The average numbers of worms being captured by the birds/child were recorded each half hour before lunch. Tim makes a fine individual for comparative purposes since he is singularly capable of sleeping throughout the early-morning cacophonous onslaught of our avian neighbours, rarely rising before 8.30am. Hence I feel that, since the birds and Tim would have had similar amounts of experience in the art of worm capture, a fair comparison can be made between the two. It just so happens that for the last eighteen months or so Tim has practised the art of capturing and devouring invertebrates of a great range of different species. The average lifespan of worm-eating birds such as blackbirds tends to be around 1.5 to 2 years. It was therefore difficult to find a good sample of late birds to get around this problem I used a surrogate in the shape of my three-year old son. Unfortunately all birds seem to get up pretty early - usually with the express purpose of sitting outside my bedroom window and shouting their heads off. ![]() For the test to be valid I needed to be able to test between early and late rising birds. The numbers of worms being caught by birds was recorded. Worm numbers were counted using a new piece of apparatus called a Ground Ultrasonic Booster, which emits seismic pulses that hit the worms (harmlessly) and are reflected back to the machine producing a perfect picture of where worms are located underground.įigure 1 illustrates typical recording from this GRUB machine taken at 1 minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes after first insertion into the ground. This current study set about attempting to ascertain whether the early bird does indeed catch worms at a faster rate than more leisurely specimens. If you can’t beat them (and I have tried, with a variety of implements) you have to join them. ![]() Since it seems that my chances of getting a lie-in past 5am during that time disappear completely, I decided to spend my time usefully. I conclude that birds do get up early but mainly out of spite, not the desire to catch worms.ĭuring spring, and for a good few months, birds show off about how early they can get up by sitting directly outside my window and making a god-awful racket. I compared the feeding rates of my young son with those of common garden birds to test the hypothesis that early birds catch the worm. Department of Proverbial Renunciation, Canterbury, Kent.
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