{"id":35449,"date":"2019-05-21T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/05\/21\/cannabis-on-the-wings-of-a-bird\/"},"modified":"2019-05-21T12:49:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T20:49:25","slug":"cannabis-on-the-wings-of-a-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/05\/21\/cannabis-on-the-wings-of-a-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis on the Wings of a Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Immediate apologies to all magical dreamers, but the
\ndelicate hummingbirds flying near the flowering outdoor cannabis in Jeff
\nScheetz\u2019s photographs are not attracted to the plants. Instead, Scheetz
\ncaptures these tiny creatures after hours of observation, armed with a
\nhummingbird feeder, a comfortable chair and a wildflower patch near the
\ncannabis grow at his home in Northern California.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes years of trial and error and tons of patience,\u201d Scheetz says of the process behind his hummingbird and cannabis series.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Scheetz, also known as DoobieDuck<\/a>, was an avid hunter and big game guide before chronic pain<\/a> associated with three major spinal surgeries forced him to find his passion closer to home. Nowadays, he sets out to photograph the tiny hovering birds, but admits he\u2019s lost more than a few shots by dozing off in his chair during a two-hour session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set up a tripod with a remote shutter release connected
\nto the camera and manually focus my lens on a single small area where I\u2019d like
\nto capture the bird as it hovers or flies by,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I wait! When I
\njudge them to be in that exact area, I close the shutter. Keep in mind if you
\nare going to try this: They are fast and furious. It is difficult. The wait can
\nbe hours and the images can be far from good or in focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheetz\u2019s images combine cannabis photography with wildlife photography and, in this way, help bring the art of documenting marijuana out of underground culture and into more conventional conversations. But the melding of cannabis and birds wasn\u2019t Scheetz\u2019s invention. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Academic research shows birds may have been one of the key factors towards spreading the plant around the world, as they carried cannabis seeds to other continents through their droppings. In addition, hemp seed was once commonly used as wild birdseed before hemp \u2014 a type of cannabis that\u2019s defined<\/a> as having less than 0.3 percent of marijuana\u2019s main psychoactive cannabinoid THC \u2014 became illegal to grow in the U.S. in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

So, while it\u2019s true that the hummingbirds Scheetz
\nphotographs in motion near equally beautiful cannabis flowers aren\u2019t seeking
\nout the plant directly, the images stand as part of a long history of the
\nspecial relationship between cannabis and birds.<\/p>\n

Wings of Desire<\/h4>\n

Robert Clarke and Mark Merlin, in their book<\/a> \u201cCannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany,\u201d explain that cannabis and birds first cross paths in Taoist literature dating back to the fourth century BCE. In an ancient Taoist legend, a deity named Ma Gu \u2014 which translates to \u201cAuntie Hemp,\u201d \u201cHemp Damsel\u201d or \u201cHemp Lady\u201d \u2014 was associated with the elixir of life and the protector of females, and was said to have \u201chands that looked like the claws of a bird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Hemp has been cultivated in China for millennia as fiber,
\nfood and medicine. Not accidentally, according to Clark and Merlin\u2019s book, Ma
\nGu is also the goddess of the Chinese mountain Tai Shan, which is located near
\nthe present-day, hemp-producing cities of Dong Ping and Laiwu. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday, its slopes support populations of feral hemp said to
\nresult from pilgrims tossing hemp seed from the summit while asking Ma Gu for
\nhealth and longevity,\u201d the book reads.<\/p>\n

Because of Ma Gu\u2019s birdlike claws, she is also associated with sparrows, considered \u201carchaic shamanic spirit helpers called m\u00e1 niao or \u2018hemp bird,\u2019 because they feed on hemp seeds,\u201d the book explains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Sparrows are also important in the history of hemp because
\nthey are one of the species of bird identified with carrying hemp seeds through
\ntheir digestive tracts from one area to another.<\/p>\n

The book reads: \u201cThese references regarding the dispersal of
\nseeds by birds raise the possibility that long-range avian transport carried
\ncannabis out of Central Asia into Europe, China and South Asia prior to human
\ndispersal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemp: The Devil\u2019s Birdseed<\/h4>\n

The connections between birds and cannabis continue to the modern era, primarily through the use of hemp seeds in birdseed. According to the book<\/a> \u201cFeeding Wild Birds in America,\u201d hemp seed was a popular feed for pet birds in the late 1800s and early 1900s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWidely available at feed and grain stores, [hemp] was quickly adopted by wild bird feeding proponents and became an ingredient of wild birdseed mixes,\u201d the book explains. \u201cBird-feeding literature through the middle of the 20th century extolled the goodness of feeding hemp and even growing it for wild birds. Then, the mention of the seed nearly disappeared from the literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The book explains that hemp seed was valued for both its nutritional value, but also for the fact that it was easy to acquire. All that changed when the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 declared all cannabis varieties, including hemp, illegal as a Schedule I substance<\/a>. With the 2018 Farm Bill, industrial hemp has once again been legalized and looks to be regulated like an agricultural commodity rather than a controlled substance. This might mean that hemp seeds could find their way back into the hearts and minds of bird watchers and nature lovers in the near future.<\/p>\n

DoobieDuck\u2019s Domain<\/h4>\n

Scheetz, who is now 64, started his career as a photographer after taking a class in high school and says he got his name from friends because he was an avid duck hunter who smoked doobies. When he sets out to take a hummingbird image, he captures as many as 200 shots in a two-hour period and then looks for something \u201ctruly unique or special with just the right flicker of lighting and good focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

\u201cI love all types of photography and wildlife photography is
\nmy favorite,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter becoming disabled in 1996, I could no longer
\ntravel to the areas I needed to in order to shoot wildlife, so my wife and I
\nfound a rural area with wildlife in it. I found I could capture cannabis buds
\nand flowers, macro cannabis images and the hummingbirds around my home at my
\nown pace. We see mule deer, foxes, birds of prey and many more animals from our
\nfront windows daily \u2014 and a gorgeous sunset or sunrise always gets me up from
\nmy chair to break out the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perched in his Northern California garden, Scheetz has
\nbecome just another animal in his habitat, both attracted to the beauty around
\nhim and contributing to its bounty \u2014 in his case, by continuing to foster the
\nconnection between birds and weed.<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, how do you incorporate cannabis into your hobbies? <\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 36 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Cannabis on the Wings of a Bird<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: Cannabis on the Wings of a Bird<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immediate apologies to all magical dreamers, but the delicate hummingbirds flying near the flowering outdoor cannabis in Jeff Scheetz\u2019s photographs are not attracted to the plants. Instead, Scheetz captures these tiny creatures after hours of observation, armed with a hummingbird feeder, a comfortable chair and a wildflower patch near theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":35450,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,2135,6513,689,99,10029,296,85,9548,10030,1156,10031],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35451,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35449\/revisions\/35451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}