Saturday, March 31, 2007
Odd critter behavior
We have several skunks that visit our patio to eat astonishing amounts of kibble every night. A couple of months ago, I put out the bones left over from our ribs dinner so that they could, in theory, gnaw the scraps off of them; although they'd sadly shown no shred of interest in the rats and mice that swarm our yard, in the wild they DO hunt various little vermins and so might be expected to enjoy some meat. When the 1st skunk started eagerly tearing meat off a rib, we beamed happily; things turned unexpectedly exciting when the usually mannerly little mammal shook the bone, pounced on it, and began dragging it vigorously around... some of those bones got hauled 20 feet, completely out of the yard!! It turned out that ALL the skunks did that with the bones, which was interesting because it's not like they often pull down a COW in the wild and so would have an instinctive way of handling its parts. It's hilarious to see the normally placid animals baring their fangs and being so fierce; we'll egg them on with "Get that bone!! Teach it a lesson!! Come on, subdue that ferocious bone!!".
We used to have just skunkie girls, but a male started coming a while back, which made us hopeful about the eventual appearance of babies (we've been fooled as to gender before with our wild visitors, but skunks will stand around with their tails up right next to the sliding glass door, and, er, 2 innies means a girl and 1 means a boy). This particular male is either very inexperienced or a complete idiot, though; the one time he was here with a female, he kept harassing her, despite our best attempts to distract him, until either she sprayed him or fended him off so vehemently that she scared HIM into spraying... we couldn't see what exactly happened, but the SMELL was clear enough-my eyes watered for the next half hour. They ran out of the patio area, and he chased her around on the street; I heard several outraged shrieks, and someone sprayed again, although luckily not right up against the house. I understand that dominance of females by males is part of the process from which baby skunks result, but I wasn't happy with all that fuss, and I suspect that there's a level of ineptitude beyond which the females will refuse to play along; hopefully, the male, who's still coming but not when a female is here, will sort himself out and be able to do his duty sometime soon.
NB: This was the 1st and only time a skunk sprayed on our property; my husband surprised one on the patio recently, and she didn't so much as point her bottom at him, she just trundled away as quickly as her short legs could carry her... they're not inclined to spray unless REALLY provoked.
Even odder behavior is coming from our avian visitors: We have what appears to be a male and a female of some species of VERY small bird that looks like a wren but doesn't match any pictures we've been able to find; we call them "the tiny tweets." They have long, thin, curved beaks, and like all little birds thus equipped are insectivorous; they dart around fastfastfast and snatch up little bugs on our patio. Imagine my bewilderment when I saw them hopping around the quadruped feeding area, picking up fragments of kibble and eating them; how could they know that was food, when they have no sense of smell (the warnings to not handle baby birds because their mothers can smell you on them is nonsense) to tell them that what looks like bits of dirt is edible? And; their few taste buds wouldn't tell them that kibble was similar to bugs, so why would they keep eating it once they tried it? Even weirder, the male spent about 20 minutes plucking meat off a chicken bone, with such force that he was yanking it around although it probably outweighed him; ignoring the semi-cannibalism aspect to it, why would an insectivore eat off a bone... is he part VULTURE? Weirdest of all, the little female extracted a WALNUT from the feeding area, and comes several times a day to eat from it, chasing after it when her pecking makes it slide around and ignoring the other walnuts to focus on that one; I've been able to find references to some sorts of wrens sometimes eating berries or seeds (the tiny tweets totally ignore the birdseed, just FYI), but what attracts this one to eat a NUT that's nearly a third her size is beyond me.
