An evening walk


 Today,  in my evening walk, I clicked this picture wondering, " why are these cattle egrets hanging out near the goats?". I have seen them around the cattle, where they eat small insects that sit on cattle and disturb them. This symbiotic relationship is called commonalism, where one species is benefited and the other is not harmed. Though I see goats every evening, I have not really noticed egrets around them till today.... 

The goats were seen nibbling at the leaves and running allover . The egrets were following them . Every egret had marked one goat for himself ! When I spoke to the shepherd, she told me that the movement of the goats disturbs the vegetation below and small insects fly out, which is eaten by the egrets. It was such a treat to watch the alert egrets run behind hyperactive goats. I was then reminded of my Waldorf training at goetheanum( in Switzerland) last year. We were asked to observe the behavior of animals( I chose the horses ) for close to an hour . Initially, we wondered what we would do for so long. But, after a while, all of us fell silent and we started observing the animals closely. 

In our fast paced life, we LOOK, but seldom do we OBSERVE . Close observation reveals much beyond normal vision. As an educator, this skill of observation helps us to  understand the child beyond his external appearances. We take our students on observation trips( nature walks in the school garden) and its fascinating to watch their observation skills. 

Comments

  1. That was really a new information that I never knew.. Even when I see a crow on a Buffalo.. I used to see it artistic perspective but now I know why it sits on a Buffalo.. Thank you mam.. #close observation#Nature talks to you.. Thank you mam

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spirituality Simplified

ACL SURGERY AT 50 ... MY JOURNEY FROM FALL TO FITNESS ...

Lessons from a child: Simple choices, Big changes