Cows grazing away from their home on rented pasture, on a delightful, newly-seasonable warm and sunny end of September day. You can’t tell from the zoomed photo, but they’re around 400′ (122m) away, seen through an opening in the trees. Being calmly stared at by cows at a distance is a fact of life that I finally just looked into. Cows apparently have amazing, better-than-human motion detection, near 360° vision with eyes on the sides of their heads, and an exceptional sense of smell that literally works for miles. They detect you from afar, then turn to stare with both eyes (binocular vision), so they can check you out in three dimensions to better decide what you’re up to. Peacefully grazing, always aware!
