I took this video on a walk around my neighborhood last weekend. The lambs are out in full frolic. Even some of the adults are getting in on the action and kicking up their hooves. Spring is definitely in the air.
Around here the weather is warm enough year-round that the sheep will have babies at any time during the year. But spring is still when most of them arrive. This starts with the sheep’s “frisky period” in October, when rams and ewes are feeling particularly romantic towards one another. A sheep’s gestation period is about five months, so all lamb conceived in the late fall/early winter are being born now. Ewes usually bear two lambs, but three or even four babies is not unheard of. For sure, all of those siblings and herd buddies make great playmates.
My little village in the southwest countryside of France is surrounded by forest and fields, much of the latter devoted to agriculture. Spring sees a time of activity and change to the landscape. Now is the time for the seeds sown some weeks ago to burst forth with green shoots, and for the trees that have rested in dormancy to send out their floral displays. And so too do the farm animals heed spring’s call. There are new baby cows, sheep, horses, donkeys and goats in pastures, and I so love to stop and coo over them, their mothers generally eyeing me cautiously to make sure I’m not a threat. Be proud animal mamas, your babies are darling!
For those able, Full Frolic is the way to greet the day
Those critters stressing the fence and their faces "because the grass is definitely tastier on the other side!"
Another behavioral parallel with humans...
What floofy, bouncy neighbors you have!