Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[Akrnaf2]

Donald duck?

You do realize Benny...that Donald is a BOY? This is Donald Duck...

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Mighten try DAISY Duck perhaps...

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Girl ducks are the ones that produce the EGGS...boys do help in other aspects (this being a family friendly forum and all, we stop here), like the survival of the species but girl ducks (hens) do NOT require the presence of the boy ducks (drakes) in order to produce eggs. So no, Donald Duck is not a good guess...I shall IGNORE that outburst and focus on your other guesses....

Chinese mandarin? Wood duck?

OK...ignoring the first response on Donald... You are quite correct on your first TRUE guess. The Mandarin (Aix galericulata) is a wild perching duck originally from East Asia. There are escaped wild populations in North America and other places like England. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...r-aix-galericulata-mandarin-ducks-mega-photos Rick built me my last poultry building and we call it the Taj Mahal...this is where we keep the Mandarin duck ducks.

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May 26, 2016​

We have since put a limerock perimeter around the building...and an assortment of concrete dragon & Foo Dog ornaments, amongst other silly decorations.

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Oct 14 2015 - Mandarin Drakes​

(for Benny...these are the BOY ducks...the Donalds...so NO EGGS from the drakes!) ​

The closely related Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) is an excellent second guess but because we would require a permit to keep Wood Ducks, we chose not to keep any of the species of waterfowl that reside at our location. Love the Teals, the Goldeneye, Pintails, etc... I doubt if I had a Avian permit I could control myself and would be soon overrun with all the pretty fancy, smancy species of North American wild ducks. Oh my...so pretty!

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The past two years (in a row now)...the Mandarin ducks have decided to begin laying eggs at ridiculous (to me at least!) times of the year. We have seen the ducks successfully raise ducklings, but more in tune with when the Wild Wood Ducks hatch their babes...lay eggs in May, hatch them in June...sensible timing for when the food supplies and weather is good. We have two types of nests for the Mandarins...

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The stump nest and the box nests

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See the Mommy duck coming out of the nest box in the background? ​

The hens lay eggs in both kinds of nests...so both are DUCK approved!

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You give the birds all they need to feel at home...the wild ones need special attentions like the next boxes, but pretty much the same old, same old whatever duck species you are wanting to have raise babies.

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May 12 2012...inside a nest box of ours...the hen begins to tear out the down feathers on her chest and begins to cover her clutch when she is getting ready to begin incubating them. Above is the down covered egg clutch and below...me holding up the big mess of down feathers.

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Right now, it is not spring, no where NEAR spring time and even if the eggs did not split in these frigid conditions (I can collect up new laid eggs and stow them away in the garage where they will not freeze), the hen laying eggs now (she does not begin to sit on them until she has a number of eggs in her clutch and then she decides to begin to set or SIT on them to begin incubation...so all ducklings hatch round about the same time!) would be hatching out ducklings DOOMED to not survive very well. Sure, sure I set up lovely accommodations FOR raising their brood...but not capable of that in winter.

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July 5, 2013 - NOW this is the right time to have ducklings...JULY and JUNE​

Not February!!!​

With the wild species, always best to let the parents raise the ducklings...they do a better job of it. Some want to incubate the ducklings and then it is often hard to get the hatchlings to even begin to eat. Some say one must "drop" a duckling in the Mandarin or Wood duck species...this dropping (a few feet will do yah) incites the duckling to begin eating...because they are hatched in a tree nest, way up in a tree (safe from many of the predators that love to eat ducks!), until they "fall to the ground" out of the nest in the tree, they do not feel the need to EAT.

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Baby Mandarins, just hatched in one of our nests ​

Baby Mandarin has climbed up the inside of its nest and about to LEAP...

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PEEK A BOO! We see you! ​

The little ducks leap and bounce...in the wild, sometimes the hens choose a thirty foot drop...and hopefully, the duckling drops and hits a nice thick litter of forest debris...gravity has not alot to beat up...the ducklings are small and light...the concept I guess Nature wanted was tiny bird bounces...not crashes to the ground at high velocity...BOUNCES!

