Entered on 23 May 2003 at 8:41 a.m..
The wind and small woodland creatures
As human beings we tend to have very little trouble with the wind, being that we were designed to be rather pole like. However because of the convention of growing one's hair long and wearing it loose about our head I have single handedly defied years of genetic evolution. I do have a problem with the wind, in that my hair gets completely fluffed and ripped out of whatever device I have tried to secure it with. My only choice if I truely want to avoid the wind/hair problem is to wear my hood around. Which looks rather silly when it isn't raining. Those are my observations on human wind problems.
The reason I comment on this is because lately the UK has fallen back into the 'getting battered by one low pressure system after another' trend that describe a typical british summer or winter. However it wasn't until this recent bout that I began to notice the effect that wind has on my fellow Cranfield occupants. Namely the birds and a squirrel. On Tuesday as I was walking back from lunch I saw a crow walking along the ground (nothing unusual here) and then I saw it try to turn. Immediately a gust of wind came along and blew it back into it's original position. I found this quite amusing. It seems that because of the shape of a bird's body and given that it weighs next to nothing, when standing on the ground its body acts as a windvane. The poor bird tried two or three times to walk to the side and finally had to take off to achieve its goal.
Then walking into work today I came upon a squirrel doing what it is all squirrels do when you come upon them on the ground. They quickly deduce the direction that you are walking in (typically by looking at the sidewalk) and then proceed to bound about 5 feet forward in that direction, all the time keeping one eye on you. Of course you are either oblivious or highly amused that with 180 degrees of options which would take the squirrel farther away from you, he always chooses the direction in which you are walking. So as you continue to close on the squirrel they repeat the same procedure until they get to 'squirrel panic point' and take off in a mad dash towards the nearest climbable object. British squirrels are no different, but today the wind was coming from directly behind me and as the squirrel ran ahead of me, the wind kept whipping it's tail into its face as it turned back to verify that I was indeed still walking on the side walk. I found this highly amusing. I wonder how much effort it must take the poor little critter to keep its tail under control in such blustery conditions. Or if like my hair he has decided that nothing can be done.