Remember when that tsunami claimed over a hundred thousand lives the other year yet there were no animal corpses to be seen?  I was fascinated by that story, cementing the fact that animals do have a "sixth sense" or whatever you want to call it when it comes to external danger.

I was woken up this morning (pre-dawn) by the loud chirping of a bird.  During the warmer months, that’s the norm around our house and it’s a nice sound to wake up to.  Hearing 10-20 birds give their morning wake up call is rather soothing to me and a nice way to start the day.  But since this doesn’t happen during the winter months and it was only one bird chirping quite loudly so I simply thought “Must be warmer today and this bird wants to be the first to announce spring is near.”

Boy was I wrong.  After he chirped for around 5 minutes the next thing I know the heavens released their fury and there was an intense downpour like no other.  It was one of the hardest rains in recent memory and I’m surprised we didn’t lose power (although 54K+ houses in the area have so far, as of the latest report).  Once again, nature has its own superior warning system.  Now that I think about it, the bird’s chirps seemed more urgent, or at least louder, and since no other birds chimed in, they were all heading for cover.

Doppler radar’s got nothing on nature.