Golf balls.

I walked by a golf ball today, a yellow one, under the camper. The first golf balls we found on our farm were on the field just north of the house and we had assumed that our tenant's kid had stood on the small hill and hit some golf balls into the field. I think the kids even found a discarded golf club in one of the outbuildings.

So a golf ball - no big deal.

Then in the summer of 2009 we were clearing the fence line on the 240 (acres) and we found golf balls. Only a bit weird. This area had been an agricultural lease and someone may have hit some golf balls around in the past. Then we started the fencing - 2.25 miles of 4 strand barb fence. A large undertaking. More golf balls, only this time they appeared on the swath cleared by the bulldozer, obviously since we had been there last....

It took until 2011 before I figured it out. That's when there was a fresh golf ball almost every time I went quadding on "Denise's" (the quarter section to the east of where our house is). I have to admit, it wasn't until I saw them flying around with golf balls that I figured it out. RAVENS! and we are actually very close (as the crow raven flies) from Aspen Grove Golf Course. The local ravens pick up the golf balls and drop them on our farm. They probably enjoy watching them fall from great heights. There seems to be a great proportion of yellow and orange ones, I wonder if the ravens find these more attractive, and you have to wonder whether the golfers miss them. Perhaps, the ravens are stealing them during their games and the poor golfers can't find their ball... not realising they are being stolen.

Perhaps this activity also explains the piles of yellow fencing insulators that we sometimes find in the spring.