Flying Into The Wind

I’m walking on a very windy day down the path by the seafront. The waves are splashing against the seawall to my right, and the Oystercatchers, as they often do, are choosing to feed on the large area of grass on the left hand side of the path. Perhaps they’re evolving into Wormcatchers.

As I approach, a small group of them take off. Half the group do the hard work of flying past and behind me, into the wind. Then they carry on feeding, undisturbed now by my approach.

But the other half take the easier option and fly twenty yards windward. And they’re the fools. I’m still heading in their direction! So in a few moments they are going to have to repeat the process.

Which they do.

But this time they’ve learnt the lesson:

- A little bit of extra effort, Flying Into The Wind is, in truth, often the direction they will need to take in order to expend less effort overall.