RE: "DINOSAUR SOCIAL WARMTH"

["King, Norm R" <NKing@usi.edu>]

>"Kinglets, : Winter Wrens, : Brown Creepers and : European Treecreepers, :
Long-tailed Tits and Bushtits huddle together for warmth in winter roosts.
The need to roost can be so great that it is worth risking a bird's life.
Owen Knorr once found over 100 : Pygmy Nuthatches huddled in the cavity of
a pine tree. The birds were so closely packed together that some had
suffocated."

    Indeed, Michael L. Smith (who took that wonderful photo of the Eastern
bluebirds packed together in a hollowed-out log) told me just last weekend
that in the same log where he photographed the birds, two suffocated that
winter. :-(    <


It's been such a long time ago that I forget the details, but I remember
reading the confessions of a yuppie who got out of the rat race to start a
chicken farm.  The chicken houses had warm lights on the ceilings.  Of
course, you say.  Well, it got real cold one night, and all the chickens
kept climbing over each other all night to get as close to the lights as
possible.  A very large number were injured and even suffocated in the
chaos.

More indication of how much dinobirds may be attracted to warmth.

Useful moral for us all:  If you don't know how to raise chickens, stay out
of the coop!