Salad bar

North of Spences Bridge, the highway, two lanes with narrow shoulders, winds along the dusty hillsides beside the Thompson River. In the summer, the river and the road are fringed with ribbons of greenery, in stark contrast to the brown slopes above.

Murray Creek waterfall, Spences Bridge.

A small herd of ten mountain sheep, (Ovis canadensis californiana) had come down from their heights to drink and to nibble on a bit of fresh salad. Traffic slowed, then stopped as they ambled across the road, one at a time, then seemingly dropped over the edge, down towards the river.

Bighorn, probably a young male. A full-grown male's horns make a full circle.

Female, on the river side of the road.

The tips of both horns are broken.

The first sheep above looks as if he had black patches on his face. These are open scent glands; in the other two sheep, they're closed but visible as indentations just below and in front of the eyes.

Caprids (dwarf antelope, such as the sheep, goats, muskox, serows, gorals, and several similar species) use their preorbital glands to establish social rank. For example, when competition arises between two grazing sheep (Ovis aries), they have been observed to nuzzle each other's preorbital glands. By sending and receiving olfactory cues, this behavior appears to be a means of establishing dominance and of avoiding a fight, which would otherwise involve potentially injurious butting or clashing with the forehead. (Wikipedia)

The last sheep, a youngster, paused for another bite or two of drying grass. Idling cars started to move forward; the lamb grabbed a mouthful and dawdled across the road, chewing as he went. We waited again until he had pushed through a clump of sagebrush and bounded down the hill after his family.

Flatlands

The Fraser River splits into two arms as it enters the delta. Between them lies Richmond, with another split in the northern arm making a separate island for the airport and Iona Beach. It's flat, low-lying land, as befits a delta. Half of it, more or less, is residential and business; the other half is farmland, growing mostly blueberries and cranberries.

Across the river to the south, is the municipality of Delta, stretching from the Fraser to Boundary Bay to the south. It's the largest municipality in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, flat and boggy like Richmond, but sparsely populated. North Delta, where we live, is off the delta proper, up on the hillsides; most of the people live up here. Below are farmlands, Burns Bog, and a lot of empty space.

I measured the flats on Google; from Reifel Island at the northwest corner to Burns Bog to the Nicomekl River on the south, and back along Mud Bay to Tsawwassen, then up to Reifel again for the fifth side of a kid's drawing of a house; as the crow flies, about 40 miles. Following the roads, it's about 60.

We criss-cross this area on our way to most of our favourite shores. We don't usually stop; it's a long drive already. Often, we take photos from the car windows. Blurry photos, mostly. Not all.

Taken as I drove; soggy field in the rain.

I stopped for this one, along Colebrook Road, just off Mud Bay. The only fishing spot handy was the ditch.

There are fish in this water, see?

Farmhouse and fog. 104th Street, near Burns Bog. This area is prone to fogs and wet mists, even when the sun is shining on the beach.

Grazing goats with the hills of South Surrey in the background.

Sheep on a spit of land between the Nicomekl and the Serpentine rivers.

Why do they leave this coat on the sheep's back? There must be a reason; quite a few were wearing these.

Leeks. 104th Street again. The next field over grew brussel sprouts.

Reflections in a ditch. Tsawwassen.

Last bit of wasteland before the hills and residential area of Tsawwassen. Where we stop to watch hawks.

Rainy Day Outing and some Sheep

Three rolls of film are back from the shop, and I have a stack clamouring to be the first to be posted. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo ... these ones!

This was our rainy-day jaunt to Mud Bay last Sunday.

Early morning; looks like it might just be a nice day for a walk.

Rule # 1: Never trust BC weather in the spring time. It was raining hard by the time we got to the dike, so we never even got out of the car. Laurie took the rest of these through the window.



First, setting the scene. This is agricultural land, mostly deserted at this time of year. There are three or four farmhouses, no through roads, no dearth of potholes. Up ahead is the dike, then Mud Bay. Behind us, empty fields, plenty of mud, a tree with two eagles at the top. Off to the sides, mallards and some black and white ducks, dabbling in the temporary lagoons in the fields. And starlings everywhere.



About a half-mile back, the road skirts a field beside the Nicomekl River, where a small herd of sheep stood dripping miserably. Most were "normal" (to me) sheep. One, I had never seen the like of; yes, that one.

He looks to me more like a big grey caterpillar than a sheep, with that round, creased body, stubby legs, eyes that aren't eyes at all, but shadows only, no visible face. He even moved like a caterpillar, swinging his body slowly from side to side, nose to the grass, constantly nibbling. I don't know what breed he is; he was the only long-wooled one in the field, the biggest by far, and the only one whose face (I think, for all I could see of it) is white.

I looked at sheep on the web, and the closest I could find was a Lincoln, from this site (Oklahoma State University, Breeds of Livestock). Not quite the same, but maybe the rain and the mud served as a disguise. Or maybe it's a related variety.

From OSU, I learn:

The Lincoln is usually referred to as the world's largest breed of sheep. ... Lincolns are rather rectangular in form, are deep bodied, and show great width. They are straight and strong in the back and cover thickly as mature sheep. ...

The fleece of the Lincoln is carried in heavy locks that are often twisted into a spiral near the end. Lincolns should be very well wooled to the knees and hocks, and occasionally some individuals carry wool below these points. ... Lincolns produce the heaviest and coarsest fleeces of the long-wooled sheep with ewe fleeces weighing from 12 to 20 pounds (5.4-9kg).

And:

The breed has been more generally popular in Canada than in the United States.

Well, that ties in; this is Canada. But still, I had never seen one before.

After our coffee and tea in Crescent Beach, we drove down to check out the shore. The rain slowed down to a sprinkle for a few moments, and Laurie managed a couple more shots.

This is a watery sunset behind the trees on the headland.


The rest of our photos will have to wait a bit. (Meanwhile, go look up pareidolia: I've got some cool examples for the next few posts.)