It's Photo Tuesday!

[Richard Flanders]

Had my browsing cow back at sunrise today. The darker shot is what it really looks like but it's a bit dark to see the moose.

[Mills Morrison]

Beautiful!

[Phillip Carr]

Yes beautiful what a nice group of pictures. Thank you for sharing.
I needed that today.

Best Regards,
Phil

[Dean Romig]

She looks a bit hefty in the mid-section - probably with calf or two.





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[Richard Flanders]

I think she is Dean. She's v healthy too. She'll birth in May sometime.

[Randy G Roberts]

Great photos for sure. What's the temperature there?

[Richard Flanders]

26deg right now. It was warmer earlier, at least 28 here and 30+ in town. Someone submitted a picture of a butterfly perched on the snow yesterday, which is this years first submittal. It's a Comptons Tortoise Shell that overwinters as an adult. They fly late in the fall and and wake up early in the spring. I generally have at least one come awake and fly around in my house over the winter, but not this year, at least not yet. And my browsing cow has come back twice since this morning; she's walking in right now for dessert.

[Dean Romig]

It resembles a Mourning Cloak which is another butterfly species that winters over beneath the loose bark on dead or dying trees.





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[Richard Flanders]

We have lots of those up here also Dean. They have a much darker wing and a very distinctive light colored band along the trailing edge of their topwings that can be seen from a long ways off. They come out very early in the spring also. The Tortoise Shells like to winter over in the cracks of log houses and often come right inside through the cracks. I always feed them honey or sugar water when they come awake in winter but they never last long. Here's a shot of one sipping on my floor in 2011.

[Richard Flanders]

My pregnant cow seemed to be pretty hungry for browse so I cut down about 8 small birch trees for her in my lower yard two days ago. She found them last night and and is in right now for a night time snack. She didn't seem to mind my standing on the deck taking pictures. I'll let her clean these trees of tips and buds then I'll cut and stack the trees then cut down a bigger one for her. We take care of our girls in Alaska!

[Stephen Hodges]

Richard you are very lucky in Alaska that you do not have to deal with "Winter Ticks" as we do now in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. They have decimated our Moose population.

[Dean Romig]

That’s sadly true Steve. Folks should look it up and see how terrible a plague it is on our moose. It is disgusting just to see the pictures of a moose fully covered with them.





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[Robin Lewis]

If you want to read more about the winter tick effect on New England moose, read this. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181017080814.htm

[Richard Flanders]

We are fortunate, indeed, but they are into northern BC and the Yukon and are headed our way. We now have several kinds of ticks in Alaska, but in small numbers so far. I read something on ticks on reindeer or caribou in Canada where researchers counted something like 44,000 ticks on a single animal. It was a disgusting sight for sure.

[Stephen Hodges]

And another good read from the NH Fish and Game Department

https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/moose/study.html

[Russell E. Cleary]

So, has there been no equivalent to emerge in the Northern part of this hemisphere of the African Tick-Bird, or Oxpecker?

I am surprised that nothing natural has developed to off-set this ghastly proliferation of ticks on such a big, long-legged mammal. A Moose may offer an accommodating surface for parasites, but should also present a blatant food source for a parasite-eating bird to counter this plague.

What biologically has prevented it?

[Richard Flanders]

This has to be a different cow in today, as she brought along a yearling calf. Another cow was in earlier. My brush piles are very popular lately.

[Dean Romig]

Is it common for cow moose to have what look like pedicels?

That one certainly looks pregnant too.





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[Richard Flanders]

pedicel ? That's a botanical term for a stalk with a single flower... What am I missing here? Are you referring to antler 'stubs'? I do see light colored spots where they would be. Can't imagine it's a bull but you never know. Those spots do look suspicious. Perhaps the transgender movement has made it into the moose world and she's transitioning!

[Dean Romig]

The pedicel is the spot on the head/skull from which the antler generates. The 'growing point'.





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[John Dallas]

I think that is "pedicle"

[Richard Flanders]

Right you are John. Pedicel is a botanical term, pedicle the term for the antler root.

[Dean Romig]

My faux pas... apologies to all.

The question remains however. It looks like a pedicle on mama moose’s head... is that normal or am I just imagining it.





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[John Dallas]

Dean - I agree there's something there, but I'm guessing it's a different colored patch of hair. Hard to see a matching spot on her left side

[Richard Flanders]

I can tell you that I've seen tons of bare cow skulls and have never seen any kind of bone protuberance where the antler root would be.

[John Dallas]

Cows don't have antlers, which are shed each year. Wonder if that makes a difference?

[Richard Flanders]

That IS the difference John. No antlers, no pedicle. Not that way with caribou though. The females have small antlers.