Day 1: Jan 6, 2023

QUOTE THAT MADE ME THINK

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training."
~ Archilochus, Greek Poet

And the adaptation of this that James Clear mentions in his book Atomic Habits:
”You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

EXPERIENCE THAT STAYED WITH ME

Every sight and soundless flight of a large owl: specifically, the Brown Fish-owl today. Four times it has flown silently in front of me this week, each time I have marvelled at how such a large bird (this particular one is a resident and all of 2 feet tall, with a wingspan of more than four feet) can move through the forest without a sound.

Today, the only clue to its whereabouts was an army of corvids, drongos, orioles, and babblers that was creating such a ruckus, I suspected they were mobbing the large grave-looking predator. I ran up the hill towards the squawking and squealing and saw the owl swoop in an arc northwards into the forest. The smaller birds did not give up the chase, surrounding what looked like a nest high up in a tree.

Yesterday the owl had flown down from the same tree and into the forest when I ventured close.

Today, I tried my level best to see what was in the nest but the knot of twigs was too dense for my binocs to penetrate. Eventually, the smaller birds dispersed.

I wonder what is in the nest, and where the fish-owl has gone.

DAILY LEARNING ~ A FACT THAT FASCINATES ME

(L) An old weaver ant nest; (r) The larval secretion holding the leaves together, magnified 200x

Have you seen weaver ants’ nests? A clot of leaves that seem to be stuck together with some white papery stuff? Today I learned that that stuff is … larval secretion. Ants fetch larvae from another nest and tap them on the head that causes them to secrete this stuff they can then glue the leaves together with! Those larvae then go on to become pupa without a cocoon, as all the silk has been used up in nest building.

”The first phase in nest construction involves workers surveying potential nesting leaves by pulling on the edges with their mandibles. When a few ants have successfully bent a leaf onto itself or drawn its edge toward another, …”
Read the fascinating process here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaver_ant#Nest_building_behaviour

FOUND TREASURE

Podcast: on the life of the Chinese Premier, Xi Jinping.

I am a sucker for history and I found this podcast riveting.
I listen to podcasts on Apple, so here’s the link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-prince/id1642926713