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Everything on this page is 10% off price shown, sale price will show up in the cart
Yellow Lab with Bufflehead
by Louis Frisino
24" by 20"
Framed Size 34" by 30"
| S&N Limited Edition of
950 $50.00 |
Framed in Walnut Frame with Gold Lip $248.00 |
Conservation Framing
Each double mat may vary from print to
print according to which frame you choose. If you would like to
have a particular color of mat just email sales@watsonswildlife.com to place your order. The
best matching color is used for
each individual print and is not always the color shown here.
Each print is framed
using Conservation Acid Free & Lignin Free, Alkaline pH buffered mat board &
backing.
We use non glare glass, You may call us to request regular glass if you like, Other styles of glass are available.
In conservation framing, We use only
Museum Quality materials and procedures that will have no adverse
effects on a piece of artwork and will protect the artwork from external damage
The history of the Labrador retriever is confusing. There have been many speculations and theories about the origin of the breed.
An older theory proclaims that the Labrador was a variety, or offshoot, of the Newfoundland dogs. Supposedly, fisherman off the coast of Newfoundland wanted to scale down the large size of their Newfoundlands, but still wanted to keep the characteristics that made the dog so great- such as being a good retriever for anything that was needed, a dense, almost waterproof coat and a hard worker. So the Labrador was developed as that dog. Many people hold this theory to be untrue, and mostly because no one knows exactly how the lab was developed.
Some agree with that theory, while others believe that dogs were not even around this area until Europeans arrived at the Newfoundland coast to fish. This other theory states that Labradors came not from Newfoundland dogs, but that these two dogs were two different breeds altogether. To understand this, a little history needs explaining. Newfoundland is a Canadian province contained in a Canadian peninsula. The Dorset Eskimos, as the original settlers of Newfoundland, left no record of having dogs, as was the same as the Beothuck Indians, who were the next people to live in Newfoundland. Even though the English, Portuguese and French discovered Newfoundland in rapid succession, England was the only country to for a permanent settlement. Because it was a tough land, tough people were needed to try to survive there. Most of the men, many of them the toughest in England, were from Devon. These men were known throughout England for their hunting and outdoor skills, so naturally they would have wanted to bring with them their canine companions, who worked with them a great deal. The dog brought with the Devon men was probably the French St. Hubert's dog, which is thought of as the ancestor to the Labrador. This dog was most likely bred with other dogs and developed into different breeds, thereby evolving into both a Newfoundland and a Labrador. Labradors were ideal for helping with the primary industry at the time, which was fishing. As was their name, they were trained to retrieve items that fell overboard and haul in fishing nets. This theory is the one usually accepted as correct.
No one knows exactly when the Labrador breed was brought to London, but it is thought to be around the beginning of the 1800s. It took a century for Labradors to be considered their own distinct breed, because until 1904, Labrador Retrievers were lumped into the same category as all retrievers. The breed was favored by the Royal family, which helped contribute to its popularity.
Labradors were imported to the United States before World War I, and as in England, were grouped as all the retrievers into one breed. It was not until the late 1920s that they were a separate breed. Since then, their popularity in America has soared. The Labrador has been a favorite of show trials and hunting partners, accounting for the American Kennel Club's (AKC) statistics as it being America's highest numbered registered breed.
Bufflehead
The Bufflehead is Canada's smallest diving duck. Strikingly patterned in black and white, and constantly active, it attracts attention out of proportion to its relatively small numbers.
Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are compactly built birds, males averaging 450 g in weight and females about 340 g. During their migrations they are much heavier, with up to 115 g of stored fat as fuel for their travels. These are the fat birds hunters call "butterballs." Adult males are black above and white below, with bright pink feet. They wear a white "shawl" around the back of the head, and a broad white band extends from front to back across each wing. The females and first-year males are more drab, with the dark areas sooty-grey or brownish rather than black, and the white areas duller and smaller in size than in adult males. Like their near relatives, the goldeneyes and mergansers, Bufflehead males do not attain adult plumage until their second winter, and first breed when nearly two years old.
