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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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19 comments:
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.
A couple cases of Skin So Soft ought to set things right.
I blame Scott Walker.
Another collosal failure of ignorant, busy-body do-gooders jumping right in to spend a butt-load of OPM.
Maybe they weren't meant to exist.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It sounds like a good decision on the part of the crane.
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.
Sounds like they need a pesticide.
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.
combined.
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.
I have read that, in Maine, as the streams become less polluted the black flies get worse. They thrive on clean water.
"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.
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.
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.
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