Before and After Project

For Wyatts Before and After Project he decided to write two poems from the pheasants perspective. These poems highlight the tragedy of what could be lost if the birds go along with Jacks plan and build CloudCuckooLand. These themes are brought

Bird Research

Symbolism

• China - revered for its beauty, thought of as a solar animal

• Some think golden pheasant is linked to phoenix

• Represents yang energy and carries attributes of fire, life, summer, male, and action

• China - symbol of nobility, associated with high-rank in political office and civil service

• Japan - divine messenger for great sun goddess, symbol of power, abundance, and promise

  • Also important in Shintoism

• Native American - symbol of protection and concealment

• Symbol of sexuality because male is so attractive and effective, winning a harem of females

• Cousin of the peacock, similar symbolic attributes

• Symbol of gifts and talents

Temperament

• Very secretive and can easily be alarmed

• Generally not vocal but squawk during breeding season

• Similar to peafowl but wilder and not as placid as other species of poultry

• Males can be aggressive and attack with sharp spurs

• Male Reeves have reputation for being bad-tempered

History

• Native of Asia (Originally China to Malaysia), parts of Europe like Caucasus and Balkans

• Several species naturalized elsewhere two thousand years ago in Anatolia and Europe

• Introduced to United States in 1857

• Pheasants now have well-established populations in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and parts of the Western mountain states

Predators

• Fox, dogs, coyote, owls, hawks are main predators

• Raccoons and skunks eat pheasant eggs

• Humans hunt pheasants

Food

• Eat seeds and some insects

• Mostly feed at dawn and dusk

• Prefer to live near soil that is rich in nutrients and organic matter where they can find seeds and worms

• Omnivorous ground feeders

• Eat grain, leaves, insects, worms, wild fruit, and nuts

• Can stay in their roost for several days without eating during periods of bad weather

Habitat

• Common pheasants prefer to inhabit farmland or prairies with areas of woods and ground cover for protection

• Occupy tall grasses or weeds especially when nesting

• Build nests on ground in grass and other low vegetation at the end of hedgerows

  • Nests made of small depressions lined with grass, leaves, etc. Down, feathers, additional vegetation added as egg laying and incubation progresses

• Roost on tree branches at night

• Grain fields near bushy cover

• Thrive in mild weather conditions

  • Heavy rains or flash floods can wash out nests before eggs hatch or wash away young pheasants

• Habitats change with seasons

  • Spring - groups of birds in open habitats

  • Winter - congregate at edges of fields

Appearance

• Average adult weighs 2-3 pounds

• 21-34 inches in length

• Tail can account for half its total length

• Wingspan of 28-34 inches

• Sexual dimorphism: two sexes of same species have different characteristics beyond sexual organs

  • Males are highly decorated, bright colors, adornments like wattles

  • Males larger than females, longer tails, don’t raise the young

  • Females are light tan and brown, camouflage from predators

  • Male pheasants known as cocks, females known as hens

• Bright red masks on face, iridescent green feathers on head

• White ring on neck

• Maroon breast

• Long golden brown tail feathers with dark brown bars

Mating/Offspring

• In March, males claim territory and establish harems of females for mating

• Harems can contain up to a dozen hens

• Males aggressively defend harems from rivals

• Hens build nests then mate with the male

• Mating season occurs between April and May

• Hens lay 6-18 eggs at a time and incubate eggs for about 23 days

• Hatch in 3-4 weeks

• Chicks can walk and find food for themselves after hatching

• Young can fly within 2 weeks

• Chicks molt their juvenile feathers at 7 weeks and leave the group

• Hens usually produce one brood per year but will produce a second smaller nest if their first nest is disrupted

• Courting males sometimes fight to the death in the presence of hens

• Eggs are olive-brown

General

• Make harsh croaking sounds when they sense danger

• Powerful leg muscles

• Don’t have sweat glands so they pant like dogs to eliminate excess body heat

• Prefer to walk or run on the ground up to 10 mph but can fly up to 50 mph when startled

