Following Nature's Signs...

Mother Nature tells the animals when somethings up. They have all sorts of built-in detectors that let them know when to get ready for a major change in the weather. People can learn to watch and interpret the behaviour of animals to take action themselves.

For instance, did you know that nearly all insect activity increases just before a storm? How about the fact that birds fly lower in heavy, moist air like right before a lot of rain. Just before really stormy weather, bees will seek the shelter of their nest or hives and limit their activity, increasing their activity just before good weather starts again. Seagulls will actually seek out land before strong winds, such as hurricanes.

The hummingbirds around my feeder have grown in number and in the aggressiveness of their fighting over the food source just in the past couple of days, as if they were fueling up before heading to safer territory. Smart birds, huh?

If you have ant beds around your yard, you may notice that ants at times will start increasing the heights of the tops of their nest entrance. If you see this action, you should definitely look for higher water than usual.

Most fresh water fishermen will tell you that the best fishing is often just before a storm moves in, although coastal fish will often head to deeper water to avoid bad weather. See how much smarter Mother Nature is than we thought?

I think the lesson here is really quite simple. Pay attention to the signs of coming bad weather and react. We can prepare safely for bad weather if we just use our common sense and remember one thing. Every time that mankind starts to think we have everything all figured out, Mother Nature has a way of standing up and kicking us in the tail, if only remind us who is really in charge.

Now while we have some time to share, let's have some fresh coffee.