Birds

     I'm not what anyone can call a formal bird watcher, but I do love to watch birds, and I have noticed, in the last few years, that there are far more varieties than when I was younger.  Or, perhaps, it is just that I am now looking.

    When I was a child, the first bird I recognized was a robin,  According to my parents, they were a harbinger of spring.  That is no longer true, at least not is this part of Western Washington.  I see robins all year around.  (The barn swallows indicate the changing of the seasons now.)  I also could name a crow, and probably I saw enough English sparrows to name them.  In fact, I think I called all small brown birds sparrows, including wrens and some finches.

    Now I recognize a lot more birds. I think because of the horses and the barns, we attract birds.  I have hay and grain laying around, and for the predator birds, well, barns unfortunately attract rodents.  I'm happy to see the falcons and eagles soaring and diving over our fields.

    In fact, some studies have shown that birds and horses have a somewhat symbiotic relationship.  I'm always amused when I see a bird perched on one of my equines.  I used to assume that they were always cow birds, but I have since learned that many types of birds go for a ride on an available steed.  Yes, birds are equestrians, as the 2026 Budweiser commercial demonstrates. 

    My knowledge of the birds around me has expanded.  I have seen towhees, juncos, and many starlings.

    Sometimes the birds I see give me a rush of excitement.  Only once have I seen a meadowlark or a goldfinch or a mountain bluebird.

    I thoroughly enjoy the times I have seen red-winged blackbirds.  They are striking in the contrast of their black feathers and the brilliant red on their wings.  

    I am delighted by the black-capped chickadees.   It seems that if I see one, I will see a banditry.  (The name of the group is as delightful as the birds.)

    A few years ago I looked outside to spot a smallish bird strutting in front of the barn where we had dropped a lot of grain.  I thought, "That looks like a quail."  I got out one of my bird books to confirm the sighting.  And then there was a whole covey of about twenty between our house and the barn.  Two days later they returned, but I have yet to see them again. 

    In the summer we have barn swallows and house finches making their nests in, and round the barns.  I have noticed there are fewer than we enjoyed when we moved in over 30 years ago.  All the housing development around us is probably making us less hospitable.

    The development, with all the domestic gardens, has ensured that all summer long, when I look out the kitchen windows, I will see a hummingbird.  They especially appreciate our bright scarlet "Lucifer" plants. 

    One of my favorite visitors is the occasional blue and brown scrub jay.  The birds are loud in voice as well as color, and since blue is my favored color, I welcome the sight of the jays.

    Occasionally, I will hear a woodpecker, and catch a glimpse of them, but since we no longer live in the woods, I rarely see them.  When our son was a grade schooler, they were a preferred bird. As a middle-schooler, he successfully rescued, raised and released a barn swallow.  

    We have had a problem with flooding in our pastures.  The city accepted some responsibility and dug a low spot in one pasture.  In late fall, winter, and early spring, it becomes a shallow pond.  The water attracts ducks, and more recently Canadian geese. I have seen as many as a dozen pars of ducks on "Lake Harris."  Usually it is only one pair; the ducks are regular visitors.  The geese are a little less common, but we have had half a dozen visiting at a time.  Autumn before last we had one goose who, alone, stayed for weeks.  I was beginning to wonder if we had a permanent guest, but one morning the bird was gone, and did not return - yet.

                                                       Ducks on Lake Harris
 

    About 15 years ago we saw the first Eurasian collared dove.  They quickly became ubiquitous.  Human guests often mistook their loud, repetitive cooing for an owl's whoo-ing.  I had to correct them.  Since the doves are not indigenous, I hope they are not frightening off our native feathered friends.

    I mentioned owls.  I have heard them in the evening, but never sighted one, and I would appreciate attracting one to our barn.  They are better than cats at catching rodents.  An owl would be an asset.

    I enjoy hearing the outside birds, but I am not proficient at telling one chirp from another.  I can tell a few, like the doves, or crows, or chickadees, but usually I just appreciate the sound. 

    I still often can't tell one brown bird from another.  In the past few weeks little brown birds have been hopping around my main barn.  They rub their bodies in the fallen alfalfa, and they peck around the farm vehicles.  They seem only marginally concerned about me as they go about their business.  As I did as a child, I call them sparrows, but that could be wrong.  Like all birds, they are welcome.  They seem to know it, too. 

