I read recently about the relationship between two small wading birds found on our shores: the dunlin and the ringed plover*. There is something to be learned from them.
The dunlin is a small sandpiper that spends most of its time foraging gregariously on mudflats for food. It tends to be focused, head down, working the ground for invertebrates. Its concentration is its strength: it is an efficient feeder. That is, maybe, why there are so many of them, usually concentrated in flocks of some size. That focus is, however, also a weakness because it reduces the birds' awareness of predators.
The ringed plover is different. It pecks at food on the surface rather than probing, but what is most notable is its nervousness. It is highly alert. It spends much of its time scanning the horizon. It takes flight at the first sign of danger, and its warning does not go unnoticed. When one ringed plover takes flight in fear, so too do all the other ringed plovers that are nearby.
Something else also happens, though, as I have seen: the dunlin also benefits from the plover's nervousness, and when the plover lets out its warning call, the dunlin also head for the air, where there is safety in both numbers and movement. When they forage together as species, as they often do, the dunlin can feed more effectively, knowing that the plover is keeping watch. The plover's vigilance acts as an early-warning system for the dunlin, protecting them as well. Together they are stronger, each contributing a skill that the other lacks.
Fourth, the lesson for humanity is obvious. We too need different skills, sensitivities and temperaments if we are to flourish. Some of us may be focused on detail. Others are cautious and alert. Some can take risks, others insist on accountability. We are not all the same, and that difference is not weakness, but strength. It is precisely in the combination of perspectives that safety and resilience are to be found.
The danger arises when we assume that only one type of skill or one form of awareness is valuable in our society. Economists often assume that efficiency is the only factor that matters in our world. Politicians sometimes pretend that boldness is the only virtue of value to them. Businesses insist that profit alone is the measure of success. But that might be as foolish as a flock of dunlin feeding without the benefit of the warning calls of the plovers who might be in amongst their number.
We need the nervous, the cautious, the challengers, the whistleblowers, the questioners. We need those who say “stop and look around” as much as those who press on. Together, we can make a society that is safe, sustainable and just. Alone, any one temperament leaves us exposed.
The plover and the dunlin remind us that diversity of behaviour is not a problem to be solved but a condition for survival. We would do well to remember that, most especially in a world where diversity, equality, and inclusiveness are now seen as enemies of society, when in fact they are the bedrocks on which it is built.
* This behaviour is also noted with the golden plover. I am not sure about the little ringed plover. We observed it last week with ringed plovers.
** Jacqueline Murphy contributed the ideas that underpin this post.
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“The plover and the dunlin remind us that diversity of behaviour is not a problem to be solved but a condition for survival.”
True but we need to get away as human beings from our tribal monkey behaviour as the current world situation reveals. These two papers explain the how and why:-
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/political_primates
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7384560/#CR40
It’s not though just a world situation in the use of market capitalism in our own country we have a sort of “intra-group” tribalism” where both the control of capital and government often facilitates abuse.
Thanks
On a lighter note, I wonder if you ever came across a short publication entitled “Interpretation of Balance Sheets” (by H. H. Hutchinson). As budding young banksters, (sic.), we had to study it in preparation for our Institute of Bankers exams back in the 1960/70s. The author must have been a keen ornithologist (I’m still a bit of a twitcher myself) and his case studies tended to include fictitious businesses with the names of birds. I can’t seem to find my old copy at the moment (I’d like to have quoted you some of his whimsical, invented names) but I do remember my favourite was a company called Dipper Dunlin. There were quite a few others, I seem to remember. So thank you for reminding me of halcyon days pouring over company accounts all those years ago. Please don’t ask me why I found the name Dipper Dunlin so amusing. I haven’t a clue really but seeing you, an accountant, mentioning dippers today struck a chord with me somehow.
Apologies if I’ve wasted your time. All work and no play, you know.
🙂
I mentioned dunlin.
But I am very fond of dippers, although I see them only rarely. They do not frequent most of the rivers I visit.
Congratulations to both of you for an aricle which combines accuracy in presenting reality with the presentation of insightful wider theory.
