Ethno-ornithology Sunday: Thanksgiving style

With Thanksgiving come and gone and millions of pounds of turkey consumed, given to the dogs and thrown out I figured it would be appropriate to pay a little homage to turkeys today.

There are two species of wild turkey, the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), from the Yucatan Peninsula, and the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from North America. Domestic turkeys descend from the wild turkey and though there appear to be a large number of breeds of domestic turkey they are technically all the same breed, just different varieties.

Ocellated turkey, from: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2325795822_c290ddc1a3.jpg

Ocellated turkeys are quite lovely, I hadn't heard of them until tonight. In 1993 the National Wild Turkey Federation sponsored research on the ocellated turkey. They found that this species is found in only a 50,000 square mile area, encompassing the Yucatan Peninsula, northern Belize and the El Peten region of Guatemala. Male and Female ocellated turkeys are similar in appearance, both have blue heads with orangish nodules, though males have a fleshy blue crown behind the snood that is covered with more nodules; both birds have bronze and green iridescent feathers, females often appear more green; neither sex has a beard and their breast feathers do not indicate sex; and both sexes have blue-bronze eye-shaped spots on the end of their tails, followed by a gold tip. During the breeding season males have a red ring around their eyes and larger spurs than North American wild turkeys. Ocellated turkeys live in diverse habitat types, from arid brushlands to marshlands, to second growth forests, to rain forests. Their diet includes grasses, mint-like herbs, and small seeds, insects and fruit. Hens lay 12 eggs in the period starting mid-March and ending in late-May. Poults hatch in early-May to mid-June.

Wild turkey, from: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Massachusetts/wild_turkeyTOMpgc.jpg.

Wild turkeys are native to North America, except for Alaska, north to Ontario, Canada. By the early 20th century wild turkeys were extirpated from the northeastern United States. Reintroduction programs across the east have been successful. Domestication of the turkey began in Europe in 1500, when wild turkeys were brought back to Europe from Mexico. Domesticated birds were brought back to the United States by European colonists. Birds decending from the first domestic birds are similar to wild turkeys but have a white band at the tip of their tail that is not present in other wild subspecies. Benjamin Franklin is known for having desired the brave turkey to be nominated the nation's symbol rather than the "cowardly" bald eagle. More information is available here and here.

Domestic turkeys come in a dazzling array of colors and patterns. Broad-breasted whites are the most common domestic breed. This variety of turkey has been bred to have so much additional muscle mass that they can no longer breed without human intervention. Another common (though not as common as the whites) domestic breed is the broad-breasted bronze. Heritage breeds are not as common as the white and bronze but they are pretty awesome either way. Some of the more common heritge breeds are the spanish black, standard bronze, bourbon red, slate (the light version of which is called lavender) and the Narragansett. Currently, my mom has a pair of Lavenders that I adore, Freyja spent the weekend playing with them. Lavenders are registered as critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (listing breeds of livestock as critical or threatened is a little bizarre to me but that's another post entirely). All heritage species are listed as needing to be watched, threatened or critical, none are listed as recovering. In the past we've had a variety of breeds, including Narragansett's, I've seen Royal Palms (another heritage breed) and I'd like to see the bourbon reds in person. For more information about domestic turkeys go here.

Taylor, C.I.; Quigley, H.B.; Gonzalez, M.J. Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata). National Wild Turkey Federation, Wildlife Bulletin No. 6, 8pp. Available at: http://www.nwtf.org/all_about_turkeys/history_ocellated_wild_turkey.html> Accessed November 30, 2008.

Wikipedia. Domestic Turkey. 2008. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_turkey> Accessed November 30, 2008.

National Wild Turkey Federation. All About Turkeys. 2008. Available at: http://www.nwtf.org/all_about_turkeys/index.html> Accessed November 30, 2008.

busy, busy

I'd really hoped to get back in the ethno-ornithology habit but at this point it won't be happening for yet another week. This week has been super busy, this weekend we picked up Julie's boots and visited the Eugene Holiday Market, hoping to find some good gifts. It is HUGE and we spent hours there, leaving with nothing. This weekend I caught up on all of the housework and homework I had fallen behind on. It all starts over again tomorrow with a vaccine appointment for the dogs, class at four (since we won't be meeting on Thursday), grain to remember to pick up for Huka, another Stats lesson, readings for FW 441, extra credit due Tues and yet another Stats lesson on Wednesday plus an assignment due. Next week (after Thanksgiving weekend) I have a presentation to do, so I have to work on that over the weekend, plus a research project for Stats that our professor didn't tell us about until this last week. *sigh* distance ed professors aren't always as "on-the-ball" as I'd like them to be. In addition to all of this I need to get the last of the vegetation data entered and the methods section of my research project done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend as well. Thank goodness the term is almost over!

