Big Storms, Flowers, and Bears!

I woke up feeling better this morning. I've noticed out that sudden drops in barometric pressure trigger migraines for me. We're having daily thunderstorms, and, when the whole world turns dark just before a big storm, I often get a migraine. I'm hoping that there are no big storms in store for us tonight.

Feeling happy not to have a throbbing head, Shyla and I went for our mountain bike ride this morning.

It was muggy and somewhat cloudy, the aftermath of our big storms last night. Fortunately, neither of our dogs is afraid of thunder or other loud sounds (although there were no fireworks near us last night). To keep them unafraid, we play a fun "treat game" during thunderstorms. After the loudest thunder booms, we excitedly give both dogs treats!

The flowers are going wild in this wet weather. I think that there are more Columbines than I've ever seen.

Columbines are my very favorite flower so I can't help myself but take lots of photos of this year's bounty. Shyla is now well enough trained that I don't worry that she'll jump into the flowers, breaking them, so I can take her photo with them. I love seeing my beautiful girl with these beautiful flowers!

Other flowers have bloomed for much longer than usual, including the delicate Ninebark blossoms.

The one weather worry has been that our spring and early summer were cooler than usual, with a couple of very late deep frosts thrown into the mix. Consequently, the foods that our Black Bears favor are developing more slowly than usual. Most years, we have a nearby hillside that harbors endless Buffalo Berries - and the hillside rustles with foraging bears. In contrast, this year, some of those bushes have no signs of berries and some bushes have just tiny green berries, only now starting to develop. I suspect that the bears are having a difficult time finding the thousands of calories that they need to eat each day at this time of year.

Despite that, I haven't heard that bears have been spending too much time near human residences. I'm still catching footage of them in "their" territory. Here's a yearling cub who was checking out a bear-marking tree early the other morning.

 Then, she actually marked it, for the first time in her young life that I've "seen" with a trail camera.

Just hours later, our second-largest male bear, Milton Jr., passed the same tree. He didn't mark it but he seemed fascinated by the scent left by the yearling. He looks humongous compared to the yearling!

Based on my cameras, I know that the yearling doesn't spend a lot of time on this "bear super-highway". She usually appears at one tree, checks it out, and then seems to leave the path, perhaps to avoid meeting other bears. Being a small and inexperienced bear makes her shyer than she will be in the future. It's such fun to follow our bears using trail cameras!

Happy Saturday to all of you!