Althouse: "Hectored by flies, whooping cranes still struggling in Wisconsin."

May 19, 2013

"Hectored by flies, whooping cranes still struggling in Wisconsin."

"A swarm of black flies at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge appears to be the best explanation for why endangered whooping cranes are abandoning their nests, but the pesky insects might not be the only reason the birds are struggling in Wisconsin."

19 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...: Insect free here so far, the door is wide open.

Joe said it's been a great Spring for hummingbirds from what he can see. One came into his Arizona house and got confused by a skylight. But he said they're all over California too. The exact opposite of what I thought which goes to show at this point I am a terrible hummingbird climate-related migration predictor.; 5/19/13, 6:58 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: A couple cases of Skin So Soft ought to set things right.; 5/19/13, 7:03 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: I blame Scott Walker.; 5/19/13, 7:08 AM
robinintn said...: Another collosal failure of ignorant, busy-body do-gooders jumping right in to spend a butt-load of OPM.; 5/19/13, 7:38 AM
Rusty said...: Maybe they weren't meant to exist.; 5/19/13, 7:48 AM
yashu said...: There's a pathos to the cranes' situation, which I can't help but anthropomorphize.

The unheimlichkeit of their condition: you're "reintroduced" to an ecosystem, a world, which isn't yours (though maybe some past, different version of it was once home, to some past, different version of you).

Unbeknownst to you, hidden agents are arranging things, demiurges pulling levers in the background-- "starting from scratch"-- trying their best to fix reality for you so that you feel at home. (Like the producers of a Truman Show.) Trying to nudge you towards (what should be) your "nature." (E.g. "pairing off, building nests and producing eggs"-- and raising kids who survive to start the cycle anew.)

For whose benefit is all this? For yours, or theirs?

But the cycle has a crack in it; you cannot complete it. You may get to the point of laying the eggs, but something, within you or external to you or both, forces you to flee and abandon them. The harried, depressed mother, with kids at home, visits the uncanny grocery store-- her soul attacked by a swarm of black flies-- and runs away (or kills herself), never to return.

The terrible things of it is, there's no escape from the unbearable not-home home; that flight is not a migration to another home; you fly desperately from that uncanny nest-- to die.

Aren't I a barrel of laughs this morning.; 5/19/13, 8:11 AM
Anonymous said...: Maybe they weren't meant to exist.

And maybe we shouldn't have hunted them and destroyed their habitat until they were on the brink of extinction.; 5/19/13, 8:33 AM
Gahrie said...: And maybe we shouldn't have hunted them and destroyed their habitat until they were on the brink of extinction.

and maybe the sole purpose of human evolution was to drive the damn bird into extinction.; 5/19/13, 8:38 AM
Titus said...: Who gives a shit about a fucking crane?

I say kill em and whip me up some deep fried crane with a baked potater. Pronto.

tits and thanks.; 5/19/13, 8:39 AM
Unknown said...: It sounds like a good decision on the part of the crane.; 5/19/13, 8:58 AM
edutcher said...: Nature can be a bitch.

Freder Frederson said...

Maybe they weren't meant to exist.

And maybe we shouldn't have hunted them and destroyed their habitat until they were on the brink of extinction.

This is pure Darwin.

Survival of the fittest.

You mean Freder doesn't understand evolution?

He just lost his Lefty card.; 5/19/13, 9:29 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Sounds like they need a pesticide.; 5/19/13, 9:54 AM
Rusty said...: Freder Frederson said...
Maybe they weren't meant to exist.

And maybe we shouldn't have hunted them and destroyed their habitat until they were on the brink of extinction.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
While hunting had an impact, it was farming that doomed them. Much like logging killed the passenger pigeon.
You want to help migrating bird habitat?
Buy a hunting licence with all the stamps. Join Ducks Unlimited. They don't lobby congress as much. They actually put members money into habitat reclamation. organizations like DU have done more for wildlife than all the government programs.; 5/19/13, 10:02 AM
Rusty said...: combined.; 5/19/13, 10:05 AM
Rusty said...: PSA

if you go out to the park to walk the dog or whatnot, check for ticks. On the dog and yourself.
they are especially bad this year.; 5/19/13, 10:08 AM
RJ said...: I have read that, in Maine, as the streams become less polluted the black flies get worse. They thrive on clean water.; 5/19/13, 11:49 AM
robinintn said...: "Ticks": Seriously. And mosquitoes as bad as I've ever seen in TN. Make sure your pups have their heartworm, and order your 100% DEET from Amazon before some busybody bans it for our own good.; 5/19/13, 3:59 PM
Dr Hubert Jackson said...: I used to see them them very infrequently when I was a kid. Now they seem to be all over. I doubt as common as the goal is and perhaps there is a temporary setback of some variety but all species exist on some cycle. Some years are good for the coyote's, some are good for the rabbits. Never the same year... heh.; 5/19/13, 4:21 PM
Rusty said...: And Fredder. The money you spend on organizations like DU or Pheasants Forever has a collateral benefit of helping other species as well. Such as Whooping Cranes.; 5/19/13, 7:07 PM