A Weekend in Zermatt

The River Vispa runs through the village of Zermatt and the pointed summit of this mountain

can be seen just about everywhere you go in the village.

The Matterhorn is probably the most well-known and recognizable mountain in Switzerland.

I recently spent a long weekend in this mountain village

and this is the view we had from the hotel balcony.

The rising sun hits the side of the snow-powdered rocky surface.

Different times of the day create different moods and they were a constant source

of never-ending fascination.

There were other things to see of course,

like beautiful chalets and pretty red shutters and seasonal decorations.

Bars and cafés often have outside seating with sheepskin rugs

and thick warm blankets to keep warm in the crisp, cold air.

Many of the chalets are very old and have a great deal of charm.

The older the chalet, the darker the aged wood becomes, like this one above.

I have a special fondness for draped sheer curtains!

The hotel we stayed in is basically a big chalet with a modern wing which

is the reception, breakfast room and restaurant.

The hotel is very nicely placed just slightly out of the centre, 

but with an easy ten-minute walk to the station. 

Only electric vehicles are allowed here

and the air is beautifully pure.

This view just takes my breath away.

The Matterhorn is 4.478 metres high.

The German word 'Matte' means valley or meadow and 'Horn' means peak.

Here is the main church called St. Mauritius

This is the view you get as you come down the steps from the church

The front view from the steps on the old chalets and another mountain range.

One last shot of this iconic mountain at sunset when the sky was just turning

a shade of lavender.

We were so lucky with the weather which was sunny and quite cold.

On the last morning, it was -10 degrees Celsius,

but the average temperature during our stay was around -6C.

I really want to go back here again, but in the summer months so that we can do 

more hiking and enjoy the alpine flowers.

Spread Holiday Cheer with Animal Friends

Exercise is extremely important for rabbits, especially young bunnies who are still growing, learning and developing important social skills. While adult rabbits require time every day for playing and exercising – at least 2 hours daily – it’s even more essential for babies, who should have at least 4 hours to sniff, play and explore each day.

And, the young kits at Animal Friends – like Parker and Porter – are no different. These 5-month-old brothers came to us from another shelter and we saw their playful and energetic personalities right away! Giving Parker and Porter plenty of opportunities to put their minds to work has helped them continue to learn and grow. With the help of enrichment toys like the Toss and Learn Carrot Game, they can even make the most of time spent in their kennels.

You can brighten the lives of our resident rabbits (and all of our animal friends) by sending them a little holiday cheer from our Amazon Wish List. For an added bonus, start your shopping at Smile.Amazon.com and designate Animal Friends as your charity and a portion of every purchase you make on Amazon will be donated to benefit our shelter residents. With the holiday season upon us and lots of online shopping to do, you can make a big difference in the lives of some very deserving animals.

Click here to see what our four-legged friends are wishing for this year!

Support Animal Friends By Doing (Almost) Nothing!

This holiday season, you may be looking for a special way to give back. But with no shortage of shopping, wrapping, traveling, cooking, cleaning and more, you may be short on time (and money!).

Thankfully, there is a way to make an impact in the lives of the homeless animals at Animal Friends with something you're probably already doing!

If you're shopping for gifts on Amazon, a portion of your purchase price can be donated to Animal Friends by using Amazon Smile! You'll receive the same items for the same prices, the only difference is how much brighter you'll be making the holiday season for the dogs, cats and rabbits at Animal Friends.

Just follow these quick and easy steps ...

1. Go to Smile.Amazon.com and log in to your Amazon account.
2. Search for "Animal Friends Pittsburgh" and select Animal Friends as your charity.
3. Start shopping! Be sure to start at Smile.Amazon.com each time you shop to continue supporting Animal Friends all year long.

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Geese Spotted  near Florenceville

Barnacle Goose

Three Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) were spotted near Upper Kent,  just north of Florenceville recently.  Just above the Beechwood Dam there is a staging area and as many as 2000 geese have been seen there at once.  Almost all of those geese are Canada Geese but occasionally there is a rare goose among them.  About November 29 three Barnacle Geese were seen with the flock.  They were photographed and verified by local birders.  Unfortunately one was shot by a local hunter.

The photo above and subsequent photos in this post were taken by me of Barnacle Geese seen in New Brunswick at Miramichi City in 2011, but they will be used as illustrations for this post.  I went to see the geese near Upper Kent but they were not there so hence no photos.  

The Barnacle Goose is a smaller goose compared to the Canada Goose.  It is 69 cm (27") long compared to 114 cm (45").  Even though it is marked differently from the Canada it can be difficult to spot in a large flock because of the similar colours and the way geese intermingle and sleep tucked in so well.  

