A black bird sits atop the power pole near the highway, and I can hear its persistent call: quork … quork … quork. It’s a raven. What is this call, who is it to, what does it mean? I recently read Bernd Heinrich’s Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds, a superb read …
Month: October 2009
Afghanistan
Rory Stewart’s walk across Afghanistan three months after the Taliban’s exit from power is described in his book The Places in Between, an engrossing read that I devoured over a recent weekend. I agree with the Christian Science Monitor’s characterization of the book as “wryly humorous, intensely observant, and humanely unsentimental.” I am interested in …
Dogs at work
Whenever you put a herd of sheep into a set of pens or corrals to work them, that means that there are grumpy guard dogs hanging around outside the pens, and happy working herding dogs inside the pens. The photo above shows a young male dog trying to suck up to Vega, top dog.The photo …
Fall migration
Jim and I once again had the pleasure of being at the right place at the right time today, as part of the Sublette pronghorn antelope herd came through in its major fall migration. This bunch had just swam the New Fork River, and came through the meadow next to our sheep herd. The burros …
Shipping lambs
I helped ship several thousand lambs off Sublette Flat one morning this week. The day began with the trucks arriving at daylight. The lamb and ewe flock enter the corrals. Having ewes in the herd helps to keep the lambs calm while they are handled.The herd is pushed up the sorting chute to the cutting …
Counting sheep
So how do you count several thousand lambs? You put the herd onto one side of a corral, with a line of men standing in front of them to hold them there. The counters stand in the middle of the line, and step back a little as the men on the ends take a step …
Old friends
We shipped lambs this week, and I was pleased to see that two of the Aziat (Central Asian Ovcharka) pups I raised were with the lamb herd. Our bearded collie, Abe, had sat in the truck all morning as we loaded lambs, staying out of the way of unfamiliar dogs, people and big trucks. As …
What a difference a day makes
I took this photo of Luv’s Girl on Saturday afternoon. I like the conveyance of texture in the photo. But yesterday afternoon, the weather changed. Here’s the view from the same meadow this morning:While none of our animals are even slightly bothered by the snow, this little mourning dove seemed peeved with being wet:This prairie …
We all have weird friends
Many of our ewes seem to enjoy the birds that co-exist with the herd, from small songbirds to cowbirds and magpies. Not all of the ewes will let the magpies use their heads as perches, but some do.
Happy October
We’ve entered my favorite month. Happy October to everyone.