sweasel.com

cute lil’ guys!

A bit like bucking broncos. . .and the head-butting is adorable.

Mmmmmmmm…….lamb!

It’s my considered opion that these sheep are labourin’ under the misaprehension that theyr’e birds. / Monty Python off.

We don’t know (not being sheep farmers ourselves) whether the butting means they’re male, or if ewes butt, too. I think I’ve seen ewes get into minor ewe fights.

When the rams go at it — yow! I made the mistake of dropping some grass cuttings over the fence one day. The sounds of skull against skull was like hitting a log with a baseball bat.

If you watch closely, one of the two is dominant. He backs the other one up, and he’s the one that hops backwards a few feet so he can get a little momentum in his last head-butt.

These will be twins; they don’t all mix together in a happy lamb flock until they’re a little older.

WOW!! LOOK AT HIM! HE LOOKS DELICIOUS!!!

/Eric Cartman

😉

Seriously though, it’s fun getting to watch a birth….

There is a word for it. It is called pronking.
pronk – jump straight up; “kangaroos pronk”

Its also known as “Stotting”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting.

Whilst hunting deer, mostly high plains Mule deer, I witness the behaviour as the deer attempt to gather as much visual information as possible.

AND….I lurves me some spring lamb, range fed and wild tasty.

A lot of people around where I live raise lamb. This part of the Shenandoah Valley is too rocky for crops, so it’s cattle — cows, lambs, goats, someone has a herd of alpaca or llamas or something around here… And once I saw a family of deer springing across the road.

And then there are the skunks. Oy.

How many legs do them mutant sheeps have, and do they make ’em that way on purpose, or is it somthin’ in the water?

Hmmm that ewe needs to have been docked …

For gebrauchshund:

Only four. Long tail looks like a leg as it flops about. And there may be some artifacting from the video camera. Most video cameras shoot as 60i and output as 30p. In fast moving action, that means stuff that was in one place in the first 60i scan has moved by the time of the second scan and shows in a different location. Those two scans are then combined into the single frame output. Which can make running critters look like they have 8 legs instead of 4.

Silly Mark Mathis. Critters do have 8 legs. 2 front, 2 hind, 2 right, 2 left. I left nothing out of this count.

SWeasel, have you seen rooks pecking the lambs in the eyes?

Silly Mark Mathis. Critters do have 8 legs. 2 front, 2 hind, 2 right, 2 left. I left nothing out of this count.

Does anyone remember the article from “The Worm Runner’s Digest,” anthologized in The Worm Returns in which it was proved that Alexander the great did not exist and if he did he had an infinite number of limbs? I am reminded. . .

SWeasel, have you seen rooks pecking the lambs in the eyes?

Do they do that for real? I know in lullabies, although the one I remember best says it is the bees and the butterflies who peck out their eyes. . .

Farmers swear crows can and will kill lambs when they’re very small. We have crows, rooks and magpies in huge numbers here, but I’ve never seen them do anything dastardly.

I have a soft spot for corvids. We had a couple of pet crows when I was a kid; smart as whips.

SSAF:
Are you West Pondian? If so, I see that you are a Democrat. After all, that IS how they count the votes…

SW,
There is a book you might wish to read. Its a wonder, a small bit of genius all about a scientist/philosopher/writer observing Ravens during the brutal Maine winter.

http://www.amazon.com/Ravens-Winter-Bernd-Heinrich/dp/0679732365

BTW,
The magpies of my youth have all moved into the countryside. They have been replaced by the meanest bird I have ever known:
The Grackle! (Think Hitchcock, Tippy Hedren in the phone booth in “The Birds.”)

I maintain a suppressed .177 air rifle that will come into play in about a month when the nasty creatures return to harass feline, canine and all manner of avian critter.

For Sven:
Actually, around here grackles are a smallish bird and don’t seem to harass much of anything. Of course, they probably would only need to try it one time with a mockingbird to recognize their folly…

Thanks for the recommendation, Sven. You know what’s infuriating? My wish list on amazon.com is entirely separate from my wish list on amazon.co.uk. I have to turn around and look stuff up on the UK site to get my hands on it.

But SWeas – if they DIDN’T do that, can you imagine how the Taxmen would love to intermingle the purchases from the two sites? Not to mention the Legal Eagles in both countries looking for an opportunity to show violation of incorporation clauses and codicils…

I’m a ‘Murkan however I spend quite many moons outside. Hope to change that this year as the follies of heathen ‘furners take a toll.
The quote of 8 legged hoss was instilled in me about 20 years ago when I made some spendin’ moneys by working at a very busy warehouse (+40 truck ramps). The old much feared inventory foreman told it as a proof of his expertise in arithmetics.
I’m a very weak Republican (insomuch that I am not impressed by the modern variety). Would be a Libertarian if they grew a spotless difk about national defense AND had any chance of winning anything. I am a very staunch anti-Democrat as these guys positively frighten me, a cancer you cannot cut out “because it is your own flesh”.

SWeasel, some rural Britisher chaps assured me that rooks treat lamb eyeballs as delicacy.
There is plenty of reference in corvids helping themselves to eyeballs on the battlefields, but since these are not so common around in these boring times, lambs offer at least a substitute.

Saw plenty of long-tailed grackles in San Antonio, TX maybe a year ago. They left a lasting impression about so much obnoxiousness packed tightly into a very small package.