In the spring of 2013, he badly injured himself, and I feared that we'd never see him again. I was wrong. He disappeared for a while. He played very little role in the 2014 mating season - he didn't appear marking trees on Black Bear Trail. However, last year, he returned, looking stronger than ever!
The first glimpse of him this year was marking a tree on Black Bear Trail several miles from our house. He is a big and strong bear!
In the next couple of hours, he walked the miles to our house and showed up to work on how to pull down our bear-proof birdfeeders. I had a trail camera that shoots video pointed at the birdfeeding station that caught all his antics. You can watch the video here or at Youtube.
He didn't gain anything from all that effort. In fact, there was no food hanging up high on the feeding station. However, he did leave the pole leaning rather obviously in one direction. I think that the bird feeding station's inventor, the Runner, won this round but I also think that Milton is getting closer to a solution! The battle goes on!
None of the bears photographed by my trail cams have been the sow and cubs from the den yet. To make absolutely sure that I don't upset that bear family, I'm waiting a little longer before I go get the memory cards from the cams at their den.
While Milton worked on our birdfeeding station, we were oblivious because we were in the desert. Normally, we would've been out chasing a bear away after the dogs started barking at him. Instead, we were enjoying this quiet faraway campsite...
There were no bears at this campsite although lizards skittered around all the rocks!
Milton is looking great.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Buddy
Milton IS a big boy!!! And you can just see the wheels turning in his head as he plots his next move. We are so happy to see he is so well.
ReplyDeleteFascinating pictures
ReplyDeleteBoy, Milton is persistent!! What a great video, thanks so much for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteLook how handsome Milton is!!
ReplyDeletelove
tweedles
Milton is certainly persistent! Bummer that his payoff was zero.
ReplyDeleteWow! Milton is a BIG and strong bear! He is also a very smart bear...too bad his efforts were not rewarded. LOL
ReplyDeleteWe're glad to see that Milton is doing well these days!
ReplyDeleteHe looked rather determined. I suppose he'll be back for another try.
ReplyDelete"next time I'll get it" he says. What a magnificent fellow. And the vastness of the desert, this time of the year seems to be so beautiful there.
ReplyDeleteLove watching Milton 'think' how to approach the birdfood problem.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!! Cocoa is a bear hunter so I am not sure what would happen if we saw a bear!!
ReplyDeleteGood thing Shyla and R are home to protect the bird feeder from certain destruction!!
ReplyDelete-Otto
I am pretty sure that is Smokey
ReplyDeleteSnorts
Lily & Edward
Oh Milton,, you are sooo handsome!
ReplyDeletelove
tweedles
Crikey, that is a mighty big bear, KB! I don't know that I've ever seen one that size here.
ReplyDelete