The Barnacle Goose is actually about the same size as the Cackling Goose (the smallest form of the Canada Goose which is now a separate species).  Its shape and size is much like the Brant which passes by our shores in migration.  It is gray and white overall with black on the neck, breast and as a hood.  The face and underparts are white.  The stubby bill and legs are black.  

Barnacle Geese with Canada Geese

The Barnacle Goose is very rare in New Brunswick.  Its normal range is in Europe.  Most birds breed in Svalbard and eastern Greenland.  It builds its nest in dry Arctic tundra on cliffs and other rocky slopes and also on Arctic islands.   They winter in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, northern England and Scotland.  They spend the winter on coastal pastures feeding on herbaceous plants and seeds.  The birds that are seen here are probably from the eastern Greenland population.  

This is the third report of Barnacle Geese to my knowledge in New Brunswick.  I have seen one in 2001 in Salisbury, in 2011 in Miramichi City.  The "Birds of New Brunswick:  An Annotated List"  does not even mention this species and it was published in 2004.  

Barnacle Goose

It is interesting how the Barnacle Goose got its name.  It was an important part of medieval cuisine.  It was believed that the Barnacle Goose came from actual barnacles.  There is an actual Goose Barnacle and the confusion may have arisen from the similar colours of the barnacle and the goose and the fact that the goose appeared in different seasons.  But, even more interesting, is the fact that Catholics believed they could eat the Barnacle Goose during Lent because of it perceived origin which meant it was classified as fish and could therefore be eaten during Lent.  

Barnacle Goose 

This large flock of geese will probably stay around the St. John River as long as there is open water.  It will gradually move southward and will eventually winter along the eastern seaboard.  When I was there near Upper Kent on Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Barnacle Geese had been seen two days before but unfortunately I did not see them that day.  It is possible they were still in the area.  I saw about 800 geese that day, about 400 or more resting on the river and later a flock at least that big flying.  I don't think it was the same flock because the big flock on the river left in much smaller flocks and at different times, presumably to go feed in nearby grain fields.  Also seen were about 200 of each Black Ducks and Mallards.  A wonderful spectacle indeed!

Morgan the killer whale has become pregnant - would her calf be a be a hybrid.

Morgan at Loro Parque in Tenerife.
Photo copyright  Loro Parque

The paper makes it clear that the Icelandic and Norwegian killer whale populations were a single panmictic population; this term means random mating where all individuals are potential partners. 

The recent news that Morgan the killer whale (at the Spanish zoological collection Loro Parque at Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife) has become pregnant has led to a number of people making allegations that the calf would be a hybrid.  

Morgan is believed to be an animal from the Norwegian killer whale population but the animals she lives with, whilst all captive bred, are derived from animals from Iceland. 

In a paper published in 2014, an overview is given of the North Atlantic killer whale population and what is known so far.

The paper makes it clear that the Icelandic and Norwegian killer whale populations were a single panmictic population; this term means random mating where all individuals are potential partners. 

Whilst it is clear that animals within the North Atlantic population do follow specific feeding patterns which has in turn shaped their behaviour, the idea that Morgan's calf would be a hybrid - and as such this would be detrimental to the animals welfare or conservational used in the future - is not based all our current scientific understanding of these animals in the wild. The North Atlantic popualtions are currently considered the same species but with possible different ecotypes.

Moreover, hybrids only occur across species. There has been hybrid whales and dolphins in both captive care and the wild.  Perhaps the most well documented is the wholphin which is a cross between a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale.


Reference and significant quotes.

North Atlantic killer whale research; past, present and future (2014) Andrew D. Foote, Sanna Kuningas and Filipa I.P. Samarra

"Further light has been shed on the relationship between Icelandic and Norwegian herring-eating killer whales by genetic investigations. Early genetic studies typically used DNA from captive Icelandic killer whales as outgroups for studies focused on North Pacific killer whales (e.g. Stevens et al., 1989). Only recently, have studies used larger sample sizes from across the North Atlantic using both mitochondrial and nuclear genetic markers. Allele frequencies of 17 polymorphic microsatellite loci indicated individuals from the Norwegian and Icelandic herring grounds were a single panmictic population; however, there was significant differentiation between the two regions based on mitochondrial DNA (Foote et al., 2011). Stable isotope ratios differed significantly between Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales assigned to this panmictic population, suggesting some differences in ecology, such as spatial distribution or trophic position (Foote et al., 2012)"

"The effectiveness of these large shared datasets was recently demonstrated in an unusual scenario, when a young killer whale became stranded off the coast of The Netherlands. No photo-identification matches were made, but sequencing of informative regions of the mitochondrial genome suggested that the whale belonged to the lineages that follow the *NSS herring. This was then further supported by the matching of several stereotyped call types produced by the whale and those recorded by groups feeding on herring in northern Norway (Samarra et al., 2010)"

*NSS: Norwegian spring spawning.

