If elk may join our black tails as representatives of the deer family in Butte County, it is unlikely that the largest deer species of all will join them.
The moose (Alces alces gigas, Alaska), at about 1,400 pounds, 6.9 feet at the shoulder, with 79-inch, 79-pound antlers, is the largest of the 41 species of deer in the world. There’s no place to put them in heavily populated California, where the large Roosevelt elk is trying to maintain an existence.
Moose are now found mostly in Canada where there may be a million, but in Colonial days they were plentiful in the Northeast states where they thrived in forested wetlands. The settlers named them elk in reference to European moose that were called elk. It was 1606 before that confusion was cleared up.
By 1870, less than 20 percent of moose habitat remained, and by 1980 only about 100 moose were present in those Atlantic states. Restocking and protection has allowed a surge, and Maine now leads the way with about 76,000 moose.
My home state of Missouri had vast losses of deer, beaver, turkey, otter, and passenger pigeons before a conservation program was created, and many species have been restocked, except for the pigeons that are gone forever.
That story of carelessness with natural resources was prevalent for a lot of species before conservation laws were established. It chills nature advocates to see the greed and thoughtlessness apparent in mankind when uncontrolled use of natural resource choices reign. Governmental administrations presently in 2018 are somewhat similar in attitude.
I know a few moose still exist in Yellowstone National Park where I had my moose encounter. I saw one feeding on the other side of the river and rushed down to take a picture, but the monster didn’t like it — and began swimming toward me! I beat a hasty retreat.
The great palm-shaped antlers are very impressive. Moose are rather sassy, and aside from hippopotamus, injure more people than any other animal in the world, even bears and wolves combined. Behind bison, moose are the second largest land animal in North America and Europe, and the only solitary member of the deer family.
Imagine climbing into the scenic autumnal mountains of Alaska above timberline to hunt a moose. My cousin Albert Tolle’s son Curt Tolle retired from the Navy to the island of Kodiak, Alaska, and has become a big game hunter and outdoor fan, accustomed to hunting the Alaskan mainland mountains for moose since there are none on Kodiak.
Curt expresses extreme appreciation for the wilderness of the far north, describing the grandeur of timberline country in the fall as “the most beautiful place on earth.” Curt said, “Moose are by far one of my favorite animals to watch — very majestic and noble and I feel more than a bit of remorse when I take one, but no meat goes to waste and we are always thankful to fill the freezer with beautiful fresh chemical-free protein.” That rings of Missouri farm life in the 1940s.
Curt remembered my interest in geology, and gathered a box of colorful specimens from a high elevation mountain for mailing. Rocks of the world, like animals of the world, are indications of distant habitats pinning the world together and telling a story of faraway places.
I’ll never get to all those wonderlands, but I see samples through rocks and pictures, and believe they exist. I believe man has been to the moon and saw no moose there! It’s called faith with little evidence.
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe … The whole wilderness seems to be alive and familiar, full of humanity. The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. It is always sunrise somewhere.”
— John Muir
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Residents guilty of minor offences are being targeted by an order originally brought in by then Home Secretary Theresa May to clamp down on serious antisocial behaviour.
But an investigation by Mail Online reveals some councils are using the Community Protection Notice to target householders for petty misdemeanours such as feeding birds or listening to the radio loudly.
Since it was introduced in 2014 breaching a CPN is a criminal offence and can result in a court appearance and fine of up to £2,500.
One victim was grandmother Rose Rodell, who was told she would risk a criminal record if she continued to feed pigeons in her pwn council house garden – and anywhere else in the seaside town of Sidmouth in Devon.
The grandma of four eventually came to an agreement with the council to restrict her activities.
“I felt sick and sad when they told me I couldn’t feed the birds,” said the 72-year-old.
“I’m not a horrible person or a criminal. I just felt sad for the birds that relied on me.”
Campaigners have reacted angrily to the “nannying agenda” of councils slapping fines on misdemeanours such as slamming doors and feeding cats.
“This is officialdom gone mad,” said Rory Broomfield of the Freedom Association, a libertarian pressure group.
“Councils should concentrate on delivering services to their residents rather than looking to crack down on the everyday activities of ordinary people.”