Might this model of well used difference in attitudes to feeding for general welfare/survival be consdered when considering differing human brain styles such as A.D. H. D etc?
That was the intention. Jacqueline has been a key part of my journey into these issues. The discussion leading to this piece started when watching dunlin and some ringed plovers murmurate in fear last week. My guess is that at loeast 250 were in the air.
Indidentally, golden polover do the same for lapwings and teal – the most nervous of all ducks, probably because they are the smallest – also play the same role, often in the presence of a raptor.
Bridges, aircraft, health services, and many other human creations, need to be not just “efficient” (meaning they achieve their ends without unnecessarily wasting resources) but also safe (meaning they need to be resilient, with safety margins and checklists and spare capacity and all the other tools we design in to make they work in good times and bad). It is not “efficient” when the bridge falls down or their plane crashes or the health service cannot treat its patients.
Noted, but I am not at all sure I used the term efficient in that way in this piece. In fact, the oiiutn I made is that it is the ringed plover makes them (relatively) safe feeders. Are you agreeing with that?
Sure, diversity is a strength in any team. As long as the team is not so diverse that it falls apart. Humans are (mostly) very social beings and can work well together will all sorts of personalities. And indeed other species – dogs, birds, etc – to mutual advantage.
Many species have developed cooperative or symbiotic relationships with other. To pick a random example, the honeyguide and the honey badger. But I’m sure there are nervous drumlin and incautious plovers too. Natural selection will decide which characteristics are more important and prevalent at a population level.
I should have added that efficient and safety are not the only features (the drumlin and the plover are doing both of those too) but we might also want beauty. Eye of the beholder, but much as god loves beetles, he also loves small brown birds.
Thanks. Understood now!
I will look more carefully when I next walk by the sea, lots of mudflats. Does the ‘efficient’ Dunlin do anything for the vigilant Plover? They would clearly be lost without them.
I think it provides protection in numbers. Lapwing do this for golden plover – which I am used to. They murmurate together around here in their thousands in winter – with the golden plover always above the lapwing. It’s a great sight.
I’ve been observing a LOT of sparrows from my bed here in Bwlchtocyn. They always seem to have one or two sentinel birds who perch on the wire fence or the hawthorn bush by the feeders.
When they’re all perched in the far hawthorn bush (when they’re checking out the side garden before flying down to feed or if they’ve been disturbed by John going out to fill up the feeders), there’s always at least one perched on the topmost branches.
I’ve noticed this occasionally at home too, but not so often, as they don’t come into our front garden very frequently there.
I saw a very spiffing looking Great Tit this morning, not spotted it/them very often this year. He really was looking extremely spick and span! 🙂
They understand community.
For me, this tale reminds me that life is actually more inter-dependent than any blasted Neo-liberal ever said it was. This is what the Liberals of old understood to be the truth and why they are so badly missed.
Inter-dependency was the coalface against which rampant capitalism and fascism and even left wing revolution were put in their place.
Stuff like what Paul Krugman said ‘ Everyone’s wages is someone else’s wages’ – it’s all joined up and anyone who says it isn’t is a liar or a Neo-liberal (although to me, there is no difference between the two).
what a contrast to the grey heron that I watched yesterday – the plumage was almost all dark grey, very little white apart from the neck upwards, with extremely clear throat markings and just one tiny dot of white at the top of one dark grey wing. It was just watching and waiting, surrounded by Mallard and the inevitable Canada Geese all of whom it totally ignored. There are no fish in this water, so waiting for insects, water vole or etc – and being ‘independent’.
Frogs, maybe? They do like them. But, they will also take small birds. Ringed plover would worry about them.
In another life I was working outside in proximity to a dozen or so chickens idly pecking around in the yard. Suddenly they panicked and fled to whatever cover they could find. The problem was a bird of prey circling around overhead. Given the chickens lived a fairy cosseted existence how did they know the intruder was a threat? It wasn’t learned behaviour. Are birds hardwired to behave like that?
It seems so
possibly – also the fairies!