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We knew the Mandarins would fare pretty well, favourably IF the hens chose to have egg laying start when other wild ducks do here...May for eggs, incubate for June and have juveniles for July...all good. Not FEBRUARY! Cripers... I think some of the triggers is the light...we are getting longer days now since winter solstice (Dec 21), but not that much light and certainly, -36C (-32F) that we had this week, fairly ridiculous in my mindset!

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June 11, 2012 - Mandarin eggs pipping​

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I do not mess much with the wild ducks and their hatching goings on...leave them alone, less stress, less likely to kill them...by pestering them! You see the eggs pipping...you get the place ready for the babies....

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June 12, 2012 - Got the set up for baby Mandarins...food, water, grit, hard boiled egg yolk​

Somehow, having babies when the season is right...just makes it a whole lot easier...go figure!

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June 23 2013 - The pair raising their brood​

Heat lamp hung (yes, even end of June, can get cold at night), hard boiled egg yolk, duck starter, grit, water with marbles (to ensure no ducklings drown!)...yeh, let the Mom and Dad help those babies thrive!

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We use have some wild Wood Ducks living on our property before we cleared it out!

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Wood Duck nesting site​

This is a poplar tree and the top has rotted off the nest. I do still hear the whistling of Wood Ducks in the spring time and I have seen a mother and her new hatched ducklings scrambling for the cover of the local river...pretty amazing to see this as you have to understand...she takes her brood only once to water...hatch, out of the tree nest and march to water. Doggone & Chicken UP! Tara Lee Higgins Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada Edit - Not sure where Don went?? Loaded the photo of him back up!!

Yes I KNOW that Donald is a boy! I am a well educated zoologist, as you know! Donald can say thst the egg is his egg EVEN if Daisy laid it! The firs stage of a biff wellington I am using a 2 kilo sirloin insted of a Filet mignon I couldn't find a good one , and instead of Ham, from obvious reasons I use smoked goose brest, and a very nice mushroom duxelle!

 

[CanuckBock]

Yes I KNOW that Donald is a boy! I am a well educated zoologist, as you know!

Donald can say thst the egg is his egg EVEN if Daisy laid it!

The firs stage of a biff wellington
I am using a 2 kilo sirloin insted of a Filet mignon I couldn't find a good one , and instead of Ham, from obvious reasons

I use smoked goose brest, and a very nice mushroom duxelle!

Hee hee...I knew I could bother, bother you!

OK...as a zoologist and although ENGLISH is not your first language...I have a zoologist type question...

Fixins and the Ruddy pair​

Rick bought a pair of these waterfowl because they are the same RED colour as many of our ACD dogs and he loved how very sure they are of themselves. They can be quite savage and many are able to kill geese much larger than themselves. One lady let her male get in with a goose of hers and she had to separate the male OFF the goose...he was hanging off the throat of her much larger gander...looking like this orange red feather duster! Ours are not that nasty but we usually keep them to themselves...watching them carefully if we have other birds around them.

Look what pair is eating the romaine lettuce FIRST...
Even the swan pairs won't POKE the Ruddies!

What would be a proper more common name to use for the Ruddy Shels we have?

The Latin name is Tadorna ferruginea (named by Russian zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764), Subfamily Tadorninae and Genus Tadorna. This species belongs to the duck, goose, and swan Family (Anatidae).


I am looking for a common name like when we say, this is a chicken, peafowl, turkey, pheasant, quail, partridge... Latin is the language of the DEAD and like in genetics (a"t"/a"y"), these over the top strange names scare persons though I am betting they do not scare the likes of you!!

Ruddies are only something to be scared of if you are a duck or a goose, but not a person! LOL

No eggs from them yet...they are a burrowing nest bird
Most often in the side of a river bank but sometimes in tree hollows just like the Mandies or Woodies do

India calls them the Brahminy duck.