GP

Grants Pass was nice, I got to see all of my sisters and my cousin Katy plus some friends. I haven't seen Audrey in two months so she was pretty horrified that some stranger kept trying to play with her! We saw a ton of red-tailed hawks both on the way down and the way home, including one dark-phased. As predicted I got hardly any homework done, but I had a good time. Huka has lost a bunch of weight. We are now on a mission to find the Triple Crown Complete she was eating out east. It kept her weight up even in the cold. We also bought her a new blanket, one that will fit her a little better. It is a lovely shade of purple, the manufacturers call it pansy. I call it pinkish lavender. Now, it's back to the grindstone, a couple of lectures behind in Stats and wishing it were still the weekend. Onward to higher education!

This weekend

Julie and I are headed to Grants Pass this weekend to see my family. I know I'm looking forward to seeing Audrey and Huka again! I may have to postpone ethno-ornithology Sunday, I always plan to stay caught up with things but it has been several months since we were in GP and I'm pretty sure I won't be getting much done because of it!

Tagcloudy outside

Tagcloud from last week . . . oye I'm behind!

More on ornithophobia

Most of the information that I've read on ornithophobia says that people afflicted with this phobia often had a traumatic experience as children. Maybe they were bit by a goose, had a bird fly in their face or were attacked by a rooster. I find this interesting, mostly because I've had plenty of crazy experiences with birds and they never affected me. I've been chased by geese, attacked by chickens and swallows, bit by any number of birds and my love for them continues to grow. So, for this very short entry I'd like to ask, what kind of experiences have you had with birds that have either made you fear them, left you unaffected, or made you love them more? Sadly I've found nothing else about Ornithophobia. I guess I expected to find professional sites about it. Oh well, maybe I'll search the library databases tomorrow.

On a side note, I'm doing a presentation on badgers for FW 255 (they're my secret adoration). I've discovered that they cache food sometimes. The study I'm presenting on discovered 27 Richard's ground squirrels that had been cached by badgers. Possibly the most intruiging part is that the squirrels appeared to have been removed from their burrows while hybernating. There was no evidence of how they died, they remained curled up in a ball (as in hybernation) and the badgers consumed them in the order they were cached. Badgers rock. I also discovered that there is a type of badger called a ferret badger, they're adorable. I think I'd like to meet one someday.

Winter 2009

I met with Doug today about my schedule for next term. Despite my ranting about just taking classes I like and not bothering with the second B.S., I signed into two required classes. I'm leaving myself open to the possibility of dropping them for the other classes I'd had in mind. Doug and I had a great talk about the project thus far and graduate school. The whole time I wanted to ask him to take me on next year for my grad degree, but I didn't. I was too afraid of him saying no. After the meeting I met with Julie though and she convinced me that I shouldn't be worried about it, if he says no it doesn't mean anything, other than he's too busy or doesn't have the funding. This changed my mind a little and I sent him an e-mail requesting him to be my major professor/adviser next year. If he says yes I'll be attending OSU for my M.S. If he says no, well I still may be attending OSU just not in the Fisheries and Wildlife program! In case you're interested my classes for next term will be: Spanish (with Julie), Avian Museum Curation (I get to learn how to make birds "skins"), Population Dynamics, Womens's weight training (with Julie) and the second term of my problem solving class (minorities in natural resources).

Ethno-ornithology Sunday: Ornithophobia

This week I've yet again been busy so I'm going to do things a little different in regards to Ethno-ornithology Sunday. I'm going to post what I've got on Ornithophobia-fear of birds-thus far and add more throughout the week, as I find more.

