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siberiantrap · 10 hours
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Ghost Stories
White-eyed River Martin
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Moving further into the Passeriformes, our next species is the white eyed river martin (Pseudochelidon sirintarae). These poorly-known birds were seen once in Thailand.
White eyed river martins (WERMs) were basal members of the swallow family, Hirundinidae, with black-green plumage, a white rump, elongated central rectrices, and the namesake white eye. Like other swallows, they hawked for insects on the wing. Little else is known of the biology of these mysterious birds.
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The story of the WERM is a strange one. They were first observed in life by scientists, on a research trapping mission on a wetland in Central Thailand (Bueng Boraphet) in 1968. While collecting known swallows & other songbirds at a wintering site, 9 specimens of this novel bird were collected between 28 January and 10 February. The researchers noticed its affinity to the African river martin (Pseudochelidon eurystomina), but also a number of differences that warranted the naming of a distinct new species. Scattered sightings followed in the 70s and early 80s, but the birds faded back into obscurity after that. With the population declines of other swallows in the same region due to habitat degradation and destruction, it seems unfortunately likely that this phantom bird has passed on before we truly got to understand it (though it is still officially listed as critically endangered). All that we are left with is a handful of specimens, and the names given to it by the local people, nok ta pong (swollen-eyed bird"), and the endonymic name given to it after its discovery, nok chaofa ying sirinthon ("Princess Sirindhorn bird").
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siberiantrap · 12 hours
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kd lang & cindy crawford really gave the lesbians what they wanted in ‘93
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siberiantrap · 15 hours
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trans not as in killing your past self but resurrecting your very, very first self
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siberiantrap · 1 day
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Ghost Stories
Huia
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(Art by Paul Martinson)
Staying in Aotearoa but moving much deeper into the Passeriformes, we come to the huia (Heteralocha acuitirostris). These icons were endemic to Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island).
Huia were the largest member of the Callaeidae, which includes the living kōkako and tīeke, with black plumage, a white-tipped tail, and orange facial wattles. Famously, the beak shapes were strongly sexually dimorphic, the most marked of any bird: males had shorter, thicker beaks, while females had long, thin, decurved beaks. As a result, males would hack into rotting wood with their thicker beak to access invertebrates, whereas females probed into solid wood to access their prey. On occasion, males were observed feeding their mates. They could also cooperate to hunt for weta: the female would probe into its hiding place, and if the hole was too small, her mate would excavate it larger with his sturdy beak. Within their range, these birds stuck to the forests, both high and low elevation.
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(Art by JG Keulemans)
Huia were highly regarded by Maori, with their feathers and skins being worn by high-ranking individuals or exchanged between groups. Some were kept as pets as well, and could reportedly mimic words. After European colonization, the deforestation and introduction of invasive mammals (added to the invasive Pacific rats), in addition to overhunting for collections, seem to have been the main drivers of their decline. The last confirmed sighting happened in 1907, though credible reports persisted into the 1960s. With no sightings since, it seems as though the huia has succumbed to colonization.
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While the huia has left us, its spirit lives on in a number of ways. Most notably, the Maori elder Hēnare Hāmana had learned to whistle the huia's call in his youth, and was recorded performing the call in 1909, allowing us to preserve the song of an extinct bird.
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The film "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" briefly features a modern-day sighting of a huia by the main characters. A sculpture in Te Papaioea commemorates the lost bird. The huia was a very culturally prominent bird, so it continues to live on with the culture of Aotearoa.
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siberiantrap · 2 days
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#<3
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siberiantrap · 2 days
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“Butches who desire other butches are difficult to theorize in accordance with traditional lesbian imagery for writers like Rubin, Brown, and others, because the numerous social restrictions on acceptable forms of desire make it hard to come to grips with something as multiply transgressive as the butch who desires other butches. Two female bodies having sex violates the myth of “natural” heterosexuality, female bodies in men’s clothing violates gender restrictions, and female bodies in (or out of) men’s clothing having sex with each other constitutes a triple whammy. The butch-butch couple confounds all of these conventions, which is why butch-butch makes even some lesbians uncomfortable. Trish Thomas describes what can happen when a butch pursues another butch: “She wonders if I’ve mistaken her for femme…. She becomes concerned that she’s throwing off femme vibes without even knowing it…. And suddenly she gets this overwhelming urge to arm wrestle” (22). Butch-butch sexuality is constantly being assimilated back into familiar categories, as with the butch who worries Thomas must be picking up “femme vibes” or Brown’s description of butches having sex with other butches as “faggots.” Despite such overwhelming conceptual resistance, butches, unconcerned with theoretical disputes, continue to desire other butches. Look down Castro Street any Saturday evening, and you are likely to notice a number of butch couples strolling by. Visit a chic lesbian bar in San Francisco, and you are apt to see two leather-jacketed, buzz-cut young women clinging to each other on the dance floor-and they will be far from alone”
— Inness, Sherrie A., and Michele Lloyd. “‘G.I. Joes in Barbie Land’: Recontextualizing Butch in Twentieth-Century Lesbian Culture.” 
#<3
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siberiantrap · 2 days
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Find out how many and what kind of migratory birds flew over your county last night
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siberiantrap · 2 days
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at least there are pansies and fairies and faggots and dykes and transsexuals on this earth. thank god.
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siberiantrap · 2 days
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they should do emmys for gifs
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siberiantrap · 3 days
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seeing birds with their heads between their wings makes me so so so sooooo joyful... all tucked in for beddy bye
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siberiantrap · 3 days
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I am very religious; I believe in the Tiny Trinity: The Neelid, The Baeus, and The Neonella Camillae
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siberiantrap · 4 days
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siberiantrap · 4 days
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I met a girl in camp once who was wearing very fancy blue socks with red octopuses on them that matched her curly red hair, so I complimented her outfit and she was like "hold the fuck on" and proceeded to roll up her pant leg and show me that she had a massive matching octopus TATTOO on her leg and then I asked her what she did for a living and she said she's a marine biologist and I was sitting there like. Of fucking course you are
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siberiantrap · 4 days
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shirt that says “THIS WAS WETLAND ONCE AND IT WILL BE WETLAND AGAIN”
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siberiantrap · 4 days
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Autistic butch lesbian covering up how they feel call that mascing
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siberiantrap · 5 days
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man up = misogynistic, patriarchal, overdone
woman up = trite, pacifying, almost condescending
butch up = now we’re cooking with gas
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siberiantrap · 5 days
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very cool but also kind of a dick move
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