Jackson County Fair: 2012

Steve and I went to the county fair a few days ago!! Our county fair is pretty small, but it's a lot of fun and has a strong community spirit, due to the fact that most of this area is rural farmland. This amazing "earless" goat is called an American Lamancha, a dairy breed developed right here in Oregon! Although they are famous for their nearly non-existent ears, these goats are popular for their high milk production and comparatively high butterfat in their milk. If you would like to know more about these distinctive goats, Wiki has a great page here: Wiki: American Lamancha Goat

There are lots of cute farm animals to visit and take pictures of at the fair! I always find myself laughing at the funny situations I discover while visiting each barn. This pig has decided that the perfect place to sleep is inside its feed bucket! Judging by its expression, a feed bucket is blissfully comfortable! :D This is an American Yorkshire pig, the most common breed in the United States. Pigs are raised for their meat and this breed is popular for its high proportion of lean meat. The American Yorkshire was developed in Yorkshire, England in 1761 and imported to the United States in 1830, but did not become popular until the late 1940's when their growth rate was improved. If you would like to know more about these cute pigs, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: American Yorkshire By the way, I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

Butterflies at the Fair? YES! There was a special butterfly exhibit featuring Painted Lady and Monarch Butterflies, and you'd better believe I made a bee-line to this place the moment we got to the Fair! Visitors were allowed to be inside the enclosure with the butterflies where we could feed them nectar and watch them flying around and doing their thing. They also had dozens upon dozens of chrysalis' and I got to watch a Monarch butterfly emerge!!! It was an incredible sight to behold and I'll have pictures to show in a week or so! :) The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most wide-spread species in the world, and can be found worldwide except on Antarctica and South America! Amazing! They are often raised in kindergarten and elementary classrooms to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies. In fact, if you are interested, there are many stores online that sell "butterfly kits" (and other types of insects and critters too!), and more searching will reveal that you can find many types of butterflies and moth caterpillars and adults for sale ! If you would like to know more about Painted Lady Butterflies, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Painted Lady Butterflies (Vanessa cardui)

Another attraction at the county fair was a parrot show, and I knew it would be a lot of fun! It turned out to be much better than I expected and was centered around education. The birds in this show are able to fly at will, but stay because their owner, Chris Biro, loves them all and gives them protection and food. As Steve and I walked into the show area, one of the Blue & Gold macaws sitting on a rooftop waved a foot in the air and looks like it's saying, "HI THERE MATEY! Welcome to the Pirate's Parrot Show!!" The magnificent Blue & Gold macaw, also known as a Blue & Yellow macaw or "B&G", is a fairly common wild macaw in much of South America, but is extinct, extremely threatened or endangered in many places where it was once common. This is all because of the pet trade, but bans on the import of wild parrots has helped stopped this, and some bird populations are recovering. If you would like to know more about Blue & Gold macaws, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Blue and Gold Macaw If you would like to know about Chris Biro's wonderful parrot conservation organization, please visit Bird Recovery International

NOTE: My husband and I started a new work project today, which will mean I'll be behind on my comments until the project is done, about 2 weeks. My apologies in advance, I will try to comment as much as I can in my few free moments! Thanks for understanding!! :) This dear goat was absolutely beside herself when her companion was taken away for a bath! Here she is, standing up against the side of her enclosure, bleating as loudly as she possibly could. It made for a very amusing image, and I laughed to see her funny face, but I felt bad because she was so filled with anxiety, poor dear! Nubian goats were developed in Great Britain by breeding dairy goats to imported goats from Middle East and North Africa. They are known for their long, pendulous ears and roman nose, and are raised for both their milk and meat. They have a high proportion of butterfat in their milk, but because they aren't strictly dairy goats, they don't produce as much milk as other breeds. These goats are also popular for their heat tolerance, and thrive in hotter climates. If you would like to know more about these goats, Wiki has a very nice page here: Wiki: Nubian Goats

