Search Results for “"Cary Neeper"”

How The Hen House Turns: Turkeys, Tame And Wild

on May 15, 2019 No Comments

Courtesy photo

Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

Twice, during our 46 years in Los Alamos, we adopted a turkey chick. Luckily, they were female. (Books on identifying baby chicks don’t even try to provide instructions for sexing turkeys.)

One turkey imprinted on us, and we enjoyed her as a beloved pet. The second was not imprinted, being raised by a loving hen. She tolerated me in the Hen House yard but let me know with raised tail and feathers that I was not welcome.

Turkeys here in California are wild, but they are used to seeing us pass by as we hike

How The Hen House Turns: Dog Psychology

on April 14, 2019 No Comments

DeeDee and Scooter. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

All the doges we adopted were more or less normal. They liked people–made eye-contact from their shelter domain and got along reasonably well with other dogs in our various neighborhoods.

Here in California we’ve been dog-sitting for our neighbor down the hall, while they attend a family reunion in England. The dog is sitting in his bed beside my living room chair, awaiting his morning walk around the Sequoioas’ campus and up the hill or down the trail along Sausal Pond–a delightful wildlife

How The Hen House Turns: Crows And Squirrels

on March 16, 2019 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

In Ponderosa country like Los Alamos it is probably wise to stay home during the day. Otherwise, the crows will move in and eat up all the expensive cracked corn you have bought for your chickens.

I’m afraid that the crows have taken over in Los Alamos. In our early years there, we enjoyed the visit of many ravens. They came to the tall tree stump behind our back deck, where they picked up our leftover meat scraps.

Then one day I realized why we didn’t see ravens very often. A noisy crowd of ten or more crows were hurtling themselves up and down through

How The Hen House Turns: Animal Verbiage

on February 13, 2019 No Comments

Mama lifeguard watches over her babies. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

In the chapter “What’s in a Name”, Sy Montgomery summarizes in her book “Tamed and Untamed – Close Encounters of the Animal Kind” (by Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017) what is known about animal language.

The alert calls of prairie dogs specify which flying hunter is in the sky or who is hunting on the ground. Prairie dogs even describe human characteristics. They make up “words” for unfamiliar objects (according to Slobolchikoff,

How The Hen House Turns: Trouble With Crows

on January 16, 2019 No Comments

Crow in Pistachio Tree. Courtesy/Cary Neeper

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

I suspect that crows have developed–over a very long time–a cultural aversion to human beings. Only rarely do they get welcoming treatment from us bipeds, unlike the local turkeys and deer in Los Alamos and here in California, where they often pass close by with no more than a curious glance.

In our 46 years on Walnut Street we saw crows take over the backyard Ponderosas from a number of ravens. I’ll never forget the last raven I saw. When he left our feeding stump, a “murder” of crows

How The Hen House Turns: Goodwill Between Animals

on December 24, 2018 No Comments

A turkey named Little Bear. Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

In this season of good will to all, I remember how the Hen House birds often roamed their half-acre together without argument or bullying. They also had no problem raising each other. Turkeys raised baby chicks. Chickens raised they young turkeys. Ducks also raised chicks without complaining.

This year TV programs have featured animal relationships across species. In Nature’s show “Animal Partners” we saw hippos cleaned by small skin-nibblers, Jack fish rubbing parasites off on the rough

How The Hen House Turns: The Love Of Pigs

on November 16, 2018 No Comments

Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

There seems to be an outbeak of pig stories lately – at least on my reading list. Sy Montgomery’s story of her “Good Good Pig” (New York, Balantine Books, 2006) is a very fun read, while providing wonderfilled evidence that convinces us that pigs are real people.

And here in our small California town “pickles the Pig” has gone viral on Instagram and Facebook and now has 65,000 worldwide fame.

Both pigs were treated with respect as the aware beings they were, and the authors let them be themselves, while teaching them practical

How The Hen House Turns: Owls Of Los Alamos

on October 21, 2018 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

Every morning here in California, I hear the owls over Sausal Pond hooting back and forth, and I try to remember what owls we heard behind our house in Los alamos. The house sat beside the canyon near the Golf Course. My husband Don experienced their silent presence one evening while walking into the hills above town. He sensed, not heard, the bird pass by him in the dusk.

Owls are amazing with their ear tuffs and round faces ringed with feathers to trap sound. With hearing ten times more sensitive than ours, they are capable of hearing prey under snow.

How The Hen House Turns: Mental Activity In Animals

on September 17, 2018 No Comments

Courtesy photo

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

An Ethogram is a chart that lists the kind of mental activity observed in animals: Tool using? Reflection? Problem solving? Flexible decision-making? Thinking? In his Great Course, “Zoology: Understanding the Animal World,” Donald E. Moore III explores some interesting suggestions.

Do animals use tools? That is no longer in question for some, especially the untrained crows that choose appropriate visible tools to reach other tools of more appropriate size that allows them to reach visible treats deep in a plastic

How The Hen House Turns: Animal Friendships

on August 18, 2018 No Comments

By CARY NEEPER

Formerly of Los Alamos

It was Christmas 1940, I think, when Ma and Pa handed to my brother and me a small rope. They told us to follow it to the living room. Before we got that far, a wiggly ball of brown, white, and blond fur came rolling toward us, teased the rope from our hands, and cleaned our faces with tiny licks.

We named her Boots, for her white hind feet and front paws. That was the beginning of my life with animals. It was also the beginning of my understanding of the importance of friendship. Every morning on my way to Fairview School, I trudged up the hill to the Arnold’s

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