West Virginia Backroads
There's someting to be said for being out all day for three days, just looking and watching. The things you see! I guess I'll get the not-so-pretty things out of the way first. Our group of 20 or so birders was probably the most interesting thing that had happened on a certain gravel back road for some time. We got an escort of kids, each armed with a different weapon, and a pack of dogs. Some looked healthy. Some didn't. Katdoc and I had a hard time with that, a real hard time. Demodectic mange. Awful. Katdoc said that all dogs are born with the mites that cause this horrible affliction, just like we all have mites in our eyelashes and and eyebrows. But some dogs with compromised immune systems succumb to the infestation. Still, there was a dignity and a certain beauty about this miserable dog the boys were calling Jake. I like this photo, heartbreaking as it is.
On the same road, sleepy duskywings were waking up in the unaccustomed sun.
Not far away, a blue-winged warbler probed inside the blossoms of a buckeye tree, looking for insects. The scale of the leaves and this inflorescence seems positively tropical.
I always love making pictures that tell something of how a bird feeds and lives. This killdeer is at home in riprap, sitting her eggs.
You just have to love tree swallows. This little gal has made her home in a decorative house, over a matching mailbox, barely three feet off the ground. So close to habitation, she may just dodge the snakes. I said a little prayer for her and her eggs. You can't put a baffle on every nestbox, Zick.
I'll leave you with another quintessentially West Virginian image--an eastern kingbird, teed up on a gravestone, with lots of silk flowers as a backdrop. Birds lend such grace to any scene. The flycatchers make up in flair what they lack in bright colors. Our first kingbird--a female--arrived today. I hope she starts tugging at the basket of nesting material I put out for her!
Labels: blue-winged warbler, kingbird, mange, West Virginia
posted by Julie Zickefoose @ 10:01 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
I've been waiting for the picture of that dog to show up - when I saw the "boys and vans" shot, I knew it was a prelude to my dermatologic nightmare, so I was able to quickly flip by it and scroll down to the previous post, to a certain canine gentleman with a glossy coat and a much better life than those poor dogs in WVa.
Birds today while doing my weekly field survey included Common Yellowthroat, Blue-winged, Black-and-white, and Magnolia Warblers, plus that oddity of the warbler family, the Yellow- breasted Chat. (Did I tell you my Life YBChat was found behind my apartment on 10th St. in Marietta?) Had at least 12 Indigo Buntings in my study plot, plus 5 or more outside the boundries. Funniest sight: A Ruby-throated Hummingbird chasing a Blue Jay across the field.
Heard a song today I can't ID - a sweet trill that slides downward in a delicate glissade. Thoughts, anyone?
~Kathi
We have a dog that we've cleared of demodectic mange for several years. When I first heard the diagnosis, "mange", my heart sank. But demodectic is not sarcoptic--and with diligent (daily) dosings of oral med, he's become a magnificent animal. And skin scrapings continue to confirm he's cured!
The veterinary dermatologist was a little pricey, but the regimen is very affordable! If only people will take the time.
Despite his sad condition, he's a handsome dog. I have a friend who adopted a female mutt with mange back in the 70s. After a few years of treatments, she was completely cured of the disease but she remained somewhat bald and had other health issues. She was still lovely and lived 16 years.
Your stories are wonderful, along with the photos. The Swallow on the gravesite, wow.
The azures are out here too! We're not seeing Appalachians (and what a beauty that is), but those little spring ones that have the most beautiful light blue color.
Cute tree swallow above the mailbox. Once a day, 'cept on Sundaya, those tree swallows are going to get to know the mailperson quite well.
Boys and weapons?? What happened to fishing poles? I've only seen mange on a dog once and it broke my heart. I know decorative birdhouses are supposed to be a no-no but dang- that's a cute scene.
I've had a sweet pair of chipping sparrows dining on a dish of your Zick-dough every evening this week.
I wish we could have been there.
RR
Okay, I want to know how you, Julie, and KATHI, our friendly neighborhood VET, kept your mouths shut.
He looks like a sweet dog...but I think people should have to pass an IQ test or something to own a dog.
Like Lynne, my chipping sparrows have been enjoying the Zick dough, along with everyone else. And today, I watched a pair of chippies pass a morsel of it back and forth, presumably as part of a courtship thing.
Right now, I am sitting in a hotel room on Lake Erie, listening to the mews of some gulls out on the water, and tomorrow is Birding Heaven!
I once found a dog covered with mange in my old Philly neighborhood. He was running in the street in that low-slung, angled gait that seems unique to long-lost desperate dogs. I had to do something, so I pulled over and got out of the car. The people congregated outside the funeral home across the street watched and laughed as I tried to lure him with dog biscuits into the back seat of my brother's old Dodge Dart. (This was about 25 years ago; I had moved back in with my mother, and was dog-sitting while my brother and his pregnant wife were on vacation.). I finally managed to get the poor, sweet mutt, starving for food and kindness, into the car, shut the doors, and took off for the local SPCA. Soon, the car was filled with a horrific stench, even with the front windows cranked open.
When I got him to the shelter, no one wanted to touch him. They asked me to fill out a report, and then follow the attendant into what seemed like the back of the building. I remember that one chain-linked enclosure held a white duck, another, a pit bull. The dog I'd brought in wagged happily at his new friends, thrilled to have a safe place to stay. I was told he was too sick to save, and that he'd be likely be euthanized the next day. I couldn't take him home to my mother's, and lacked the means to pay for his vet care. It broke my heart. And yet I knew it was better than dodging traffic and wondering where his next meal would come from. My brother still doesn't know I spent the better part of the next day scubbing down the back seat and floor of the car with bleach.
Seeing that West Virginia dog's picture brought it all flooding back. And seeing the Kingbird on the tombstone helped make it better.
Where are the weapons described in the photo? I see a small hand ax. I do not see any rifles, handguns, spears, BB guns, pellet guns, knives, switch blades or a even sling shot. Where are the weapons?
Dale Monroe
Greenbay, WI
Ah, Catbird and Katdoc, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I have a bit too much photojournalist in me to stick just to the pretty stuff. Here's to all of you who try to make a difference, one dog at a time.
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