Feather Light Rain Drops

On our patio there is a pigeon tail feather, so not that unusual. However, over night it must have rained light enough to pepper the feather with little rain drops. The rain drops show the properties of the feather in that the water does not soak into the fabric of the feather, but lie, waiting for evaporation to start.

If the feather had still been attached to bird then these droplets would simple have been shaken off in the process of flight of a good ruffling session.

These droplets magnify the individual barbs that make up the feather vain. Even the rachis, the thinest end of the hollow stem (which is called the calamus) of a feather does not escape this natural enlargement phenomenon.