What I've Learned About The Birds And The Bees While On The Road

This summer I've noticed a phenomenon that I hadn't picked up on before during my time on the road. It's funny how you start to notice more details about this life on the road as you continue in it.  Here's a little something about "the birds and the bees" that I've found amusing as it came into focus this summer.

I began to notice that as I would stop at a traffic light in some parts of the country, or even more so as I would pull up and stop at the fuel pumps at a truck stop, that there would be a good number of birds that were swooping down and landing somewhere out of my view on the front grill of my truck.  I noticed them doing the same thing on the trucks next to me at the same traffic lights or fuel islands. So what was this strange attraction to the front of our trucks that lured these birds in like steel shavings to a magnet?

Well, I got out and took a look at a truck stop recently just so I could figure out what was going on, and this is what I discovered.  These birds have figured out that the front end of a big truck traps and kills a veritable buffet of moths, butterflies, and other very tasty (to a bird at least) flying insects. Yes, that's right, it's like the dinner bell has rung and they come flocking to the feast!

Bees do the same thing.  Recently I was in Bolingbrook, Illinois and the bees were swarming the front grill of my truck and and even the front edge of my side mirrors.  Apparently some types of bees enjoy a tasty free buffet of insects also.

Here's some pictures of what these birds are enjoying, and even a look at some bees getting in on the action...

Isn't that interesting.  It is one of the small things that I've noticed out here on the road that takes place while criss-crossing the country in a big rig.  I never thought about how all the hard work I put in out here would benefit the birds and the bees who happen to find themselves in my path.  I get to "feed the birds" without spending "tuppence a bag."

Wait a minute... I just realized you may have thought this was going to be a post about something else?

Shame on you my gentle readers... if you've been following along with me this long, you should know me better than that!