Thankfully Milwaukee's lakefront had been finally getting some needed rainfall in the past several weeks, and the grass had returned nearly to its usual late summer luster. "Yes, I see the swallows catching bugs," I replied and continued walking the concrete sidewalk back to our car. We had just spent the better part of an hour leisurely walking the breezy lakefront from McKinley Marina all the way to the south side of the Milwaukee Art Museum. She then said excitedly, "Yes, but look at the birds IN the grass...look what THEY are doing!"
I stopped and watched for a minute or two and noticed the dozen or so immature Brown-headed cowbirds hopping in the grass below the soaring, diving swallows. "Cowbirds catching bugs," I said, and stood in wonder watching the activity on the ground. "Uh-huh, but the little birds on the ground are causing the (barely noticeable) bugs to fly up into the air as they try to catch them!" she exclaimed. Sure enough, the swallows overhead were definitely benefiting from the actions of the cowbirds on the ground. If you paid attention, you could see the swallows following the slow hopping progress below of their light brown kin, as they provided the same service as a typical whitetail deer-drive hunting technique might. I stood there marveling at the unwitting cooperation between species and congratulated Barbara for picking up on this too easily-missed illustration of the glory of the natural world created by God.
How about this curious observation of bird behavior? Earlier, we were noticing Cedar waxwings flying from the trees along the public walk next to the corrugated steel sea-wall. The birds would disappear over the wall and be gone for about 30-45 seconds before popping back over and returning to the tree. We watched this happen several times until we got close enough to see what the bird was doing near the water's edge. We stared in awe as a waxwing flew over the steel barrier and hovered in front of a large spider web that had been strung in the inward section of the steel. The bird would pluck a stuck insect from the spider's web for itself and fly off with its treat to devour it in the safety of a nearby tree. "Wow!" was all I could say, as I pondered the accidental brilliance of this avian piracy. Perhaps even the owner of the web itself was at risk of being a meal, but we didn't see that happen before we moved on down the lakefront.
Isn't that simply amazing?
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