When Steve and I went to the Jackson County Fair a couple of weeks ago, we made sure to see the bird show there. It turned out to be an excellent, educational and very fun show with an emphasis on parrot and bird education and conservation. This charismatic man is the one behind it all, Chris Biro, and he has spent over 20 years traveling around the country doing The Pirate's Parrot Show to teach people more about parrots and to raise funds for conservation efforts. The bird Chris is holding is the endangered and breathtakingly beautiful Hyacinth Macaw. These birds come mainly from Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, and are the largest parrot in the world. Due to the pet trade and habitat loss, they are endangered in the wild. Many cattle ranchers in their home range now protect these amazing birds from poaching, and bans on commercial export is also having an effect, but the high price tag of these macaws ($7,000-15,000) continues to tempt people to capture and try to sell wild-caught birds. Eco-tourism is teaching native people to understand why they must protect these parrots and this is making an impact, slow but sure. If you would like to know more about Hyacinth macaws, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Hyacinth Macaw If you would like to know about Chris Biro's wonderful parrot conservation organization, please visit Bird Recovery International

Pigs have no idea how funny they look without even trying! This is another picture I took at one of the livestock barns at the Jackson County Fair a couple of weeks ago. Ever so dashing with a bit of wood shaving decor liberally strewn over ones' snout, don't you agree?! :D :D The distinctive Hampshire pig is black with a white belt around its middle . It is possibly the oldest swine breed in the United States and was bred in Scotland and northern England between 1827 and 1839. It is a very popular breed of pig because it grows faster than Yorkshires , it's very well muscled, has a good temperament, and the sows are good mothers. And, I'd like to add, because they are really cute! :D If you would like to know more about this pretty pig, there's an excellent page here: National Swine Registry: Hampshire

YAY!!! I'm finally done with my latest work project so I'll be back to my usual Flickr uploads of three a day and visiting everyone's streams--I've missed you all so much!! I did post a few pictures of a Black Widow spider I found in the past few days, you might like to see them too! :) For fans of Lucky's Pond, I'll be adding new images in a couple of days, I have one more picture of my Black Widow spider before I am done! Now, on to the show! :) When Steve and I went to the Jackson County Fair, I couldn't wait to get into the butterfly exhibit with my camera! They had two types of butterflies on display: the lovely Painted Lady and the stunning Monarch! There were butterflies everywhere and I found this one clinging to one of the mesh screen windows. I love how you can see the screen through its translucent wings! The magnificent Monarch Butterfly is the most well-known butterfly in North America, but it is also found in many other places, including New Zealand, Australia, the Canary Islands and even the United Kingdom! This butterfly is famous for its migration from Canada to Baja, California, which occurs between August and the first frost; the return trip begins in springtime. Did you know that this trip takes three to four generations of butterflies to achieve?! In fact, the two months it takes to travel this distance is longer than the life of these butterflies! Monarchs are also one of the only insects capable of trans-Atlantic crossings. They are also quite poisonous to most animals, and advertise this fact with their brilliant coloring. If you would like to know more about these remarkable butterflies, Wiki has a great page here: Wiki: Monarch Butterfly

The butterfly exhibit at the Jackson County Fair was one of my favorite highlights and I got lots of great pictures of the Painted Lady and Monarch butterflies there. Here is a side view of a Painted Lady butterfly sitting on the edge of a cardboard box. In case you didn't get a chance to read about these butterflies before, here's a repeat of the information about them: The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most wide-spread species in the world, and can be found worldwide except on Antarctica and South America! Amazing! They are often raised in kindergarten and elementary classrooms to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies. In fact, if you are interested, there are many stores online that sell "butterfly kits" (and other types of insects and critters too!), and more searching will reveal that you can find many types of butterflies and moth caterpillars and adults for sale ! If you would like to know more about Painted Lady Butterflies, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Painted Lady Butterflies (Vanessa cardui)