Tuesday, February 13, 2018
A rare day of sunshine in February lured me outdoors.
I didn’t have a clue where I was going or what I would see, but at least I was going! The truck windows were rolled down for photo ops (remember when we actually “rolled” a window down?). But even with copious amounts of sunshine this day, it was still February and chilly so I had the truck’s heater on with the windows open. That chilly sunshine and fresh air felt so good.
As it turns out, I didn’t have far to go to find interesting things. Just a tad east of the city of Tacoma are homes with an acre or so of land around them, and there are also homes with small farms of a few acres. Today’s outing quickly focused on farm animals. I don’t know why … I guess they just caught my eye.
The title of this post “What’s this? A seagull farm?!” might be puzzling to some or all of you. Anyone who has lived near saltwater knows how plentiful seagulls are in these areas. There are, I swear, a bazillion-trillion (and that’s a lot) of seagulls in the Pacific Northwest. And that’s why I was surprised to come across what certainly appeared to be a seagull farm this day.
You doubt my word? Just wait. You’ll see. No peeking ahead!
At first glance, these folks above all had their heads in the grass, concentrating on getting their daily quota of nourishment.
Oops, one head popped up.
Then another head popped up.
This woolly person looked straight at me for quite a while before looking away. From its long ears and the shape of its snout, I believe it’s a llama. Llama can be aggressive and are not uncommonly used as guard animals for sheep, to prevent theft by humans and/or killing by predators. This was a big llama, and one that I surely wouldn’t mess with.
A few minutes later, I snapped the photo above. But … see the sheep on the right side of the photo above? It’s the very same sheep that is in the photo above the two llama photos. It had moved over to the far right end of the small herd, and was again standing and staring at me. Llama to the left of me … white face to the right. I was under scrutiny!
After a few minutes, a bunch of the sheep moved closer towards me and under some mostly dead trees for some good scratching. And darned if that same white-faced sheep didn’t move up with them and stand in between them and me, still staring at me.
I don’t know much about sheep. Does a herd of sheep have one particular sheep who is a scout or a look-out? As far as I could tell, this was the only sheep in the field who had a white face. Does that mean something?
Ok, here’s the seagull farm. Now, don’t tell me this doesn’t look like a farm. It has a field … farm buildings … the farm “animals” are inside a wire fence. People do raise all manner of birds on farms after all … chickens … quail … peacocks … geese … turkeys (at least one of you readers is particularly familiar with turkeys) … and other birds, so why not seagulls?
The seagulls on this farm seemed quite content and well-fed.
Ok, truth-be-told, when I drove past this same “farm” later in the day, all of those seagulls had flown the coop. They were long gone. Those tricksters!
This barn was no trick though. I thought this was pretty cute.
It was an interesting day driving around the area, taking photos of some of the “folks” in the world where they live. I hope you enjoyed the drive too. Thanks for coming along.
Please feel free to comment below, or ask questions, or tell turkey jokes. And no, I really do know there is no such thing as a seagull farm … that’s just silly. 🙂
Thanks for visiting my blog! I love your adventures and hope you haven’t stopped adventuring!ht
Well, oddly when I went to this blog via your comment on my blog it said it was written in February…so that’s why I was worried you’d stopped. Obviously you haven’t. 🙂 🙂 :)! Glad you didn’t mess with the llama.
Hi Dawn, nope I’m still rattling around here having adventures while waiting for my new Escape trailer to be built. But thanks for your support! I’m slowly getting caught up with these blog posts since not much happens around here in the winter. Like you, I hate being cold so I choose my days for outings. On the other hand, some of the most beautiful stuff happens on cold days, doesn’t it? The llama was a presence to be aware of, but that sheep was intimidating! 🙂
I love farm animals, and seeing farms and barns. Especially horses. Seagulls farm, huh?
When I take a drive around my area, I see cactus and dirt. Ugg
Farms and barns and horses and pigs and all manner of country stuff. I think they are wonderful too. 🙂 Hmm, I’m surprised I didn’t see any pigs on that day drive.
Cactus and dirt? Maybe those are actually cactus and dirt farms! Maybe they are raising cactus and growing dirt! ok, not so much, huh. 🙂
I like seeing how other people live around the country. When I was a boy I thought my home town was the only one that was nice. But I have learnd that every place is nice for whatever reason. The country around where you live sure is nice.
We have a neighbor who raises llamas. Boy can they be mean! Stay away!
Me too! When I was younger, I thought the rest of the world must be a dry deserted place to live in and I wondered why everyone didn’t live where I did. Tho I’m glad they didn’t. 🙂 And yes, when one gets older, one realizes that there are all manner of nice places to live in the world. Thanks for the llama warning.
The white faced sheep could have been the bellwether, the leader of a flock of sheep. Some times he actually does wear a bell, hence the name. The other sheep will look to him for direction and he takes his responsibilities very seriously.
Hi Ann, welcome to the blog. Nice name. 🙂
What excellent information you’ve shared, thank you! I’ve heard the word “bellwether” but never knew quite what it meant or its history so I have now looked it up online and found even more information. Such as … the word “wether” means a neutered male sheep. The leader of the flock was usually such a sheep and often wore a bell so the other sheep (and the shepherd) knew where he was. The word “bellwether” has come to mean an indicator or predictor of something.
I used to think the word came from old wooden sailing ships and a bell ringing from heavy seas that predicted bad weather. I stand corrected. 🙂 Thank you.