Mednet.com defines ornithophobia is the abnormal and persistent fear of birds. This phobia creates an excessive amount of anxiety when encountering birds and an irrational fear of being attacked by them. Ornithophobia was the basis for the movie The Birds (1963). The Birds was written by Daphne Du Maurier and Evan Hunter and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This movie is planning on being remade in 2009 by Martin Campbell and is rumored to be starring George Clooney and Naomi Watts. International Movie Database (IMDB) has a summary of the movie. In the summary they describe the movie as being about a town in Northern California where a flock of birds begin attacking people and over time the number of birds and viciousness of attacks increases. According to various sources George W. Bush has ornithophobia (though many are basing this in his "bird flu" rant, so this may be inaccurate). While I've been unable to find statistics specifically on ornithophobia rates I did find a page (found here) that claims 15-18% of the population suffers from some form of anxiety, phobia or compulsive disorder that goes unrecognized or untreated. Also, the best form of treatment is exposure therapy, at least that's what all of the information I've read thus far says.

People pretending to have ornithophobia, from: http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Fear-of-Birds.

End Part 1

Unbelievable!

For my Statistics class I had to read an article about adults and sex from an October 1994 issue of the New York Times. In my opinion nothing displays how we lie to others in order to appear to follow the status quo quite like this:

So, now we know what Americans do in bed. So?
The sex survey whose results were announced this week started
as a government supported survey with the title "Social and
Behavioral Aspects of Fertility-Related Behavior." It was
carefully chosen to avoid scrutiny by Senator Helms and
others. This failed and the government withdrew support for
the survey. However, it was carried out by the National
Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago
supported by private funds.
Unlike previous sex studies, whose subjects were self
selected, this study was carried out by in-person interviews
with a random sample of 3,432 men and women aged 18 to 59.
The results will be published in a book "Sex in American"
(Little, Brown and Co. with Gina Kolata as a co-author with
the investigators.)
The survey showed a marked contrast between the sex that most
people have compared to T.V. and movie images of sexual
behavior. American women typically have two sexual partners
during their life and men about six. 78% of the men and 86%
of women say they have been faithful to their spouses while
married.
The study provides more evidence that the 10% estimate for
homosexuality is not correct. Only 2.8% of men and 1.4% of
women identified themselves as "gay,". However, in the 12
largest cities this was 9% for men and 3% for women.
There was a large gap between the percentage (22.8) of the
women who said they had been forced to do something sexually
they did not want to and the percentage (2.8) of the men who
said they ever forced women into a sexual act.
One of the purposes of the study was to help in the
strategies for combatting AIDS. In this connection the study
suggested that people had sex pretty much with those they
resemble in race, religion, age, and socioeconomic level,
suggesting that AIDS would be slow in moving from groups
where it is prevalent to groups where it is not.

Just for my readers!

This is my ode to John McCain, reasons why I will miss him:

He loves George Bush . . . a lot.
He does this in response to . . . something.

He makes a good pirate . . . aaargh!
And this . . .

Now don't get me wrong, I actually do like John McCain. He has dedicated most of his life to our country and I commend him for that. Quite frankly if the election had been about four to six months ago I wouldn't have minded McCain winning. Then his campaign became negative and bizarre and I couldn't bring myself to support him. I certainly respect him more than Bush (who I actually like as well, just not as president). The republican party produces some people that as people are pretty all right, I just don't want them representing the U.S. There are a lot of intellectuals out there and while having a president we can identify with is important, having a president that the rest of the WORLD can identify with is even more so!

The highs and lows of post-election contemplation

Grassroots campaigning works, at least that is what Barack Obama has taught me. Instead of going after people with deep pockets and asking for large donations, Obama sought small donations from millions of people. He included the American people in fundraising, campaigning and electing our first non-white president. The more I learn about Obama the more inspired I am. At the same time I am jubilant in his victory, our victory really, I am uncertain of how I feel about four other measures/propositions/etc. Arkansas passed an anti-gay adoption bill last night, both Florida and Arizona passed anti-gay marriage bills and California of all places passed yet another anti-gay marriage bill. Gay marriage has been legal in California since May 2008, thanks to the California Supreme Court's decision stating that it is unconstitutional to prevent same-sex marriages. I believe in democracy so I can't be upset about the people of California having a voice on this proposition. I can however be irate with people that claim that gays are not discriminated against when applying for housing and jobs, that we aren't beaten or sexually assualted because we're gay, that we have a choice to be out or not to be gay or straight, that gay rights are special rights and that feel they have a right to tell me I am second rate to heterosexuals. As an intellgent thoughtful person I assure anybody out there who ignores or devalues gay struggles as a choice and therefore unavoidable that they are WRONG. We should not have to live in a closet and we should not have to live without the equal rights we fight for today. Gay rights are not special rights, they're equal rights. My wife and I having legal rights will not cause the world to come crashing down around us. The only reason people will be negatively affected is because they want to be. So those of us who happen to be gay and love Obama it was a bit of a bittersweet election night and post-election day. From this we can only move forward, no looking back at the negative aspects of the day. As CNN says, tomorrow is a new day and maybe, just maybe, I'll see the first gay president in my lifetime.