The female has the white markings on her head ​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruddy_shelduck

You can find references to them as Ruddy ShelDUCKS and Ruddy ShelGEESE....there are other kinds like the Common Shel (Tadorna tadorna) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_shelduck and the Paradise (Tadorna variegata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_shelduck


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelduck:
Oh yes, nothing makes me frustrated more than to say, "This is a duck-like waterfowl species such as the geese and swans." Wanna hear my take...I call...

LAME DUCK

The Ruddy male's speculum feathers are magnificent!​

What I WANT (and likely won't GET!) is a more common name to use for this intermediate waterfowl between the DUCK and the GOOSE.

I have suggested in the past a common name of

GUCK

DOOSE​

But neither name truly works. What is a common label for a waterfowl that is not a duck and not a goose?

I am betting I won't win a proper answer...but the beginnings to your Beef Wellington sure looks marvelous...

So you need to set your table for two more invading GUESTS (Rick & I) and perhaps two bowls on the floor to clean up any leftovers (Emmy and Lacy too). How's that for being RUDE...looks like you are serving alot of guests so four dinner guests more won't be noticed...too much.

Tara

 

[Akrnaf2]

Yes I KNOW that Donald is a boy! I am a well educated zoologist, as you know! Donald can say thst the egg is his egg EVEN if Daisy laid it! The firs stage of a biff wellington I am using a 2 kilo sirloin insted of a Filet mignon I couldn't find a good one , and instead of Ham, from obvious reasons I use smoked goose brest, and a very nice mushroom duxelle!

Hee hee...I knew I could bother, bother you! OK...as a zoologist and although ENGLISH is not your first language...I have a zoologist type question...

​

Fixins and the Ruddy pair​

Rick bought a pair of these waterfowl because they are the same RED colour as many of our ACD dogs and he loved how very sure they are of themselves. They can be quite savage and many are able to kill geese much larger than themselves. One lady let her male get in with a goose of hers and she had to separate the male OFF the goose...he was hanging off the throat of her much larger gander...looking like this orange red feather duster! Ours are not that nasty but we usually keep them to themselves...watching them carefully if we have other birds around them.

​

Look what pair is eating the romaine lettuce FIRST...​

Even the swan pairs won't POKE the Ruddies! ​

What would be a proper more common name to use for the Ruddy Shels we have? The Latin name is Tadorna ferruginea (named by Russian zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764), Subfamily Tadorninae and Genus Tadorna. This species belongs to the duck, goose, and swan Family (Anatidae). I am looking for a common name like when we say, this is a chicken, peafowl, turkey, pheasant, quail, partridge... Latin is the language of the DEAD and like in genetics (a"t"/a"y"), these over the top strange names scare persons though I am betting they do not scare the likes of you!! Ruddies are only something to be scared of if you are a duck or a goose, but not a person! LOL

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No eggs from them yet...they are a burrowing nest bird​

Most often in the side of a river bank but sometimes in tree hollows just like the Mandies or Woodies do ​

India calls them the Brahminy duck.

​

The female has the white markings on her head​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruddy_shelduck You can find references to them as Ruddy ShelDUCKS and Ruddy ShelGEESE....there are other kinds like the Common Shel (Tadorna tadorna) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_shelduck and the Paradise (Tadorna variegata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_shelduck

The shelducks, genus Tadorna, are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans.

Oh yes, nothing makes me frustrated more than to say, "This is a duck-like waterfowl species such as the geese and swans." Wanna hear my take...I call...

LAME DUCK ​

​

The Ruddy male's speculum feathers are magnificent!​

What I WANT (and likely won't GET!) is a more common name to use for this intermediate waterfowl between the DUCK and the GOOSE. I have suggested in the past a common name of

GUCK​

DOOSE​

But neither name truly works. What is a common label for a waterfowl that is not a duck and not a goose? I am betting I won't win a proper answer...but the beginnings to your Beef Wellington sure looks marvelous...

