May Snow and Bears!

We had thunderstorms with snow last night so the world looked different this morning.

You can see storm clouds still stalled over the Continental Divide so we may get more this evening. Springtime in the mountains is a wild ride.

Shyla loves snow. She's been fervently wishing for it over the past few days! We usually get at least a trace of snow at our elevation most months of the year except for July and August.

Whenever she had a chance, Shyla's primary goal was to eat as much snow as possible!

I love the sight of snow hanging and glittering in the forest canopy.

Yesterday, I showed you a close up of an animal face that my trail camera captured. Many of you guessed right, that it was a black bear.

 Here was the arrival of the bear. My trail camera seemed to catch her attention right away.

And she headed for it. That's not uncommon - bears are very curious.

She spent a lot of time sniffing the camera, and I have lots of extreme closeups of her face.

As you know, I like to get to know our "resident" bears, including knowing their sexes, because it helps explain the behavior that I see. Well, this bear made figuring out that she was a female very easy when she stood up to sniff above the camera. You can see her two hind legs in the bottom of the photo.

 Then, she turned and walked away, leaving the camera hanging at an odd angle.

She's looking good for the end of winter. Last year was a good year for bear food so she started the winter nice and fat.

I suspect that she's a young female. That means that she's trying to set up a territory in this area. I captured more footage of her a few miles away, in a minor conflict with another young female (I'll share those photos soon).

This bear is probably the daughter of one of the two mothers who we saw last summer. Mother bears allow their daughters to stay nearby and even give parts of their territories to them. Sons, on the other hand, must depart to find a territory someplace else.

I desperately hope that we get to see our two bear families from last summer before the mothers drive the cubs away. The cubs are about 17 months old so, this summer, the mothers will send them off at the start of mating season (usually June). In my experience, the cubs become almost invisible after that traumatic event, as they hide in the shadows during their scary first summer by themselves. That's why I hope to see that they're okay before family break-up occurs.

There was one other treasure on the camera. A first for me - a Red-Naped Sapsucker.

It's Spring, and the animals are stirring! Yipee!