More details on Morgan's rescue can be found here. 
Morgan - The Rescued Female Killer Whale

Scene & Story: November 2017

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Dear Friends,

How have you all been this year?

Have you embraced the unexpected?

Have you got out of your comfort zone at least once?

What have you understood about life?

What have you learnt?

Do you sometimes ask yourself where you're going? I do.

Am I going where I need to go or am I struggling against the natural flow because I wanted things to be different than they were? Life is not always smooth. Situations are not always ideal.

Each new day brings us life experiences from which we can learn. It is our choice to accept the things that come our way, or not. Sometimes, we're allowed to say "No" when things have gone too far in the wrong direction.

We're allowed to take a pause and look within to be able to make the right choices. We can recognize that they are not always the same choices as others. That's quite alright. We are allowed to be different.

So towards the end of November, I look back at my own year and ask myself these very questions. It's also the perfect time to get out my coloured cards and rubber stamps and my address book and prettiest postage stamps and write to family and friends. A lighted candle brings in the right sort of mood and sets the tone.

So wherever you are, whatever your life experience right now, just know that it's where you are meant to be. How do you know that? Well, because that's where you are!

May we find the courage to face the difficult moments and the generosity in our hearts to be there for others when they need a helping hand. 

Keeping in touch with others, but also with ourselves.

My very warmest winter wishes!

Sandra

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I'm linking up with  Scene & Story hosted by Sarah and Lee

Purple Gallinule Killed by Cat

Rare Bird Killed in Nova Scotia

Purple Gallinule [Internet Photo]

The Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) is a rare bird to see in the Maritimes.  Its normal range is Florida, southern Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Mexico.  It rarely appears north of that but the species is known for occasional vagrants who wander as far north as southern Canada.  Most are seen in the fall as a result of being blown northward by strong winds from storms and hurricanes.  There are at least 20 records of one having arrived in New Brunswick.  This species has also shown up periodically in Europe and Africa!

The Purple Gallinule is a pond-loving species.  It is a secretive bird and is seen wandering around on floating vegetation or climbing on low-overhanging bushes, using its long toes to advantage.  It eats invertebrates, frogs, aquatic vegetation, seeds, and berries.

As you can see the Purple Gallinule is a beautiful bird.  It is green, purple, red and blue with yellow legs and feet and very long toes.  It is 33 cm (13 in) long and appears about the size of a bantam chicken.  

A Purple Gallinule was recently recorded in Nova Scotia.  The body of one was brought home by a cat.  Whether the cat killed the bird is not determined but is likely.  It is difficult to imagine a cat wandering near a pond in order to kill such a bird but cats are natural killers so would go to any length to capture prey.  It is unfortunate that this bird was killed.  See the photo below of the bird that the cat brought home.

Purple Gallinule [Ryan Daniels Photo]

Feral and house cats are the major cause of bird mortality in North America.  They kill more birds than strikes with buildings, vehicles and communication towers, and poisonings by pesticides. That is a huge number.  It is estimated that cats kill between 1.3 and 4 billion birds per year in North America (audubon.org).  The cat population in the US is about 1 million.  I am not sure how many we have in Canada but it is close to that.  No wonder our bird population numbers are shrinking to dangerous levels!  The cat population is so high they are now considered a global invasive species.  On some islands in the world domestic cats have driven some bird species into extinction.  

What can be done about this problem?  Feral cats kill more birds than domestic cats but domestic cats still kill plenty.  A simple solution is to keep the cats indoors.  That has been known for a long time but cats like to wander outside and it is difficult to keep them indoors.  Many cat owners do not wish to keep their cat indoors.  Some studies have been done with some success on special collars for cats to decrease bird mortality.  Other studies have looked at what time of year most of the killings occur with the idea of restricting cats at certain times or dates.  There have been ambitious programs to reduce the feral cat populations in a humane way (CARMA) but neutered cats still kill birds.  So, even after a lot of work on this problem, no satisfactory solution has been found yet.  Funds need to be made available for more research and pet owners need to be more vigilant with their cats.