killing butterflies for fun???

[Martin Bailey]

> We were talking about synchronicity a while ago ... the notion that the
> caterpillars and the plants they feed on show up at about the same time,
> bless the Lord. I notice that the swallows, the bats and the cuckoos all
> showed up this week, and the air is full of six-legged birds of every
> description.
> Anne Kilmer
> Mayo, Ireland


In my neck of the flats the Tree Swallows and a Purple Martin or two showed
on a warm day which then was followed by days of below freezing cold and
then snow.

Not unlike a number of years back when Paul James (PhD, Oxford: Ornithology)
pulled two hundred dead swallows out of a tree hollow for the T.V. cameras.
They had gathered together to stay warm and wait out bugless days.

Now if I was rich, I could construct an emergency insectarium that I would
keep filled all winter long.  On those days in the spring (they do not
always happen) when the temperature drop I could release my winter fare ( no
butterflies mind you) for the birds.

Alas, a totally unscientific daydream.  Those cold-blooded bugs would not
fly out of their winter home into the cold air to become food for warm
blooded birds.

It's not that I do not like the idea of synchronicity, but it has its
limitations.  Has anyone done any work on the interrelationships of cold
blooded and warm blooded creatures per se?

Martin Bailey,

greetings from:  Weyburn, SK., Canada.
                         49.39N  103.51W


 
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