Lymington Directory Oct/Nov 19

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Wilbur and his friends are like the Red Arrows of the cliff top birds. Wilbur is a chough - a large black bird like a crow except his beak and legs are red. This species of bird love to fly in stormy weather when the wind is blowing at 50mph or more. At this wind force, choughs love to swoop up and then dive down to show off to their friends. One morning on Milford Cliff top near the White House, I saw Wilbur trying to out shine his six friends who were flying in formation with him. The sky was dark and angry and the Needles light house was just visible. Importantly it was blowing and gusting at about 55mph - perfect conditions for the choughs and their aerial manoeuvres. From my view point on the nearby cliff top path I saw the following: Several choughs were holding themselves almost stationary about 8ft up from the cliff face beneath them. There were 3 birds in a single row each about 2ft apart at the wing tips. with 2 more birds above and 2 below ; making it 7 birds in all. The wind was coming off the cliff face and shooting vertically upwards quite violently. This up draught allowed the birds to hover directly over the edge of the cliff top just using the tips of their outstretched wings for control. I watched for a couple of minutes as they struggled to stay stationary in the space like a squadron - they were doing quite well. Then suddenly Wilbur broke formation and dived down to the ground and landed close to a WILBUR By Dave Summers, Local Resident piece of wood. This piece of wood was clean and planed on all sides. It was 3/4” wide, 1/4 thick and 7” long. Wilbur grabbed this flat piece of wood in his claws, flew up and re-joined the grouping in his original position. Wilbur then used his genius to manipulate this piece of wood as an aerofoil section to allow him to stabilise his flight in the same way an aircraft would. Within 20-30 seconds he was showing improved stability over his friends as they all tried valiantly to hold together their formation in the very gusty air. One minute later they all broke free, Wilbur then dropped his new found stabiliser and they all went back to soaring and diving once more. I inspected the dropped piece of wood. It was part of the strips of wood used on the adjacent beach huts - the roofs are covered with a tar based felting material for waterproofing and these strips are added to stop the winds from tearing it. This piece was a small off cut from a longer length. How did Wilbur know that this aerofoil would stabilise his flight? Did his friends give up flying with him because they didn't have one? It is interesting that in 1903 when the age of flight began, the two remarkable brothers Orville and Wilbur spent many hours studying the flight of birds before they did any design work. They studied the wing shapes, their weight, how they used their bodies/wings to soar, glide, land and take off. Only then did they build their first flying machine, a glider. Then later with the addition of an engine, the first machine they could sit in and fly like a bird. 10 To advertise email: info@lymingtondirectory.co.uk, or call 01590 643969 / 07801 562358
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Lymington Directory Oct/Nov 19

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