​

So you need to set your table for two more invading GUESTS (Rick & I) and perhaps two bowls on the floor to clean up any leftovers (Emmy and Lacy too). How's that for being RUDE...looks like you are serving alot of guests so four dinner guests more won't be noticed...too much. Tara

Dear Tara you are most welcomed! We have a species of that genus here

See more http://www.birds.org.il/he/species-page.aspx?speciesId=16 No problem with the name It isn't a duck and it isn't a goose it is a Shelduck! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelduck This word came from ancient Celtic meaning: bound, hog-tied duck!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Quote:

Now I get the shelDUCK part...but when you investigate it further...you see often a combination used and it gets confusing...Shelducks and Sheldgeese. I have struggled with that for some time now. I think I finally GET IT though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadorninae:
What I get unhappy about is that the common name Shelduck is lost to the concept that the Ruddies are BOTH ducks and geese and then not either one too.

Do note...above quote...that the Mandarin is lumped in with the Wood Duck (Aix)...and the words that "may belong to Tadominae"...is it still that we humans do not KNOW where some of these species came from? I thought the Mitochondrial DNA (the female part in cells) helped us humans, without a doubt categorize species into their KNOWN groups? What species descended from what ancestors...that sort of thing...I guess we are not as advanced in this science as I thought??

Quite often I see the Shelduck-sheldgoose term used and to me, that's too long a WORD to use frequently....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadorninae:
An intermediate between the two species. Not a goose, not a duck...intermediate but for me to call them something besides the Latin name...I am happy that Shelducks will work for that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadorninae:

SystematicsEdit
The genus name comes from the French name Tadorne for the common shelduck.[3] It may originally derive from Celtic roots meaning "pied waterfowl", essentially the same as the English "shelduck".[4]

The namesake genus of the Tadorninae, Tadorna is very close to the Egyptian goose and its extinct relatives from the Madagascar region, Alopochen. While the classical shelducks form a group that is obviously monophyletic, the interrelationships of these, the aberrant common and especially raja shelducks, and the Egyptian goose were found to be poorly resolved by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data;[5] this genus may thus be paraphyletic.

• Ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea)
• South African shelduck (Tadorna cana)
• Australian shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides)
• Paradise shelduck (Tadorna variegata)
• Crested shelduck (Tadorna cristata) - possibly extinct (late 20th century?)
• Common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna)
• Raja shelduck (Tadorna radjah)

Fossil bones from Dorkovo (Bulgaria) described as Balcanas pliocaenica may actually belong to this genus. They have even been proposed to be referable to the common shelduck, but their Early Pliocene age makes this rather unlikely.

Which comes to a point where a few decades ago, I was told about this "Egyptian Goose" that to me, from the start, looked nothing like domesticated geese at all...and certainly they are not seen to be related to domesticated geese that all seem to stem from the greylag or swan goose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_goose:
I recall one lady had an Egyptian "goose" and told me how it loved to fly up to their bedroom window right at sunrise and loudly announce it was morning and time to get up and feed it. Yikes...if Rick or I do get a moment to sleep in...sure as heck I don't want some bird ruining that rare sleep in slothful time. NO Egyptian geese wanted here...the geese themselves in spring time are dang noisy enough...at 3 a.m. in the spring time, carrying a ruckus on and on...can't imagine a bird at the window screaming that I need to WAKE UP!

Domesticated DUCKS come from the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) or are Muscovies (Cairina moschata). Mandarins or our Ruddy's are not "domesticated" waterfowl.

My knickers get in a knot because I see this...exchanges of the words DUCK and GEESE in the with the "Shel(d)" prefix! I think I have finally found my definition...now I kinda know how to put a goose or a duck in its place...or there abouts.

http://www.waterfowl.org.uk/shelducks.html:
The ones they label GEESE are less aquatic and eat more vegetation that the DUCK version which when I think about it...

East Indie Ducks - 2008​

The ducks will eat mice quite happily (East Indies are great mousers) whereas our geese tend to ignore the mice. You'd have some awfully angry ducks if you let them out on the lawn and told them, "Have at it...that's all you get to eat!"

