Post Indicator Valves

At the huge warehouse complex where I work as a Maintenance Technician, it is my weekly function of do a "Walk-Through" or preventive maintenance round of inspecting the entire complex inside and out.

This morning it was about 28 degrees Fahrenheit, but the northeast wind was 40 miles per hour. I was conducting my routine walk around the exterior of the building, checking and verifying the operation and security of the post indicator valves. There are 16 of them, and it is at least a mile walk around the enormous warehouse, to look over and electronically scan all of them.

The wind chill was bitter, likely from 5 above to -5 degrees. As I walked the southern side of the building, I noticed that there was a great reduction in chill as the  thirty foot tall building served as a wind break, and the rising sun provided some warmth, though there were some clouds in the sky, but fortunately, not covering the sun.

As I walked by our retail outlet store, I noted about 20 English song sparrows sunning themselves on an arborvitae bush to the right of the entrance, soaking up whatever warmth they could gain from the sun, and there was some warmth to be had. As I passed within 20 feet of them, they all flew to the roof top, and as I passed, they flew immediately right back to a second bush about 20 feet farther to the right. They were tightly focused on repositioning themselves to soak up that rising sun facing them directly from the southeast. They had turned their little breasts directly to the sun to capture the maximum warmth.

I was marveling at how ingenious they were to find just the spot, out of the wind, and directly oriented to the sun, to capture the most warmth that they could on a chilly winter morning.

Their adeptness and resourcefulness might be instinct, learned and remembered experience, or intellectual versatility in manipulating their environment for the most comfort and survival advantage as they could grasp.

Our cat at the house, just in the last year, at 12 years of age, has taught herself to lie across the registers under the living room window to capture as much warmth as she can.

These are but two examples of creatures in nature adapting to their environment. They will survive and thrive even though humanity may annihilate itself due to its failure and inability to forsake group-living.