     

Stallions

     Women should not handle stallions.

    Yes, that is what I heard 40 years ago.  Females were solemnly informed they were too weak to handle an intact male horse.  Not only that, but a stallion would smell when a woman was menstruating and become unmanageable.  (The horse, not the woman - but perhaps, now that I think of it, the condition was often associated with both.)

    The sentiment has been disproven so often that the myth that women cannot deal with stallions has been almost forgotten, but I certainly remember disapproving looks when I handled our colts.  My husband, the less experienced horseman, took them into the show ring until they were gelded.  That was the way the system worked. 

    Yet, my relationship with our stallions has routinely been a positive one.  For a short time we bred Quarter Horses, although we did not own a breeding stud.  We always took our mares to the stallion. 

    Then we bred Miniature Horses.  We had stallions.  Finally, we acquired Devon, an Exmoor stallion, when we attempted to increase the number of Exmoor ponies in the world.

    Although we had a couple of Miniature stallions, we ended up gelding my favorite, Shadow.  Donny became the primary gene donor to our mares.  The decision to geld Shadow was not an easy one, but he tended to have progeny that was taller than desired in a breed that valued height more than temperament.

    Temperament in stallions is not always a condition that is desired as much as I think it should be, although owners do take it into some consideration.  Certainly draft horse people do not want a ton or more of horse who can be difficult to control.  Even Thoroughbred owners demonstrate sense.  Chinook Pass set a North American record at Longacres in 1982.  I believe it is a record that still stands.  Chinook Pass raced as a Thoroughbred gelding.  Years later, he was boarded at a facility where I had my mare, Splash, trained.  He was involved in a second career as a dressage horse, and he was noted for his friendly demeanor.  Apparently, he was a nasty, unmanageable stallion, but a model equine gelding.  At least his owners and handlers realized he would be more valuable as a gelding.

    The stallions under my care have always been gentlemen with an emphasis on the gentle.

    Donny could certainly be handled by anyone, even children (although I didn't encourage it when he was a stallion).  He was small, but powerful.  Donny loved and trusted his people, perhaps more than he loved his mares.  He was a fertile little guy.  He was also a showman, demonstrating that horses are thinking animals, anxious to please.

    We did geld him when we decided that breeding Miniatures would no longer be part of our business.  I have to admit that I am not comfortable selling the animals who come into our care.  Passing them on for money feels like a betrayal, especially when I am not sure of the homes that they will be getting.  We did try to sell Donny as a stallion, but when no one wanted him (their loss) we decided to keep him as a gelding.  He more than made up for his lack of breeding potential.  Donny, with his amazing temperament, became an ambassador for the equine world.  He did it all.  He traveled to events.  He pulled a cart.  He carried toddlers.  He did it with a cheerful disposition, the same disposition he exhibited as a stallion.

    Later we tried breeding again.  This time it involved Exmoor Ponies, those amazing equines that have survived history, and several extermination attempts.  We had a couple of Exmoor mares, and they were almost too old to have foals.  We wanted to try to get them pregnant.  We were offered a stallion from Canada.

    Devon had been used to breed Exmoor mares in Canada and on the United States East Coast.  He had been suffering from Canadian winters.  He needed a climate where he wouldn't have to stay in a barn for months at a time.

    He arrived with a commercial hauler, and he promptly endured himself to all who met him  He was a beautiful fellow, and always well mannered.

    No, he did not manage to get our older mares pregnant, and not for lack of trying.  Age or the equines involved was probably the primary barrier.  Certainly, it wasn't Devon's fault.  He had proved himself, and he left some Exmoor foals in the world.

    Devon didn't leave us with any progeny, but like Donny, he left with people knowing that even if Exmoors are direct descendants of wild horses, they have manners.

    Donny and Devon were known for their wonderful personalities, and they were trained and shown by women.  I'm not sure either of them exactly favored women, but both of them usually behaved better for females.  Maybe it was because the mares had taught them respect.  Men might be competition, but women were to be esteemed.

    Perhaps we should start a new "myth."  Stallions should be trained and handled by women.