July 2010 - PROUD Buff Pied American goose parents and their goslings
During our Canadian GREEN season



July 14, 2013 - A gaggle of geese - One Buff Pied gander and Buff hen with their "goslings" near big as them!!​

Geese are more grazers but woe be it to someone that only lets them out on pasture without some feeding of grains or goose pelleted rations...we found our geese needed to top up after being out on their lawns. Even the wild ones will find fields of grain to fly to and top up after eating grass for the day. This is what we have observed anyway.

May 12, 2013 - Goslings attacking broccoli...poor broccolis! ​

June 10, 2013 - Same goose family...they grow up very quickly
if you think on it...wild waterfowl have to hatch in good weather and migrate in the fall



Getting the evil eye from Momma...I am treated like the "help" and I can get lost after serving their needs
"Go AWAY!"​

Ungrateful to the things I happen to show up and provide for them...you do have to admit that geese make the best parents...

Youngsters being taught by the gander
This male is a great listener to his children...​

Geese make excellent parents - this is the mother telling me to BACK OFF!

There's a gosling acting like his father ​

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Nothing more hilarious than watching the babies mimic the adults - tiny versions of hissy geese in the makings

Baby does not have the
WING feathers like his father yet, but you get the idea

Learning to run like a silly goosey loosey​

There are times here where I feel like I am running a ZOO...

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Watermelon in the background is for the Mandarins (they need pigments to put into their brilliant feathers), the romaine diced up for goslings, the hard boiled egg yolk mixed with waterfowl starter and yoghurt gives the goslings a good start (puts good bugs in their guts). Everything here gets to EAT, EAT, EAT!

There...goslings' meal is served...just ring the dinner BELL and get outta the way, eh!​

We don't often think about the egg's shells in the sense of how heavy that part is...meant to protect the contents (a potential baby bird) yet is still permeable to the environment...like how a Momma goose will go swimming to quickly get water on her feathers to go back and sit on her clutch...adding much need moisture to the hatching eggs. Why we are told to mist artificially incubated eggs...especially when they are hatching to help the babies get out of their prison...the egg shells can get dry, tough and hard to bust out of.

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The goose egg opened up was a total of 173.4 grams total weight with the shell being 23.4 grams and the contents was 150.0 grams.


So I had a "spare driver" drive for me when Rick had his operation--we were up at 3 a.m. and back at 7 p.m. a long day and I had chores before & afterwards to catch up on. A very rare occurrence for me not to drive. In the ten or so years I have been driving school bus (the cruel bus as Rick calls it!), I have taken maybe five working days off. Once when Makins passed, once to go to the States to pick up birds, once for surgery myself, and once for a Christmas party. So not too often at all. Kids tend to get complacent when you are there always and always. Makes you wonder if they would miss you if you were suddenly gone. I am old (and mean some say...hee hee...I enforce the bus rules and everyone knows to behave), so one day, I will not get up and drive the bus...hee hee...

Well, now I am wondering if it was the spare driver I got or...perhaps, with Valentines' Day coming up (we give out goodies, not food but fun treats to the kids on the bus...Rick takes me shopping and provides the money to buy lots of fun pencils, erasers, tattoo's etc. for the special occasions like St. Pats, Christmas, Easter, etc.) this is added insurance I will always supply goodies to the kids on the "special" days! Please remember the special day means the kids get some fun stuff...I am not sure who gets more of a charge outta the special days, me watching the wonderment of the kids or the kids themselves??

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I was quite pleasantly surprised...but again...how BAD was the ride the day the spare had? Wah wah wah...hee hee...

Which reminds me, I need to get two special grab bags done up for the two kindergarten kids that are not actually riding on Valentine's day...

