Widgeons

       A widgeon is a wild duck found in both Europe and America. The American widgeon, which is most abundant in the South, is often called the bald pate, from the white on the top of its head. It spends the winters in Central and South America and nests in Canada. The eggs, from seven to twelve in number, are buff-white. Widgeons are notorious for their trick of robbing canvasbacks and other diving ducks of the plant food picked from the beds of streams, by snatching it from their bills as they come out of the water.

More About Widgeons From The Web:

• About the American Wigeon 
• American Wigeons Feeding by David Youngblood
• American Wigeon facts from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

Vole: 4 Primary Facts

A vole is a creature belonging to the rat species.

Vole, an English name applied to several species of the rat family. 

4 Primary Facts About Voles:

1. The voles are widely distributed, being found in Europe, Africa, Asia and in North and South America.
2.  The water vole is about the same size as the brown rat, and it is often called a rat. 
3. It has dark brown or black fur, a tail about half the length of the body, and very strong hind feet, with five rounded pads on the lower surfaces. 
4. It burrows by the banks of streams and feeds for the most part on vegetable food. 

2 More Types of Voles:

1. The field vole, or short-tailed field mouse, is about the size of a common mouse, but the body is stouter and the tail shorter. It has brownish-gray fur; its hind feet have six pads. It lives in fields and woods, feeds on vegetable food, is very prolific and often does much damage to grain and other crops. 
2. The hank vole is like the field vole, but it has a rusty-colored back, larger ears and a longer tail.

Watch young voles by seahue.

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose Facts by Animal Fact Files.

       A barnacle goose is a wild goose common in Europe as a summer visitant in the North Sea. Its forehead and cheeks are white and the upper body and neck black. It takes its name from an old superstition that it was produced from the barnacles that grow on rocks.

Learn More About Barnacle Geese From The Web:

• Watch Arctic Geese Chicks Jump Off Cliffs!
• Goslings jumping - Sandpoint webcam

Woodpecker: 6 Fascinating Facts

Woodpeckers often feed on insects that
burrow inside trees.

Woodpecker, the name of a large group of climbing birds, of which there are  a number of different species. 

6 Facts About Woodpeckers:

1. They have long, straight, angular beaks, adapted to perforating the bark of trees.
2. Their tongues are long, slender and armed with a barbed, horny tip. 
3. They can thrust their tongues far out of their mouths and so spear insects in the depths of their burrows. 
4. Their tongues are also covered with a sticky, slimy substance, that helps to hold their prey. 
5. When feeding, they usually ascend the tree spirally, aided by the spiny points which terminate their tail feathers. 
6. They tap here and there on the tree-trunk, searching for the holes in which insects are hidden, and often tear aprat large parts of rotten trees, for the larvae concealed in them.

5 More Types of Woodpeckers:

       The sop slicker is a species that is fond of the sap of trees and bores round holes, which it arranges with geometrical exactness in broad bands around the trunk of a tree. It especially favors the pines, and in feeding it moves about over the checkerboard of holes, taking the sap from them regularly, as it accumulates. 

       The ivory-billed woodpecker of the southern United States is a large bird, about twenty-one inches long, bright black and white in color, the male having a large bright scarlet crest. Like most of the other woodpeckers, this one excavates its nest in suitable dead trees. 

       The red-headed woodpecker, the black and white woodpecker, the hairy woodpecker and the downy woodpecker are well known in the Northern states. The redheaded woodpecker often lights on the shingles of houses or on a hollow branch and strikes his bill in a noisy clatter, stopping now and then to call out his hoarse, rough note. The woodpeckers are found in almost every temperate part of the globe, except that none ever existed in Australia and Egypt. 

More About Woodpeckers From The Web:

• Woodpeckers: Menace or Misunderstood?
• Woodpeckers Begin Springtime Drumming
• How do woodpeckers avoid brain injury?

Walrus

The biggest danger for walrus today is climate change.

 

       Walrus is a marine flesh-eating mammal, related to the seal, and inhabiting the colder climates. It has two large, pointed  tusks, from fifteen inches to two feet in length, directed downward and slightly outward from the upper jaw. The tusks are used in digging up clams and other food from the bottom of the sea. The animals were valuable to hunters at one time because of their hides and oil. They were either killed with rifles or taken with harpoons.

 

Handprint or hand-tracing and paper cutting of walrus with tusks, whiskers and snouts!

 

More About Walrus From The Web:

• All about walrus from WWF Arctic
• Cruise the oceans to view walrus!
• Learn about the Pacific Walrus from Marine Mammal Commission

Barnacle

       Barnacle is the name of a family of marine crustaceans, or water-breathing animals, having a crust-like shell or scab enclosing them. This mantle or shell is composed of five principal valves and several smaller pieces, joined together by a membrane attached to their circumference; and they are furnished with a long, flexible, fleshy stalk, provided with muscles, by which they attach themselves to ships' bottoms, submerged timber, rocks and the like. One species, the acorn barnacle, has no stalk, but has a hard, acorn-shaped shell of many leaf-shaped valves.
       The structure of the barnacle can best be seen in the goose barnacle. It has a leathery stalk and six pairs of jointed feet. At the base of the shell is a cement-gland containing a secretion which enables the barnacle to adhere to any substance. These forms are widely distributed and are common in salt waters everywhere; they are not found in fresh water.
       Barnacles feed on small marine animals brought within their reach by the water and secured by their tentacles. Some of the larger species are edible. According to an old fable, these animals produced barnacle geese.

Gooeneck barnacles booming of B. C. coast.

Baboon: 5 Fast Facts

The largest baboon, known as a
Mandrill is nearly the height of
a man when erect.

       Baboon, a common name applied to a division of Old-World apes and monkeys.

Five Fast Facts About Baboons:

1. They have long, abrupt muzzles like a dog, strong tusks or canine teeth, usually short tails, flabby cheek-pouches and small, deep eyes, with large eyebrows. 
2. Their hind and fore feet are well proportioned, so that they run easily on all fours, but they do not maintain themselves in an upright posture with facility. 
3. They are generally of the size of a moderately large dog, but the largest, the mandrill, is, when erect, nearly the height of a man. 
4. They are almost all confined to Africa and are ugly, sullen, fierce and gregarious, defending themselves by throwing stones or dirt. 
5. Baboons live on fruits and roots, eggs and insects.

3 More Types of Baboons:

• The cliacma or pig-tailed baboon, is found in considerable numbers in parts of the South African colonies, where the inhabitants wage war against them on account of the ravages they commit in the fields and gardens. 
• The common baboon, of a brownish yellow color, inhabits a large part of Africa farther to the north. 
• The hamadryad of Abyssinia is characterized by long hair, forming a sort of shoulder cape. 

See the new Hamadryas Baboon

 Troop at the San Diego Zoo.