Upon awakening from a fitful sleep after a cold, windy night, it occurred to me that birds must have to keep an unconscious death-grip on the branch they’re perched on to hold their place until morning. It must be second nature to them; part of what makes them who they are.
Next the thought came to me that a bird’s nighttime death-grip on a perch is analogous to the death-grip “sportsmen’s” groups, “game” departments and the livestock industry have on our wildlife. Like a trembling bird, fearful for its future, animal exploiters must be afraid that if they loosen their grip, they’ll be blown away.
Well, they’re right.
It’s high time we be the wind that finally breaks loose their death-grip on wildlife once and for all, and for the good of all.
Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on bearspawprint and commented:
Birds that perch in trees have legs made to lock onto a branch or other perch. Their body weight pushed the feet closed. therefore the harder the wind pushes on them, the tighter the feet grasp.
“Perching birds have a tendon locking mechanism that helps them hold on to the perch when they are asleep.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird#Early_evolution_of_birds
DH Lawrence must have been thinking of hunters, ranchers, and game departments when he wrote “Self Pity:”
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.