Buffleheads are constantly active, all their movements being energetic and abrupt. They seldom rest on the water in flocks as do the Aythya diving ducks (scaup, Redhead, Canvasback). Buffleheads alternate periods of feeding with preening bouts or courtship displays. Feeding is always by diving, even in shallow water, the dives being longer in deeper areas as most food is picked from the bottom. Their main foods are arthropods, mostly insect larvae in fresh water and small crustaceans (shrimps, crabs, amphipods) in salt water. In fall many seeds of aquatic plants are eaten, and in winter small marine snails or freshwater clams are taken in their respective habitats.
In winter they frequent the shallow, sheltered waters of coves, river mouths, and lagoons, which have a muddy or gravelly bottom, and they often feed around old pilings of wharves or log booms. Buffleheads are seldom found along exposed shores at any season. Their breeding habitat is small ponds, usually in wooded areas. They seldom nest by rivers and larger lakes as do the other related species, possibly because these waters are inhabited by northern pike, a large fish which readily feeds on small ducklings.
Buffleheads are not gregarious, and typically occur in groups of 10 or fewer birds. When both sexes are present, displays are frequent, but females do not respond to displays by first-year drakes. Courtship is characterized by rapid, jerky movements, most frequently a head-bobbing action by the drake. The most striking display is a short flight over the female in which the male flutters its wings below the level of its body, and also keeps head and tail lowered, finally landing in a "water-skiing" posture so as to display the feet as well as the plumage. The upwards stretch with wing-flapping, common to most ducks and some other water birds, terminates most bouts of displaying. The males often try to drive away other drakes displaying at the same female, either by rushing over the surface or by diving so as to come up under the intruder, and the vigorous splashing that results may be seenat a considerable distance. Even when too far away to be recognized by appearance, Buffleheads can often be identified by this splashing. Both sexes are normally silent, and the only sound commonly heard from Buffleheads is the "grrk" call of females alarmed near nest or brood.
Courtship occurs through the winter, becoming more intensive as spring approaches, but most pairing seems to take place during the spring migration, and the birds are paired by the time they reach breeding areas. Males outnumber females, as in most diving ducks, so an appreciable proportion of adult males remains unpaired.
In most areas Buffleheads start nesting soon after their arrival. The female Bufflehead lays her eggs in a tree cavity, usually the former nest of a Flicker (woodpecker). The related goldeneyes and mergansers are also tree-nesters, and some people refer to any duck nesting in a tree as a "wood duck." The true Wood Duck, however, is a more southern species and is not at all closely related to the tree-nesting diving ducks. The Bufflehead is the only tree-nesting duck that can use nest holes of Flickers, the other ducks needing larger cavities.
The clutch is typically 711, occasionally as few as 5 or as many as 14 eggs. Sometimes more than one female lays in one nest, leading to sets of 15 or even 20 eggs. Such "dump nests," which may be deserted without being incubated, are less frequent with Buffleheads than the larger ducks, which have more difficulty in finding nest sites. The eggs are usually laid at intervals averaging more than 24 hours. Incubation lasts about 30 days, and the hatch occurs in mid to late June. The ducklings remain in the nest 2436 hours after hatching and are then led to the nearest water by the female. Losses of young on the way to water may account for this species being scarce or lacking in areas with dense undergrowth.
The female tends the brood carefully for about a month before she departs to moult. The ducklings have to be brooded frequently when small and losses may be severe if cold, wet weather occurs when broods are less than two weeks old. Young may also be lost to pike and other predators, and on the average only about half of the young survive to fly at an age of seven to eight weeks. Meanwhile, the adult birds retreat to favoured lakes to undergo the annual moult of the flight feathers. The birds are flightless for three weeks at this time, which is usually in July for drakes and in August for females. In September, Buffleheads of all ages renew the body plumage and build up fat reserves in preparation for the fall migration.
Buffleheads occur from coast to coast, though they are seldom numerous. In spring and summer, most breed in British Columbia east of the coast ranges and in the northern half of Alberta, although small numbers occur east to Ontario or even Quebec, and north to the southern parts of Alaska, Yukon, and Mackenzie. In winter, they are common on Canada's west coast and regular in favoured spots around Lake Ontario and the southern coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. However, the majority winter in the United States, from New Jersey to North Carolina in the east, and from Washington to central California in the west.
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