Happy first black president day!

I do a little happy dance as I think about it. Obama won. I believe he will bring about the change he's been talking about because he will inspire the masses. I love that he mentioned service, working together and our responsibility to help bring about change. Who says grassroots can't work?!

Ethno-ornithology Sunday: Bird Tattoos

Two ethno-ornithology blogs ago I discussed people using birds as fashion without knowing anything about birds, bird-trendiness if you will. This week I’ll be discussing bird tattoos in general. I’ve discovered some really interesting aspects of this trend. Mythologically speaking birds provide messages from the divine, they guided sailors to land and still guide Africans to honey (honeyguides), are indicators of environmental health and have inspired humans to invent the airplane and helicopter. So, what to bird tattoos “mean.” Obviously they mean different things for different people, though there are some classic meanings assigned to some common tattoos. Birds are often portrayed either with each other (one dark and one light) or with another animal (such as snakes) in order to represent the duality of nature (such as good vs. evil) (www.tattoo-meanings.com 2008). My grandfather has an image of a rooster hanging below his knee, which he told me means “his cock hangs below his knees” when I was ten (to which I giggled endlessly).
Historically speaking Phoenixes (mythological birds that burst into flames, die and then rise again from their own ashes) are common in Japanese tattoos, Eagles in American tattoos and the Iban and Dayak of Borneo began tattooing themselves in order to become as beautiful as the Argus Pheasant (a bird renowned for having the first tattoos). Doves are the symbol of hope, primarily because of the story of Noah, they also often represent peace. In many cultures swallows are a sign of happiness, love, fertility, renewal, transformation and faith. Sailors get a tattoo of a swallow after logging 5, 000 miles and a second swallow after logging 10,000, a swallow with a knife through its heart is a memorial for a friend lost at sea. Interestingly enough, a bluebird tattoo is a sign of 10,000 miles logged, a pair symbolizes 20,000 miles. Bluebirds also represent happiness, prosperity and good health (www.vanishingtattoo.com 2008).
There isn’t a lot of information out there about the history of bird tattoos, either. What I’ve come to learn with this blog is that there isn’t a lot of history about birds and anything on the web. I do know that the trend of getting retro-style bird tattoos is bizarre, but apparently founded (at least on some level). On some level I blame Captain Jack Sparrow (who ironically enough inspired retro-swallow tattoos, not sparrow tattoos).

Argus pheasant from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2210/1682483688_13c8e124d9.jpg?v=0


Phoenix tattoo from: http://www.tattoosymbol.com/gallery/phoenix-big.jpg

Dove tattoo from: http://tattoo.about.com/library/graphics/mariedove.jpg

Bluebird (though bluebirds don't actually have forked tails) tattoo from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2031/2213014225_a9385356fc.jpg?v=0

swallow (again, very un-swallow like) tattoo from: http://z.about.com/d/tattoo/1/0/9/2/debbiechest.jpg

A fantastic chickadee tattoo (what bird tattoos should look like) from: http://www.zhippo.com/johnnyberriosHOSTED/images/gallery/bird.jpg

Tattoo Meanings. 2008. Bird Tattoos. Available at: http://www.tattoo-meanings.com/bird-tattoos.html>. Accessed November 2, 2008.
Vanishing Tattoo. 2008. Bird Tattoos. Available at: http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoos_designs_symbols_bird.htm>. Accessed November 2, 2008.

Tagcloud!

I've slacked again, this was created on Thursday, I've just been busy.