The data from 190 local councils show that at least 29 people in England and Wales in the past four years were told they risked a criminal prosecution for feeding birds – many in their own gardens.
And almost 300 more received letters warning of fines and court action for putting their wheelie bins in the wrong spot for collecting or putting rubbish in the wrong container.
Simon Blackburn, of the Local Government Association, defended the use of CPNs.
“Councils will only ever use these tools to address issues that are having a clear detrimental impact and which residents have raised concerns about,” he said.
“Crime and anti-social behaviour varies from place to place and that is why councils, who know their areas best, are responding in different ways using different tools and approaches.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Mariwan Namiq Hama, 36, has been raising pigeons as a hobby since he was a small child in Erbil.
Out of many pigeons he breeds in his home, one in particular is of great interest to him. He says his 25-year-old pigeon is purebred, one that is not for sale.
“I love it a lot. Most of my pigeons have descended from this one. It is a very good and beloved pigeon to me,” he said, as he kissed the blue and white pigeon.
“To me, pigeons signify love, reconciliation, and peace,” he explained.
Hama, known as Mala Mariwan among his friends, is grateful that his neighbours are not concerned about the presence of his birds, some as expensive as $2,000. Some pigeon lovers even regularly visit his house.
Once, he had invited some of his friends over, but later realized that his pigeons had been poisoned.
“Some of my pigeons died overnight. More pigeons died in the evening,” Mala Mariwan said as he recalled the incident
He could not capture the culprit since at the time he did not have CCTV camera installed.
“This made me upset because I love them. It was a big sin,” he lamented.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
The year is 1800. You’re on holiday with the girls and you’ve made sure to bring a few homing pigeons with you. After a ladies brunch of larded rabbits and pigeon pie, with your ink and pen ready, you write a letter to your beau back home.
“Hello, how are you? I had such a great…” you begin to write before changing your mind, scrapping the parchment and starting again. “Hi, it’s me! Miss you…” You change your mind again; you don’t want to come off too strong.
You settle for “hey”, small case letters because you’re as cool as ice. You tie the parchment to the pigeon and send it on its way home. Ten hours later, you do the math, it’s bound to have arrived by now. You check your messages… nothing. You send another message: “U busy?” Before the ten hour delivery-time is up you send another “It’s me, lol”, and another “ok fine nvm”. You decide to enjoy your holiday.
The next day, no new pigeons arrive with messages from home. “You’re with her, aren’t you? I knew you would do this.” You send another “I hate you.” You decide to enjoy your holiday again, and this time you do.
It’s time to return home. You’re ready for the fight of your life. You’ve had time to practice exactly what you’re going to say. Your jaw drops as your wagon pulls into your home. Or rather, what used to be your home.
What’s left now is ash, slain body parts and empty animal enclosures. While you were away, your home was pillaged by historically-inaccurate pirates. Circling the remains is a flock of pigeons.
The year is 2018. You’ve lived many lives since. You’ve gone from pigeon to telegram, to telephone, to iMessage and yet you still haven’t learned that when someone leaves you ‘on read’, they are busy, not obliged to reply, or even maybe dead.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
In November 2014, he hosted Mrs Patience Jonathan. Politicians like prayers and charms. So they hang around clerics and sorcerers. At that event, Father Mbaka poured prayers on Mrs Joanthan and showered praises on President Jonathan. He said President Jonathan was not inept. He said his opponents maliciously underestimated his good works. He wondered why anyone would blame Jonathan, rather than Boko haram, for the insurgency that had taken control of over 20 local government areas. He said it was unfair to make the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ demand on an innocent Jonathan rather than on Boko haram. Fr. Mbaka A month later, in December 2014, Father Mbaka did a somersault and dropped a bombshell. God, he said, had rejected Jonathan. God spoke to him and confirmed it with pigeons. He had released a set of pigeons to fly and fight for Jonathan. One or two of the pigeons refused to fly. He went to God with his curiosity. God told him the pigeon didn’t fly because the kingdom had departed from Jonathan. He could have stopped there. He is a messenger and no one would ask him for explanations. But Mbaka is not gifted with circumspection. He revisited his assessment of Jonathan’s stewardship. And recanted. He said Jonathan was actually as clueless as his opponents had pronounced. Many blinked in embarrassment at his named volte-face. He said everything Jonathan touched, had become infested with