Rick got the box rails and headache rack installed on The Blue Babe...the running boards made special for the truck don't fit right (about 3 or 4 inches too short!)...so those have been re-ordered. Seat covers, floor mats and mud flaps are ordered. He also listened to his wife. I insisted that he be SEEN...so he also had an LED strip put under the tailgate which runs according to this signal, brake and reverse movements. I followed him out today and noted...he can be SEEN...so I am most happy. No clicks of the additions yet to The Blue Babe...but I will do that later on.

Got yet more things to do, later, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Akrnaf2]

Dear Tara
You fell to the oldest trap in Biology!
We Humans due to our CNS aka the scull Brains love to categories and put EVERYTHING in very tide and order boxes especially the natural world. BUT the natural world is not ordered in distinctive groops it is more like a SPECTRUM with a lot of intermediate specimen that ca belong to some categories! The Euglena is one that between animals and plants
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglena
The most amazing are viruses, they are between inanimate and living things!

The remaining of the BWl.
It was fantastic!

 

[CanuckBock]

Dear Tara
You fell to the oldest trap in Biology!
We Humans due to our CNS aka the scull Brains love to categories and put EVERYTHING in very tide and order boxes especially the natural world. BUT the natural world is not ordered in distinctive groops it is more like a SPECTRUM with a lot of intermediate specimen that ca belong to some categories! The Euglena is one that between animals and plants
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglena
The most amazing are viruses, they are between inanimate and living things!

The remaining of the BWl.
It was fantastic!

Yes, we humans want tidy and orderly...everything goes in its place...I should know better as I am forever the square peg trying to fit myself in the round hole and wondering what is wrong with me?

Our Ruddy Shelducks will have to be...just them I guess... Far too often we want to fit things into specific spaces and predict their behaviours. Like are the Ruddy Shelducks going to beat up other birds or get along. Ours happen to get along but I will not trust them completely, so they do get their own space when not supervised... We like their forward attitudes but not at the expense of other animals here.


The one cell Amoeba...I think I have used that phrase in the past.

Your dinner looked delicious (no doubt in mind it would!). With that amount left over...Rick, I and the dogs would have had more than enough supper! LOL

Another question for you.

If birds have the female determine gender, unlike in mammals where the male decides gender...how does that play out with Mitochondrial DNA? One may only inherit Mitochondrial DNA from your mother. Is this the same in birds (reptiles and some fish) then? Humans are suppose to use Mitochondrial DNA to understand how related certain species are to each other. Maybe this explains why we currently do not know exactly where to place certain bird species in our human wanted groupings?

I guess I will never stop wanting to put "things" in their proper places. I want answers that are yes or no, never maybe...colours that are black or white, never grey. On or off...not intermediate. I even had the faint hope that becoming an accountant meant that 1 + 1 = 2...and that was never the right answer either!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Tara, the mitochondria, the chloroplasts in plant and green Alga, have DNA which is very like the Dna of Microbs! In fact the Animals, plants, fungi, and protista kingdom cells ( euchariotic ) are basically colony of primitive bacteria leaving in obligatoric Symbiosis!!

Read this!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis

Tara in some reptiles the incubation temp decide the sex, in some fish the age, they born as males and after a year or so they become females, in some Agama species the social position determine the sex, ect.
The mitochondrial DNA came only from the mother because in the fertilization the egg, that is enormous camper yo the sperm is giving the haploid nucleus AND the cytoplasm while the sperm donation is only a haploid nucleus with no cytoplasm =no male mitochondria.

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara, the mitochondria, the chloroplasts in plant and green Alga, have DNA which is very like the Dna of Microbs! In fact the Animals, plants, fungi, and protista kingdom cells ( euchariotic ) are basically colony of primitive bacteria leaving in obligatoric Symbiosis!!

Read this!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis

Very much enjoyed the link to symbiogenesis...sure is alot of unknowns and different theories but I did come away all warm and fuzzy over the comment below...

Tara in some reptiles the incubation temp decide the sex, in some fish the age, they born as males and after a year or so they become females, in some Agama species the social position determine the sex, ect.
The mitochondrial DNA came only from the mother because in the fertilization the egg, that is enormous camper yo the sperm is giving the haploid nucleus AND the cytoplasm while the sperm donation is only a haploid nucleus with no cytoplasm =no male mitochondria.

