The morning after the frost, the field basks in sunshine. Waders are foraging among the sheep and my gaze falls on the bobbing head of a redshank as it probes a tuft of grass. A golden plover dashes past. At speed, the plover’s head is steady; but when it slows, the head starts to bob; and then the bird pecks at the ground.
Head-bobbing is found in about half of all avian species. It happens for similar reasons that my mammalian eyes make involuntary flickers as they look at something; that is, to build up a picture of the scene, picking out the important bits from the unimportant. As I look back at the redshank, I know my eyes are minutely moving and pausing their focus. I can assess where…
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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 31 January 2025