• Pheasants don’t migrate

• Pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota

• Average lifespan in the wild of 1-3 years

  • Can live 10-25 years in captivity

Types of Pheasants

• Best-known is common pheasant (phasianus colchicus), widespread throughout the world

  • Also known as Ring-Necked Pheasants

  • Has 20-30 races across Asia

• About 50 species of pheasants

• Chinese monal is endangered species

• tragopans/horned pheasants are among world’s most coloful birds

• Argus pheasants in southeastern Asia

  • Long feathers covered with “eyes”

  • Crested argus (ocellated pheasant) and great argus

• Green pheasant in Japan - mainly metallic green

  • Sensitive to earth tremors not felt by humans and calls before quakes

Lineage Research

• My mother’s side is Italian, Polish, and Czechoslovakian

• There was a Native American on my paternal grandmother’s side

• My paternal grandfather’s side is English, Scottish, and Irish

  • This family has been in America since one of them came from England in 1635, so it is difficult to know exactly when our roots to Scotland and Ireland are from

• I figured I’d research the ancient Scottish/Irish/Celtic civilizations

Scotland

• People have lived in Scotland for over 12,000 years

• My ancestors likely came from Argyll and the Hebrides in western Scotland

  • Dal Riata kingdom was first inhabitants - subsistence farming, pastorialism, transhumance

    • 3 main kin groups

    • Duan Albanach (Song of the Scots) tells that 3 sons conquered Scotland around 500. Bede (Saint) said Dal Riata was conquered by Irish Gaels led by a certain Reuda

    • Seafaring culture, travel by sea

    • No written accounts for pre-Christian, they were Christian, monasteries represente source of wealth, prestige, and learning and literacy

• There was a stone age society but ancient people gradually became farmers, growing crops and keeping domestic animals

• Picts, known as “painted people” were one of Celtic tribes that inhabited Scotland - painted or tattooed bodies and carbed standing stones - language was Brythonic

• Orkney (archipelago in northern isles) - rich folklore, tales involving trows (Orcadian trolls)

• Tales of selkies (seal folk) - mythological beings capable of changing from seal to human form

  • Tales revolve around female selkies being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin

  • Scots superstitious about killing seals, misfortune for the perpetrator

Ireland

• First people arrived in Ireland between 7000-6500 BCE at Coleraine in the north

• Archaeological evidence shows that they participated in rituals involving painting themselves and ceremonial objects

• Ireland is known as Eire in Gaelic language

  • Comes from Eriu, which is the name of a daughter of the goddess Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann - the mystical pre-Celtic race of Ireland

Origins

• Mythical origins history told in book “Lebor Gabala Erenn” (The Book of the Taking of Ireland or The Book of Invasions) written in 11th/12th centuries

• Cessair (daughter of one of Noah’s sons) denied a place on the Ark and flees to Ireland, arrives with 3 men and 49 women who all drown with her in the Flood except Fintan who is transformed into various animals until becoming a man again

• Partholon (Noah’s great grandson) led second group to settle in Ireland after the Flood and then all died of disease, then Nemed (fled when attacked by savage sea pirates under king Balor the Cyclop), then Fir Bolg defeated by Tuatha De Danann

• Fenius came from Tower of Babel and combined elements of all languages he heard to create Irish speech, his descendent Goidil gave his name to the Gaels and their language Gaelic

Megaliths

• Pre-literate culture, told stories through stonework

• Knowth megalith has been claimed to contain the world’s earliest map of the Moon carved into stone

• There are court cairns, passage tombs, portal tombs, and wedge tombs

  • Theory that 4 groups of monumnets were associated with four separate waves of invading colonists

• Poulnabrone Dolmen constructed at an angle possibly to ease souls of deceased in passage to Underworld or ward off unwanted visitors from the other side

• Newgrange monument constructed 3200 BCE, more passage tombs after that

  • Evidence of deeply held belief system which may have honored ancestors, great deeds, heroes, chieftains, deities

