Glowing dogs and bear mating season

I'm not sure that our girl is feeling great today... but hopefully it's just a glitch and she'll rebound. To soothe my scared feelings, I looked at a few of the photos from our trip when she glowed with happiness. This photo shows K standing in a splash of sun filtering through the trees at sunset of one day that we spent in the Utah mountains.

A little later in the trip, we endured a sandstorm in the desert that lasted almost an entire day. The wind died down just at sunset, and I captured this photo of our Duo. You can even see the red sand that was embedded in R's fur from the sand storm, even though we spent most of the day holed up in our van. Whew - we were very happy when that desert storm ended.

I'll tell you more about the trip tomorrow. First, I want to catch you up on this exciting time of year in terms of wildlife activity.

While we were away, the bears were in a mating season frenzy here at home. I thought that I'd chronicle the daily life of one poor bear whammy tree that was repeatedly marked by bears. This behavior is a way of scent-marking and attracting mates. You'll see that the season hasn't ended. The last photo was from this morning. All the photos were taken by my trail camera, a motion activated camera posted in the woods. Check out trailcampro.com if you don't know about these amazing cameras.

I realize that there are a lot of photos here but I thought that they just might make you smile.

I'll start with when the bear whammy tree was mauled at the end of April.

Then, a little bear, who I think is one of the cubs from last summer, attempted a tree marking. Like all the young bears who I've observed, this youngster hasn't yet figured out that she should rub her back on the tree...

More than a week later, a big brute visited the same tree. He sniffed it first.

Then, he rubbed his back on the tree while peeing at the same time. He's a multi-talented guy.

His marking went on and on. He tried a unique move, shimmying downward as he rubbed the trunk.

A few days later, a cinnamon-colored bear visited the same tree.

He sniffed first while sticking his rump toward the camera...

Then, he marked it...

 And marked it...

Then he launched into a unique dance move before departing...

I think that the next visitor was the same bear as on 5/17.

This marking session was shorter than the last one.

But, it was creative...

Finally, this morning, a brute marked the poor tree... Is it any wonder that the pine saplings that serve as bear whammy trees never grow very big?

Just one more funny bear note. The tree in the next photo is in a different part of the forest. The little bear, who I think is one of last year's cubs, tried to mark it. Look how she's standing on her tippy-toes. She hasn't learned to rub her back against the whammy trees yet.

For comparison, a huge male marked the tree a few days later. Based on my photos at this tree and at others, I have the impression that these two bears, the little cub and the big brute are following each other on their rounds of tree-marking, which suggests that they may pair up to make cubs sometime soon.

I adore watching bear behavior at this time of year. We got a unique view of it during our trip... but I'll save that story for another day.