Bizarrest of all is the behavior of Psycho Hummie, a little male hummingbird that appears to be literally out of his mind. These exquisite birds need to eat almost constantly to support their super-fast metabolisms, but this one will ignore the feeder and do repeated, in-depth examinations of each wind chime and the seed and suet feeding stations (hummingbirds don't eat either thing), dart back and forth across the patio a bunch of times for no reason we can determine, and then hover right outside the window and/or glass door for 10-15 minutes, MINUTES, at a time, just WATCHING me... and if I call to him when he's farther away, he'll sometimes zip over to check me out, which is heartwarming but probably not indicative of sanity either. I saw him drink from the feeder ONCE, for about 3 seconds, so he knows it's there, but maybe he hears voices from it or something and so avoids it; I'd sure like to know what he IS eating, especially this early in the season, that's kept him plump and energetic enough to do all this exploring and Peeping Tom-ing. We hit the jackpot when we installed a hanging plant that was covered with tiny flowers; Psycho Hummie went right to it and drank from every single flower, and now does so on most visits. Elated, we got more of the same plant and will hang them with the other one this weekend; we have great affection for this bonkers bird, and are happy to be able to provide him with something he likes.
I'll close with my annual plea for the hummingbirds: These precious creatures are having to undergo their lengthy annual migration with less and less food available due to our destruction of the flowering plants they depend on, and too many of them don't make it; if you're lucky enough to get hummies where you live, PLEASE consider spending a few dollars and putting up a feeder for them... being able to watch them up close will more than compensate you for your trouble.
We used to have just skunkie girls, but a male started coming a while back, which made us hopeful about the eventual appearance of babies (we've been fooled as to gender before with our wild visitors, but skunks will stand around with their tails up right next to the sliding glass door, and, er, 2 innies means a girl and 1 means a boy). This particular male is either very inexperienced or a complete idiot, though; the one time he was here with a female, he kept harassing her, despite our best attempts to distract him, until either she sprayed him or fended him off so vehemently that she scared HIM into spraying... we couldn't see what exactly happened, but the SMELL was clear enough-my eyes watered for the next half hour. They ran out of the patio area, and he chased her around on the street; I heard several outraged shrieks, and someone sprayed again, although luckily not right up against the house. I understand that dominance of females by males is part of the process from which baby skunks result, but I wasn't happy with all that fuss, and I suspect that there's a level of ineptitude beyond which the females will refuse to play along; hopefully, the male, who's still coming but not when a female is here, will sort himself out and be able to do his duty sometime soon.
NB: This was the 1st and only time a skunk sprayed on our property; my husband surprised one on the patio recently, and she didn't so much as point her bottom at him, she just trundled away as quickly as her short legs could carry her... they're not inclined to spray unless REALLY provoked.
Even odder behavior is coming from our avian visitors: We have what appears to be a male and a female of some species of VERY small bird that looks like a wren but doesn't match any pictures we've been able to find; we call them "the tiny tweets." They have long, thin, curved beaks, and like all little birds thus equipped are insectivorous; they dart around fastfastfast and snatch up little bugs on our patio. Imagine my bewilderment when I saw them hopping around the quadruped feeding area, picking up fragments of kibble and eating them; how could they know that was food, when they have no sense of smell (the warnings to not handle baby birds because their mothers can smell you on them is nonsense) to tell them that what looks like bits of dirt is edible? And; their few taste buds wouldn't tell them that kibble was similar to bugs, so why would they keep eating it once they tried it? Even weirder, the male spent about 20 minutes plucking meat off a chicken bone, with such force that he was yanking it around although it probably outweighed him; ignoring the semi-cannibalism aspect to it, why would an insectivore eat off a bone... is he part VULTURE? Weirdest of all, the little female extracted a WALNUT from the feeding area, and comes several times a day to eat from it, chasing after it when her pecking makes it slide around and ignoring the other walnuts to focus on that one; I've been able to find references to some sorts of wrens sometimes eating berries or seeds (the tiny tweets totally ignore the birdseed, just FYI), but what attracts this one to eat a NUT that's nearly a third her size is beyond me.
