One spot in the forest

One spot in the forest sees lots of visitors. It's an intersection of two animal trails that parallel a babbling brook.

Back on the 4th of July, the mother mountain lion came through and checked the pee mail.

Then there was a lull for a few weeks before a mother deer and a fawn arrived.

The mother deer hurried on while her fawn lagged at that dangerous spot. The fawn took off soon after this photo, running after the mother deer.

The fawn was back again two days later.

Less than 10 minutes after the fawn was there, the mother mountain lion arrived. I think that fawn was very lucky not to lose her life that evening.

The mother mountain lion decided to leave some pee mail.

Then, just two days later, another predator, a black bear, arrived to sniff the pee mail.

The bear didn't stay long. She bounded down toward the small stream.
I must say that the fawn has not appeared on the camera again since the mountain lion and bear came past it. I'm hoping that the mother smartly decided to move her youngster someplace safer.

The final visitor was the silly human who likes to monitor all this wildlife activity!

I've had a camera in this spot for a few years, and it rarely fails to amaze me how many animals visit it and sniff almost the exact spot where my front wheel was in this photo.

Summer Saturday!!!

Today is a glorious summer day - with sunshine and flowers.

My trail camera showed some of our young wildlife moving around. The next photo is the yearling moose calf who has acted as if he's been confused for the past few weeks. I could put together an entire video showing his travels. He keeps walking east for miles and miles. Then, for some reason, he makes a U-turn and comes right back to where his mom raised him last winter.

I will make that video sometime soon. It's so cool to have this guy in our forest. He's been staying well hidden from people. And, when I've glimpsed him, he quickly runs into the cover of the forest. He should move on at some point - finding his own territory. However, I'm starting to wonder if all the attractive moose territory near us is already taken by other moose.

Here was another young animal who came out of hiding the other day. Look how small that fawn is.

The fawn sniffed around the area, probably smelling some other animals, like moose and mountain lions, for the first time in his short life.

I adore this time of year - seeing the young animals who are so cute, and enjoying Nature's beauty which almost overwhelms me.

Happy Summer Saturday!

Beautiful Animals and a Thief

I love my trail cameras. They let me see what is going on in the forest, with a view that an actual human can never see because they scare the animals when they're around.

I've fallen behind in telling you about the very large numbers of mountain lions I've captured photos of recently. This was one of three occasions where I captured two lions together. I never saw the whole body of the second one so I'm not sure if they're a mother-kitten pair or a mating pair.

I'm guessing that they were a mating pair, because male mountain lions scrape the ground frequently, like in the next photo. This adult lion is in the process of kicking back with each hind foot, to leave a territorial "scrape". There's no reason for a male lion to be with another lion, except for mating.

For the following month, a mother deer and her fawns hung out in this spot. Aren't they incredibly cute?

And then, the top predator was back again. He sniffed the ground.

And then he carefully sniffed the low hanging tree branches. I'm betting that the deer had rubbed against them during their visits.

On the same night, I believe that the same mountain lion visited another "marking spot" that our lions are drawn to. I love this view... he looks so long and lithe.

Alas, today, I went out to check a favorite trail camera, and my faith in humankind was shaken again. The camera was gone - stolen. Some lowlife person must have seen it earlier in the summer, and then returned with tools for cutting the lock. So, it was "premeditated" theft.

It's amazing how I continue to be surprised by the downright mean behavior of some of our fellow humans. I should have learned by now that some people have no ethics. Instead, when I saw the camera's spot empty, I just stood there, feet stuck to the ground, as I attempted to digest the "news" that my camera had been stolen. I was shocked.

Just like last time this happened, I will not let the bad people win. Unlike when the first theft occurred, I now have a system in place that might help me get the camera back. The first time this happened to me, I had naively assumed that no one would ever steal a trail camera. Ha! I have some hope this time because I was prepared for it to happen again.

We will try to bounce back and forge forward, just like Sweet Shyla.

A Wet Summer

Thanks for all of the suggestions and encouragement during my time of computer chaos. I think that I have a blogging system that will work until I have my own computer in my hands!

This is one of the wettest summers in out area that I can remember. We often have clouds and moisture even first thing in the morning.

One plus side is that we mountain folks are not on edge about wildfires. The past few years have been incredibly stressful in that regard. Last summer at this time, everyone in our neighborhood listened to scanners so they'd know early if a fire broke out. Indeed, I found lightning-triggered wildfires that were just starting twice in the past two summers.

Shyla and I have been out every morning together recently. It had rained on and off since yesterday afternoon so we both got soaked from the wet tall grass and bushes during our mountain bike ride this morning. The only advantage to getting so soaked is the lack of fire danger!

The next photo was at the very end of our ride this morning. I was freezing cold from being soaked but Shyla loves this type of weather. It makes her fly!

Another plus to all this rain is that most of the plant-eating animals are doing really well. My trail cameras have seen lots of activity. I recently captured a photo of a worried looking fawn with her mom.

The fawn had good reason to be worried. A sow with a cub had been in this spot the previous day and then again the day after this. Black bears do prey on fawns but I suspect that this one is too big and agile for a bear to take it down.

I'll share more of the footage of this mother bear and her cub in an upcoming post!