While rummaging through a bookstore nearly a half century ago, I discovered an interesting paperback. It was an English edition of the 1937 Dutch book by Marcel Minnaert: Light and Colour in the Open Air. I read it, reread it, and gleaned many insights to interpreting nature.
A striking point he made in the preface was that:
However remarkable it may seem, it remains a fact that we do not observe much more than the things we are already familiar with; it is very difficult to see something new, even if it stares us in the face. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, innumerable eclipses of the sun were observed, and yet the corona was hardly noticed until 1842, although nowadays it is regarded as the most striking phenomenon of an eclipse and may be seen by anyone with the naked eye. In this book, I have tried to collect and draw to your attention all those things that in the course of time have become known through the activities of many outstanding and able naturalists.
Minnaert’s book did not talk about birds (he was an astronomer), but his remarks are certainly applicable to my recent observations of four unfamiliar birds. Although none is uncommon, each was new to me and I had to seek help to identify two of them.
It is just rather difficult to see something new.
Nashville Warbler
Female Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Pipit
Savannah Sparrow
I think, perhaps, that many things were noticed, but not written down. I’m sure there were always people interested in their surroundings who saw much, but many would have been illiterate and maybe not valued by the educated. Their contributions would have been ignored or never heard.
Then again, Gilbert White in ‘The Natural History of Selbourne’ (1789) writes about the swallows hibernating and he spent a lot of time observing nature, so maybe Minnaert was right.
Indeed true! There are many wonderful things in our surroundings left unnoticed.Maybe seen and noticed but left unheard…
You remind me of my father. He was a naturalist and had insatiable curiousity. I remember so often how he’d stop and take a minute to show me some little detail about a plant or animal and explain how it worked or why it was there. Sometimes we’d have to go hunting at the library or ask one of his biologist friends to find out. Thanks so much for building such a wonderful interesting site to share. It’s like a breath of fresh air every day or two when a new posting appears.
Doug, I think I could have enjoyed hanging out with your father.