Bizarrest of all is the behavior of Psycho Hummie, a little male hummingbird that appears to be literally out of his mind. These exquisite birds need to eat almost constantly to support their super-fast metabolisms, but this one will ignore the feeder and do repeated, in-depth examinations of each wind chime and the seed and suet feeding stations (hummingbirds don't eat either thing), dart back and forth across the patio a bunch of times for no reason we can determine, and then hover right outside the window and/or glass door for 10-15 minutes, MINUTES, at a time, just WATCHING me... and if I call to him when he's farther away, he'll sometimes zip over to check me out, which is heartwarming but probably not indicative of sanity either. I saw him drink from the feeder ONCE, for about 3 seconds, so he knows it's there, but maybe he hears voices from it or something and so avoids it; I'd sure like to know what he IS eating, especially this early in the season, that's kept him plump and energetic enough to do all this exploring and Peeping Tom-ing. We hit the jackpot when we installed a hanging plant that was covered with tiny flowers; Psycho Hummie went right to it and drank from every single flower, and now does so on most visits. Elated, we got more of the same plant and will hang them with the other one this weekend; we have great affection for this bonkers bird, and are happy to be able to provide him with something he likes.
I'll close with my annual plea for the hummingbirds: These precious creatures are having to undergo their lengthy annual migration with less and less food available due to our destruction of the flowering plants they depend on, and too many of them don't make it; if you're lucky enough to get hummies where you live, PLEASE consider spending a few dollars and putting up a feeder for them... being able to watch them up close will more than compensate you for your trouble.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What makes us search for meaning?
Quick note: After 3 years of having the Babel Fish translator on my site, I've switched to a new one; it's that big purple thing in the sidebar. I chose it because it has 10 languages instead of 8, allows you to select format and color, and has a more compact design; if you want it, and you really SHOULD have a translator to assist foreign visitors, you can get it here:
http://www.appliedlanguage.com/trans/free_quick.aspx
Scott Adams made an intriguing point on his blog:
"When you serve a purpose larger than yourself, you experience the sensation of having meaning. There are plenty of larger purposes from which to choose: You can save the whales, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, march for peace, serve your notion of God, whatever. The details don't matter.
If your reaction to my explanation of larger purposes was 'none of that sounds interesting to me,' then you haven't finished fixing yourself. When you do, you will automatically look outward. It's how humans are wired. We survive because, on average, the people who manage to satisfy their personal needs are changed by it. They become seekers of meaning. They ask, 'What's next?'"
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/the_meaning_of_.html
When I read that, I saw that it'd explain how so many famous people end up following gurus, studying Kabbalah, or joining fashionable (and usually wacko) New Age "religions," and how cults that committed group suicide because they thought Jesus was coming to get them in a spaceship always had members with successful careers; I hadn't been able to see the psychological pathway which would lead to people who had everything and could do as they liked seeking these sorts of things out, not to mention sticking with them after the leaders made outrageous demands or generally demonstrated that they're out of their minds, so I was glad to have this idea to get me thinking.
The 1st point that needs to be made is that there are plenty of folks who've "got it all" who're perfectly satisfied to care for their families, work in their gardens, play video games, etc, and never yearn for "more"; I'm sure that SOME of them might secretly need "fixing," eg be depressed or have other emotional issues that don't show, but we can't insist that they ALL must be that way without proof.
The next point is; why would ANYONE have the urge to "look outward"? What survival value did it have to our primitive ancestors that made it part of our programming? What could a caveperson have even DONE to create "greater meaning," and why would they have expended precious energy to achieve it? The only thing I can think of is spirituality/religion; every human culture has come up with the concept of beings or forces greater than themselves that run things, and that's GOT to be significant... but whether it indicates that many of us are actually perceiving beings/forces or that we're just used to attributing the unexplained to "something invisible and powerful" is open to debate. And how would any of that lead to a non-religious person whose body, mind and bank account were all healthy wanting to save the whales? Is it an innate urge as Adams suggests, or an extension of embryonic spiritual feelings that make us want to reach out and embrace SOMETHING... or, is it the result of societal programming to "give back" and "get involved," or simply that it feels good to DO good and/or to be seen by others as a do-gooder... OR, as is often the case, can there be a variety of causes?
I'll be making a conscious effort from now on to notice if people who haven't "looked outwards" even though they seem to have it all turn out to have problems that weren't immediately obvious; wouldn't it be slick if that ended up being a useful way to detect folks with "issues"?
