| |
| First
published in English in 1780, this traditional French medley glorifies the 12
days between Christmas proper and the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. American
fans pay homage to Milwaukee’s Emily Brown who imported the tune in 1910 to brighten
a Wisconsin Christmas extravaganza. The lyrics of the traditional carol have been
variously interpreted as religious symbolism, examples of the bounties of each
month of the calendar year, and/or random accumulations of pastoral images. With
the academic jury still out on the “true” meaning of the Twelve Days of Christmas,
I’ve decided to reinterpret the song with a bit of Texas
flare: |
American
crow playing
Drawing
by Anton Wroblewski |
Few
Texas calling birds have more to say than the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).
Their diverse vocabulary of caws, rattles, coos, gargles, growls, and noises that
defy easy definition demonstrate symbolism, rules of syntax, creativity, the ability
to count, individual recognition, and even cultural variation. Much like our own,
crows’ advanced language and reasoning capabilities most likely developed as a
result of their complex social systems. Maneuvering in close family units (children
from one year may help in raising the next season’s little ones) as well as large
wintertime roosts and foraging murders requires the ability to communicate everything
from intimate cues between lovers to group warnings about potential threats.
By
arranging a host of sounds in differing patterns of duration, harmony, vibrato,
pitch, and/or repetition in combination with unique body language cues, these
corvids (a family that also encompasses ravens and jays) are able to assemble
massive scolding, diving flocks to harass and dissuade predators as easily as
they can quickly dissolve aggregates into fleeing squadrons, avoiding any impending
dangers. The perceived seriousness of the threat along with the type of predator
encountered is expressed by different “caw”s and “ko”s and the intensity with
which each vocalization is projected. Similarly, crows can vary types of calls
to give them specific meanings in the context of begging displays, territorial
battles, courting rituals, and social murmurings among family members. Replications
and fluctuations of corvid messages indicate that the intelligent birds can count
to at least six and adhere to structural assemblies of sounds like the words constructing
human sentences. These ebony wordsmiths can even call each other by name: distinctive
voices enable individual recognition and one crow may imitate the intonation of
another to gain the bird’s attention.
The complex languages of American
crows show evidence of diverging dialects, supporting arguments for the evolution
of culture in the non-human animal world. Unique noises and vocalization types
are often consistent within one group of these brainy birds, but completely different
in other crow assemblies. These “dialects” are so definitive that they can be
used to recognize the member(s) of one group within another group or mishmash
of groups. When a new feathered orator joins the roster of a pre-existing tribe,
the adherent learns the local dialect through mimicry, allowing the dialect to
carry on through multiple generations and troop influxes. The mimicking nature
of crows is most apparent in the case of many captive and pet corvids that learn
to speak commonly uttered human phrases and/or perfectly replicate the noises
made by pets and inanimate objects. I’m sure somewhere out there, a crow has even
learned to belt out the lyrics of the Twelve Days of Christmas, albeit with her
own distinctive cawing flair. |
Five
golden rings of the Little wood-satyr
Drawing
by Anton Wroblewski |
| What
more gorgeous golden rings to celebrate than those gracing the delicate wings
of the little wood-satyr (Megisto cymela)? Flitting through the dappled
sunspots littering woodland edges and bouncing along grassy clearings and cattle
fields, these dainty butterflies populate eastern Texas from spring to late summer.
Plant sap, aphid honeydew, and, only rarely, nectar fuel their romping. Even on
cloudy days, the glimmering flyers can be found basking with their eye-spotted
wings stretched wide, males breaking the peace with frequent patrols as high as
the treetops in search of female partners. Once a mate is found and coupling has
culminated, the female of the pair retreats to lay one egg at a time on strands
of grass. Soon, squirmy caterpillars will emerge to carry on the genetic legacy
of the ring-bearing forbears, chomping along the life-sustaining blades of grass,
pupating, and then emerging with golden orbs of their own. For young escaping
their eggs late in the summer, a long period of overwintering as fourth stage
caterpillars awaits them. As Christmas carolers revel above, the future butterflies
slumber tucked in among the fields, waiting for the warm rays of springtime sunshine
to spark their transformation. |
Pair
of snow geese sharing a lifetime bond
Drawing
by Anton Wroblewski |
| Few
Texas residents are unfamiliar with the majestic
snow goose (Chen caerulescens). Their tireless “wank”s mingle with the
bugling of cranes and tweets and pweeps of smaller autumn migrants across the
skies of Texas as the endless v’s of geese wing into the northern and eastern
grain fields, grasslands, and coastal wetlands that comprise their wintering grounds
across the Lone Star state. Three thousand miles
away, snow drifts and blustery gales scour the high arctic tundra of Siberia,
Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, obliterating any traces of the nesting grounds
recently forsaken by the southerly drawn honkers. Yet, in mere months, this freezing,
seemingly inhospitable landscape will pull the feathered trumpeters away from
the warm breezes of the Gulf Coast back to the far north to get “a-laying” once
again.
As the fluffy snow geese return to their natal grounds, philopatric
females seek out nesting locations adjacent to their own birthplaces, ideally
situated on snow-free high ground deep within the colony. Real estate in the vicinity
of snowy owl nests is also a hot commodity since the presence of the voracious
avian predators offers protection from marauding arctic foxes and opportunistic
skuas. Successful nest sites may be reused year after year for the duration of
the life-long pairing. Once an appropriate location has been agreed upon, the
monogamously mated couple tenderly lines a shallow, scraped out depression with
plant matter and down and settles in for the 22-25 day incubation of three to
five creamy white to ashen grey eggs. Within hours of the precocial snow goslings
hatching, the peeping fuzzes scamper after their goose parents away from the nest
and off to fertile feeding grounds. Here, the mini-geese grow and learn to fly
under the wary guardianship of both adults. The family will travel as a distinctly
bonded unit to and from their traditional wintering foraging areas for the first
year, and young will remain with their relatives until they reach two to three
years of age. As hormones start coursing through their maturing veins, the juvenile
snow geese seek a long term pair bond in the opposite sex. Two year old adolescents
carefully choose what will hopefully be a life-long mate, waiting to breed and
establish a lineage of their own until the following breeding season. And so it
continues on, season after season: the snow geese “a-laying” in the arctic spring
and the family “a-migrating” for winter vacations in the Texas
sun.
To be continued ...
©
Bonnie Wroblewski, January 8, 2012 Column
http://www.dovekeywildlife.org |
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