Slippery Road, Will Travel

I was driving between towns today, on my daily journey between school. The roads were crap, by the way. I'm pulling for two hours late tomorrow, especially if the wind picks up like it's supposed to.

As I was driving, I came across a long line of black birds across the road. As I approached, first one and then the entire flock lept up into the air. It got me thinking. You know, cause not much else was going on.

It seems, sometimes, that groups of creatures (and I include humans in this) are swayed by the first one of the group to react. It comes down to which ever member of the group is the least competent. This individual sets the rest of the group in motion.

In my bird example, I knew the birds would take off as I got closer...but how was it decided? The least courageous one of them was the deciding factor. He/she took off, and the rest of the group followed. When trying to move sheep, you can't tell the leaders which way to go. No, you try to scare/herd a few of them, and once they start moving, the rest will follow. It's kind of a mob mentality. Once someone else has done it, that must be what the rest of the group should be doing.

Well, at least that's what I came up with in the 8 miles from Raymond to Clara City.