I examined my own process of "looking outward"; it's probably not a coincidence that it began after I left my mother's home, married, and found myself in control of my life for the 1st time. The change didn't come right away; it took a while to adjust to home ownership, husband ownership (lol), being responsible for everything and having total freedom of action. Then, when someone I was close to betrayed me in a particularly ugly way, in response to my soul-deep scream of "WHY?!!" came answers... and not just the ones I was asking for. It was at that time that the word "karma" started coming out of my mouth; I hadn't consciously thought about it, I could just suddenly see the basics of how it worked... and thus my spirituality was born.
Has this given my life meaning? I don't know; I've never understood what having meaning, or not having it, is supposed to feel like. It's certainly given me whole new levels of understanding, though, and ideas to share with you; that's more than enough.
http://www.appliedlanguage.com/trans/free_quick.aspx
Scott Adams made an intriguing point on his blog:
"When you serve a purpose larger than yourself, you experience the sensation of having meaning. There are plenty of larger purposes from which to choose: You can save the whales, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, march for peace, serve your notion of God, whatever. The details don't matter.
If your reaction to my explanation of larger purposes was 'none of that sounds interesting to me,' then you haven't finished fixing yourself. When you do, you will automatically look outward. It's how humans are wired. We survive because, on average, the people who manage to satisfy their personal needs are changed by it. They become seekers of meaning. They ask, 'What's next?'"
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/the_meaning_of_.html
When I read that, I saw that it'd explain how so many famous people end up following gurus, studying Kabbalah, or joining fashionable (and usually wacko) New Age "religions," and how cults that committed group suicide because they thought Jesus was coming to get them in a spaceship always had members with successful careers; I hadn't been able to see the psychological pathway which would lead to people who had everything and could do as they liked seeking these sorts of things out, not to mention sticking with them after the leaders made outrageous demands or generally demonstrated that they're out of their minds, so I was glad to have this idea to get me thinking.
The 1st point that needs to be made is that there are plenty of folks who've "got it all" who're perfectly satisfied to care for their families, work in their gardens, play video games, etc, and never yearn for "more"; I'm sure that SOME of them might secretly need "fixing," eg be depressed or have other emotional issues that don't show, but we can't insist that they ALL must be that way without proof.
The next point is; why would ANYONE have the urge to "look outward"? What survival value did it have to our primitive ancestors that made it part of our programming? What could a caveperson have even DONE to create "greater meaning," and why would they have expended precious energy to achieve it? The only thing I can think of is spirituality/religion; every human culture has come up with the concept of beings or forces greater than themselves that run things, and that's GOT to be significant... but whether it indicates that many of us are actually perceiving beings/forces or that we're just used to attributing the unexplained to "something invisible and powerful" is open to debate. And how would any of that lead to a non-religious person whose body, mind and bank account were all healthy wanting to save the whales? Is it an innate urge as Adams suggests, or an extension of embryonic spiritual feelings that make us want to reach out and embrace SOMETHING... or, is it the result of societal programming to "give back" and "get involved," or simply that it feels good to DO good and/or to be seen by others as a do-gooder... OR, as is often the case, can there be a variety of causes?
I'll be making a conscious effort from now on to notice if people who haven't "looked outwards" even though they seem to have it all turn out to have problems that weren't immediately obvious; wouldn't it be slick if that ended up being a useful way to detect folks with "issues"?
I examined my own process of "looking outward"; it's probably not a coincidence that it began after I left my mother's home, married, and found myself in control of my life for the 1st time. The change didn't come right away; it took a while to adjust to home ownership, husband ownership (lol), being responsible for everything and having total freedom of action. Then, when someone I was close to betrayed me in a particularly ugly way, in response to my soul-deep scream of "WHY?!!" came answers... and not just the ones I was asking for. It was at that time that the word "karma" started coming out of my mouth; I hadn't consciously thought about it, I could just suddenly see the basics of how it worked... and thus my spirituality was born.
Has this given my life meaning? I don't know; I've never understood what having meaning, or not having it, is supposed to feel like. It's certainly given me whole new levels of understanding, though, and ideas to share with you; that's more than enough.
