Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Why do Birds Suddenly Appear

What did I do for my winter break?
Not much, caught up on my reading and sleep, nursed a growing sense of youthful ennui and a creeping fear of death not to mention mistrust of the world around you and the people you’ve grudgingly delineated to be in your circle of “loved ones”

When you’ve broken down and talked for hours, retraced old arguments in a house you swore you would never enter again with someone you promised you wouldn’t so much as look at…

Well, not fucking seems almost like an empty victory.
Kind of like winning the battle but loosing the war.

So I think of it in terms of battles and wars, maybe that’s what he is talking about when he tells me I’m too negative. I call it realistic. In the words of disillusion youth everywhere: Same Dif

I suppose I could be an optimist, believing he has my best interests at heart and I have his. But see, his best interests are tied to her best interests and my best interests are in direct contradiction of her best interests.

Let us consider for a moment, the pied flycatcher. Sneaky bastard birds that they are, males copulates with his primary female and sticks around until he is absolutely certain she’s sitting on a clutch of his eggs, unable to mate with another male for the time being. Then the male then goes and tries to find a secondary female. If he succeeds, by the time he’s settled his second female on another clutch of his eggs, he can be back and helping his primary female to feed their chicks. But not all males can manage a secondary female. It takes a large, healthy male you know, a real pimp flycatcher. Still, it doesn’t hurt him to try.

So what’s in it for the secondary female? Well honestly, it seems like nothing. The male provides less food for their chicks and the chicks are less likely to survive than those of a primary female.

But please, don’t call me a feminist.
It’s all there, in the data.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least the second female gets a piece. There's nothing so ugly as a old Ave.

Anonymous said...

Clearly one of the inferior male flycatchers, jealous that he can hardly handle his primary, let alone a secondary.

-E

Anonymous said...

But ultimately a flycatcher "managing" none the less.

Anonymous said...

In the long run, evolution does not favor those who "manage"

-E

Anonymous said...

And in every run, evolution kills off those who can't.

Anonymous said...

I will scream.