I have read and watched programs about the temperature deciding gender...that some reptiles dig or cover up their buried eggs to adjust the temperature their eggs are incubating at...so like that begs the question....what gender does the mother WANT? LOL

There are years here with I will have 3 females to 1 male hatch out when logically in our very HUMAN expectations...you think 50/50 for both genders...HA! The girl birds decide what they want to decide.

From some of the unhospitable environments here on Earth and other planets...I have grown to get the impression that LIFE is not something delicate that is a miracle in that it happens...that LIFE is something doomed to happen...more or less. Creatures alive in environments without air, or water, in caustic environments like acid. LIFE wants to live and woe be it to anything stopping that.

Not so much are their other living beings out there in the Universe...more like when are we humans going to wake up and realize...we are not alone on Mother Earth, eh!

The way you have explained the mitochondria being in the EGG, that makes it alot simpler to understand...thank you for sharing your great wisdom...no gift better than giving knowledge!

So I truly do live in a wonderful world here...to me, it is always just like paradise on Earth.

Set the scene for you...Sunday evening...Rick and I have worked our butts off playing--way too much playing! It is warm out, lots of things needing doing...like always...never dull here...exhausted, sure, no energy, sure...that be the same old, same old too.

Beginnings of the Mt. St. Higgins range
No where near as large as in 2014...which completely melted in June of 2015

So Rick has cleared away a bunch of snow (yes, I am watching him like a hawk and telling him constantly..."Time to quit...you are suppose to be RESTING!" Ha ha ha...bad man that one!)...we have run the three dogs, Foamy is away in her crate in the garage for the night...one last thing for me to go do down at the Ewe barn...so I take the two young girls, Emmy and Lacy.

Emmy peering down upon Lacy from atop the sandpile...ready to POUNCE!!​

I am tired...it has been a constant game of catch up (not!) here. Wood box gets emptied faster than I can fill it with firewood, hay eaten long before I figure more should be brought out, water needs changing, feed needs mixing and top up's...never bored, never a dull moment. Conditions I tend to thrive in. Life has a purpose and too bad I am only human and weak.

The ewes take great pleasure in watching the silly girl dogs go up and down the sandpile ​

So I am down at the Ewe Barn...all six Dorper girls, come to the fence on mass for cheek scratches. I am pretty proud of the girls.

Decor - stretching her neck for cheek scratches..."MORE PLEASE!"​

Every one of them is what we wanted...friendly, boisterous, happy and endearing. I truly do love them for being them. It makes chores lighter to see such happy creatures benefitting.

Even Boss Man...sweetness encaptured!
Never EVER trust an intact male, but he is sure a Sweety!

"Hi there...I need more hay, eh!"​

It is warm, really truly warm for February in Alberta. So I sit after scratching faces on the sheep....and there come the dogs. Emmy is infatuated that Dad has clearer away the snow (helps spring not be so dang MUDDY too). She can do a million miles an hour and she is doing that full out run like silliness. She's had her regular dog run runs tonight but there is often a time after exercise where you hit that euphoric brilliant moment where you feel like you could run like a Gazelle...fly like a swallow...that euphoric state called a "runner's high."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-brain-effects-behind-runner-s-high/:

Getting ready so Rick can bring the tractor down and move the one core
of Alfalfa out to the Ram pasture...me I move the core on the far left for taking there too​

Yes, I will never get all caught up...always something to do but if'n during rest times...I can witness such over the top silliness...I shall want to live here FOREVER!

"Yeh, yeh, you're tired...we get it...but toss this toy first!"​

Here on my own dirt, in a place that Rick and I created. All the tiredness and lack of energy it disappears. You feel yourself happy, joyous to the very core. Now that is what every evening should bring one.

