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Haven't heard about that book before, thanks for the recommendation. I'm a bit hesitant to read a book to confirm if birds are scared off bombs and how long tim
by capableweb 7y ago
Haven't heard about that book before, thanks for the recommendation. I'm a bit hesitant to read a book to confirm if birds are scared off bombs and how long time it'll take for them to come back after setting off artillery and other explosions, could you share the section from the book where it's confirmed that birds didn't care about this and stayed where they were?
The description of the book says "At the most basic level, animals and birds provided interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches and billets" which makes sense. When nothing is happening, the birds will come back after a while. But seconds after fighting? Not so sure about that. My experience with birds are that if you make the slightest movement and they see you, they will be gone for a while.
- cs02rm0 7y agoI'd imagine that'll happen the first time. When there's as much going on as in WW1 though with them having no idea where to go to avoid artillery, with potentially less competition for food, established nests and fewer people around in no man's land than elsewhere, I can well imagine over time they'd get relatively used to it.
- jfk13 7y agoI don't have the Lewis-Stempel book at hand to go digging for quotes, but this is from an eyewitness account of the Somme: > "It was the birdsong," he said, "the birdsong in that short gap when the artillery barrage stopped and before the whistles blew for us to get out of the trench and start running - it was beautiful." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36689445 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36689445
- capableweb 7y agoInteresting. Thanks a lot for sharing that, it seems to indeed confirm the birds were much braver than I thought.