bad luck. He said he was compelled by God, so he was unabashed. He was vilified. Bishops accused him of gross insubordination. They said he had undermined the neutrality of the church in party politics. Some Jonathan’s supporters branded him a counterfeit prophet. They said the internal inconsistencies of his positions, exposed him as a charlatan. They pointed to a history of what they termed— other ill motivated and false political prophesies—and said he could be a victim of auditory hallucinations. Father Mbaka dismissed the insinuations that he had spoken out of bitterness as childish. Buhari, won in 2015. Mbaka has stood patiently with Buhari since. Father Mbaka is back in the news. This time he has not pigeonholed himself. He has left a lot of room for maneuver. He says Buhari was chosen but President Buhari has wandered. He thinks that Buhari has been hijacked and put in a bag by some evil men that surround him. He says the president must change or be changed. That could suggest that Buhari might yet get another chance. Perhaps if he showed firm leadership. That is one way of reading his prophecy. But Mbaka has another warning. He says the president must not contest the forthcoming elections. He is certain he would be put to shame if he did. This warning seems to foreclose the possibility of a second term under any circumstance. He says the man is not only sick but old. And because he is frail, everything in the country, he says, has gone frail. He concedes that Buhari has good intentions. But that he is physically too weak to see them through. He has allowed opportunists who pay lip service to corruption seize the reins of government. And rather than sweep away corruption and poverty with the brooms they came with, they have preoccupied themselves with sweeping public funds into their big bags. Mbaka, definitely, has not lost his theatricals. It would seem though that Mbaka always comes with grains of truth, delivered melodramatically in a bag of chaff. But since he always claims God, we must then believe that the incoherencies are spiritual permutations and combinations mortals like us would forever find difficult to understand. If President Buhari contests and wins, Mbaka yet wins. It would be said that Buhari listened and changed his ways. And God gave him another chance. If Buhari hearkens and chooses not to contest, then the prophet will also be true. He yielded to a divine revelation. Head or tail Mbaka wins this one. Some of Buhari’s supporters have denounced the priest. They think he is being used to create negative sensation. Some say he is badly ego driven. I know that Mbaka could rightly be considered a political man of God. It’s possible that he delivers what God tells him together with his own feelings. But it would serve Buhari and his team well to accept the prophecy as constructive criticism. What Mbaka has told with fanfare as prophecy is actually trite. There is nothing in that prophecy that is a revelation. There was nothing he told Jonathan in 2014 that was a revelation too. But Mbaka’s admonition is yet significant. Not because he has a sizable following in parts of the Southeast. No. He supported this president. When those who stuck out their necks and supported this president air their frustrations in hisses, in letters, or in prophecies, the president ought to listen. There is nothing in Mbaka’s prophecy that Aisha Buhari, the wife of the president, didn’t tell the BBC a year ago. Father Mbaka referred to the president’s wife as a frustrated and rejected god-given mentor to the president. The First Lady had declared she would not support her husband if he failed recover the reins of government from usurpers. She was frustrated. She is not alone. She came back a few months ago from her sick husband in London and announced that significant changes were imminent. She triumphantly proclaimed that the Jackals and Hyenas would be banished. Whatever her husband promised her in ‘the other room’ in London has become a failed promise. Mbaka likens the president to Jonah swallowed by a whale. The problem is that the Abuja whale appears not in any hurry to release its victim. Those around the president could boast that the president would win the national elections in 2019, easily. That could be correct. But they must be concerned that the president has failed to live up to the expectations of his many supporters around the country. That is neither good for the president and nor for the country. And performance must be more important than winning for winning sake. Fortunately for Father Mbaka, no Bishop would invite him for questioning. The council of Bishops could even possibly praise him for valor and forthrightness. The complex nature of Nigeria’s politics allows for such fundamental changes in attitude. Nothing is hinged on any moral principles. Father Mbaka thinks the governor of Gombe could be a good fit. Since he has unfettered access to God, why can’t he simply submit the man’s name for promotion and submit the names of the members of the cabal for punishment. If the men of God were firm themselves perhaps the politicians would sit up.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