Not battling the commute home, not navigating crowds of people, not worrying about anything at all but sucking in the moments...seeing the peaceful joy, happy boundless movements and all the things that plaster one heck of a silly grin across your mug.

"Lacy checking on me...you getting all this?"​

Because if not for the chance happening of going down to the sheep barn, I might have missed out on some of the magic. Magic that happens whether or not I, the human, am there to witness it or not. If a tree falls in the forest, eh??

Witness it and revel in it.

Rick is very happy...not only make progress on outfitting the work truck (I finally sat in it and went for a drive...a whole week after it was brought home).

​

Boxrails, headache wrack, the beacon protector and beacon
Tomorrow she gets her running boards
Reordered because the company that built them, built them too short ​

What makes Rick the happiest...same things as I. The Ruffled Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are back.

​

On and off again we see them...sometimes one, sometimes three. Last year we quite often saw a mother and four adult babies. Then a male joined them closer to spring and we got to witness the male drumming...was magical indeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffed_grouse:

The ruffs are on the sides of the neck in both sexes. They also have a crest on top of their head, which sometimes lies flat. Both genders are similarly marked and sized, making them difficult to tell apart, even in hand. The female often has a broken subterminal tail band, while males tend to have unbroken tail bands, though the opposite of either can occur. Females may also do a display similar to the male. Another fairly accurate sign is that rump feathers with a single white dot indicate a female; rump feathers with more than one white dot indicate a male.

So I left the dogs contained and grabbed my camera and snuck around the garage, thundering big lady munching and crunching thru the deep snow.

"I HEAR YOU! Crashing about's!"​

Sneak up...hardly I expect...my intentions were good but physically, not so good at implementation. So I crunched and munched along...sneaking up on nobody. I clicked and clicked...some photos focussed on the trees they were in front of...but some, turned out rather swell. I figure this one...is worthy of a painting even.

​

The moss or lichen on the rocks is a wonderful compliment to the colouration on the Ruffed Grouse...how more perfect is this?

Rick "thought" perhaps they had moved on, but I knew better. Sometimes they make tunnels under the snow and I spotted one under the main bird feeder, burrowed indeed, down to the millet seed and was horking out on the FREE SEED. Brats indeed.

Fat and sassy, waddling away to join the others in the Spruce branches​

I love when the wilds come in close to our place...the Snowshoe Hares (Lepus americanus), all our winter time resident birds like the Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), the Jays (Perisoreus canadensis), the Nuthatchs (Sittidae), amongst others like the owls (Strigiformes).


Tis Valentines Day today...hug yer Sweeties, eh!

Stickers, temporary tattoos, pencils, eraser ring, pencil sharpener, pinball toy, slinky heart, bubbles, glow stick on a neck cord...
All to be put in a pretty Valentine decorated bag...those little fingers fumble and this ensures no treasures are dropped ​

The kids on the bus got a big send off treat time...nine stations, lots of goodies to choose from. Rick says I am the BIGGEST KID on the bus and indeed...he sure is right!

The tail of Em, wrapped around Lace ("If I go down, so shall YOU too!")...how hilarious is THAT??

Some captured views for the dog fans.

Lacy


Styra Foamers​

Emmy​

Bow wow!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[scottcaddy]

Very nice update, Thanks Much!!
Scott

 

[Akrnaf2]

Tara shalom
About what the mother "want" in an evolutionary point of vew the best are males! lol and that is because that males investment in the offspring is negligible (a sperm cell) compared to the female investment. ( a big cell, oocyte,gestation and offspring treatment (in some species )), but the reward is exactly the same, 50% of the nucleus genes transferred.
So in that point of view all mother would prefer that 100% of offspring will be males, so they could copy their genome faster and to more offsprings.
But in this situation the females will be very rare and not all males could mate, only the most fitted will pas their genes, so the scale now turns towards feamas!
So in between the vector that pulls towards male ( more efficient in spreading genes) and the opposite vector that pulls towards females (getting the best males genes around ) the equilibrium point is found in the 50/50 point!