  • Newgrange ritualistic - every December around solstice, rising sun sends single bea, through portal above front passage entrance and illuminates inner chamber, focusing on a single niche in the back wall

Tuatha Dé Danann

• Means “folk of the goddess Danu”, used to be called Tuath Dé or “tribe of the gods”

• Supernatural race in Irish mythology

• Represent main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland

• Pantheon whose attributes appeared in a number of forms throughout the Celtic world

• Dwell in the Otherworld but interact with humans and the human world

• Ancient passage tombs were seen as portals to the underworld

• Each member of Tuath Dé has associations with certain features of life or nature

• Parallels in the pantheons of other Celtic peoples

• Eventually became Aos Sí or “fairies of later folklore”

• Brought 4 magical treasures, one from each city

  • Dagda’s Cauldron, Spear of Lugh, Stone of Fal, Sword of Light

• Tuatha Dé Danann descended from Nemed - leader of a previous wave of inhabitants of Ireland

  • Came from 4 cities to the north of Ireland - Falias, Gorias, Murias, Finias

  • Taught sciences, architecture, arts, magic, necromancy (communicating with dead)

  • Came to Ireland “in dark clouds”, landed on mountains of the Conmaicne Rein in Connachta, brought darkness for 3 days, burnt ships, said that they arrived in clouds of mist

Aos Sí

• Supernatural race in Irish and Scottish mythology, comparable to fairies or elves

• Means “people of the mounds” in Irish language - live underground in fairy mounds, across western sea, or in invisible world that coexists with human world - parallel world where Aos Sí walk among the living

• Said to be ancestors, spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods

• In Gaelic tales - literary versions of Tuatha Dé Danann, some say they are survivors of Tuatha Dé Danann who retreated into Otherworld fleeing Milesians

• Appeased with offerings, avoid angering or insulting them

• Often not named directly but called “The Good Neighbors,” “The Fair Folk,” or “The Folk”

• Fierce guardians of their abodes, infringing on these spaces will cause them to retaliate to remove people or objects that invaded

• Changeling myth where they kidnap trespassers or replace children with changelings as punishment

• Connected to certain times of year and hours - Gaelic Otherworld closer to mortal world at dawn and dusk, festivals Samhain, Beltane, and Midsummer associated with them

• Creideamh Si is Irish for the "Fairy Faith", a collection of beliefs and practices observed by those who wish to keep good relationships with the Aos Si

Gaelic Ireland

• Patchwork hierarchy of territories ruled by hierarchy of kings or chiefs, elected through tanistry, warfare common

• Occasionally a powerful ruler was ackowledged as High King of Ireland

• Made up of clans, class hierarchy but not rigid castes

• Pastoral economy, money not used

• Initially pagan or polytheistic, rich oral culture

• Vikings raided and founded settlements in 9th century, became Norse-Gaels

• Fili (elite poet class) and druids highly regarded, appreciation of deeper and intellectual pursuits

• Consisted of several kingdoms

• Tuatha De Danann and Fomorians (Tuatha opponenets) represent Gaelic pantheon

• Animists, all aspects of natural world contained spirits that could be communicated with

• Belief in life after death, Otherworld realms

• 4 main religious festivals marking traditional 4 divisions of year - Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasadh

• Everyone belonged to a paternal kin-group known as a fine

• Patriarchal culture, women needed a male guardian

• Patrilineal society, land owned by men and inherited by sons

• Law originally passed down orally, written down in the Fenechas or the Brehon Laws

• Mythology passed down orally, eventually written down by irish monks who modified and Christianized it

  • Split into 3 overlapping cycles - Mythological Cycle, Ulster Cycle, Fenian Cycle, other tales in none of the cycles

• Ancient Celts in Ireland were animists - animals, plants, inanimate objects possess spiritual essence, believed humans could establish a relationship with them

  • Some trees were sacred

  • Some animals sacred or messengers of spirits or gods

  • Pagan Celts viewed supernatural as intertwined with and central to the material world