The world is a mask that hides the real world.
Thatâs what everybody suspects, though the world we see wonât let us dwell on it long.
The world has ways - more masks - of getting our attention.
The suspicion sneaks in now and again, between the cracks of everyday existenceâ¦the bird song dips, rises, dips, trails off into blue sky silence before the note that would reveal the shape of a melody that, somehow, would tie everything together, on the verge of unmasking the hidden armature that frames this sky, this tree, this bird, this quivering green leaf, jewels in a crown.â¦
As the song dies, the secret withdraws.
The tree is a mask.
The sky is a mask.
The quivering green leaf is a mask.
The song is a mask.
The singing bird is a mask.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
raptorvision
Prior to working on falcons and falconry in the archives, I worked in the Back Office, on database programming and other IT infrastructure, blissfully boring, I realize in retrospect.... After conducting an initial scope and feasability study, our team leader received support for an office and small staff (office manager, IT & publishing team, plus half a dozen Associate Archivists including yours truly) for the falconry build.
The task is to document every reference in the mediasphere, as well as gather relevant names and contact information when possible, for people who are involved in publishing or otherwise disseminating falcon or falconry references.
Learning about these birds has been a delight. Their eyes, for example:
This brings to mind the familiar ChurchØne® teaching on the eyesight of the Eagle, how it equates to vision in terms of insight, knowledge, and wisdom. Every Fledgling knows that vision, plus superior size, makes the eagle a predator of the falcon.
The task is to document every reference in the mediasphere, as well as gather relevant names and contact information when possible, for people who are involved in publishing or otherwise disseminating falcon or falconry references.
Learning about these birds has been a delight. Their eyes, for example:
The power of sight is of paramount importance to birds-of-prey, all of which have forward sight with overlapping 'binocular' fields of vision. Acuteness of sight is difficult to define but if we were endowed with the eyesight of a kestrel it is estimated that we could read a newspaper at a range of 25 yards. Better still, if we had the vision of an eagle we would be able to detect the twitch of a rabbit from a distance of two miles.
One explanation for hunting birds' phenomenal eyesight is the sheer size of the retina. This is the screen at the back of the eye on to which the lens casts an image. Compared to ours, an eagle's retina is physically larger. The retina is composed of rods and cones, two different kinds of light-sensitive elements. Rods register shape, whereas cones discern colour. The retina of a human eye contains 200,000 rods. An eagle has about a million. However, you ain't seen nothing yet.
In 1995 the mind-boggling discovery was made by Finnish researchers that some birds-of-prey see a wider colour spectrum than we do: including ultraviolet light. How might this be useful? Kestrels are a familiar sight hovering along motorway verges and grassland. They are watching for small rodents. Their quarry is fast and nimble and ranges over habitat that is often uniform and extensive. At times, the kestrel's task must seem like a search for the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, rodents mark their runs with urine and faeces, which are visible in ultraviolet light. In tests, wild kestrels brought into captivity were able to detect vole and mouse latrine scents in ultraviolet settings. This ability enables them to screen large areas of vegetation in a relatively short time and to concentrate hunting at 'busy intersections.'[61]
This brings to mind the familiar ChurchØne® teaching on the eyesight of the Eagle, how it equates to vision in terms of insight, knowledge, and wisdom. Every Fledgling knows that vision, plus superior size, makes the eagle a predator of the falcon.
