First Bear of the Year!

Today, our rain became snow. When we went out the door, it was pelting snow, and the snow was accumulating so fast that our tracks disappeared almost instantly.

It almost stopped snowing near the middle of our ride, and I saw (gasp) a sliver of blue sky. That was very brief. The weather forecast now says that we'll get another 5-12" of snow tonight.

The news says that there are mudslides and collapsed roads from the rain and snow that's been falling for a week. The creek flow is the highest it's ever been since our big flood in 2013. And, everywhere I look, the ground is covered in a couple of inches of water. Fortunately for us, we live high above any creeks or wetlands so we are warm and dry sitting next to a crackling fire.

Needless to say, rain or wet snow makes me freeze when I'm riding my fat bike at a temperature of about 35°. After I'd left Shyla at home, my goal was to get a couple of trail cameras in position for the parade of black bears that should take place sometime soon near their favorite marking trees. I was successful but I was cold for almost the whole ride.

My bear preparations were sparked by finding the first trail camera footage of a bear marking a tree the other day. I put together a video from the still photos and the video recorded by my cameras. You can watch the bear here or at Youtube.

The bear in the video was a female. At first, I thought that she must have young cubs hidden high in a nearby baby-sitting tree. A babysitting tree is a tall pine tree with high branches where young cubs rest when mom is busy. I was basing that guess on the fact that she obviously doesn't have yearling cubs with her, and she looks mature, although smallish, to me. Then, the Runner pointed out that there are no visible enlarged teats on her belly... so perhaps she has no cubs right now.

We may find out in future trail camera footage! I look forward to the emergence of the bears all year long because it's so fun figuring out which sows have new cubs, which sows will be on the mating trail, and which big males have made it back for another year in our neck of the woods. Perhaps we'll see Milton, Milton Jr., and Tiny sometime soon!

Yipee for the Bears!

Predators and Prey All Around Us

The wildlife have been following their winter patterns, with the elk passing through here before big snows to go to lower ground.

Of course, they usually don't just "pass through" without lingering in the meadows to graze a bit.

Their predators, mountain lions, follow. You've seen this photo before. My trail camera took it when the elk herd was nearby. It's very rare for a mountain lion to be moving around in the midst of our trail system near the middle of the day.

You haven't seen the next photos yet, taken by a trail camera in the same general area. I quickly moved a camera to this spot after I saw many mountain lion tracks all over a look-out area where the grazing elk herd can be seen.

Within 24 hours, I had mountain lion photos taken by the newly placed camera. I believe that the photos show a mother mountain lion and a kitten. Here is the mother...

She stopped in front of the camera, with her beautiful long tail pointed toward it.

Then she turned toward the camera, perhaps noticing its soft red glow.

She sniffed the ground in front of it, almost exactly where I'd seen dozens of overlapping mountain lion tracks the previous day. She looked strong, and she had no paraphernalia like collars or ear tags weighing her down! Her belly wasn't bulging, suggesting to me that she was hunting.

After a short sniff, she walked toward the elk herd.

Then, about 40 minutes later, she passed the camera at high speed. The camera triggers within 0.1 seconds of an animal entering its field of view so this lion was moving fast, only letting the camera capture a view of her tail and back leg.

Then, about 5 seconds later, a smaller mountain lion sprinted past the camera going in the same direction as the first one.

My best guess is that this is a mother-kitten pair. However, because I didn't get a great photo of the second lion, it is also possible that it's a pair of adult lions who were fighting for position near the elk herd.

Since all the snow has fallen, the elk herd has passed nearby again, probably heading to lower ground where there's less snow. However, I can't ride my snow bike to the cameras that might have mountain lion photos on them because the snow is still too loose and soft.

In the meantime, we humans and dogs continue to go about our everyday activities. If I didn't have a knowledge of animal tracks and hadn't posted trail cameras in key spots, I'd have no idea that there was so much wildlife activity near us as we play, whether it be in the calm sunshine...

...or the wild and windy weather of recent days!

I'm so glad that our fiercest predators are flourishing despite the ever-increasing presence of humans and their pets. Except for rare cases, our mountain lions stay invisible, not wanting to interact with us. That's the best way for them to survive around unpredictable predators like us humans.

Snow and the Return of Milton!

Today, we awakened to a surprise flash of winter. It was snowy, cold, and beautiful. Shyla was ecstatic!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some struggles between Shyla and me, as she tested her boundaries like a teenager (and frustrated me immensely). Well, I've made a few changes to our routines, and she and I are back on track! I plan to write more about the specific changes in the future. For now, I just want to convey that I love her more than ever!

Perhaps the bears saw the winter weather coming. My trail cameras have captured an increasing number of bears, all trudging uphill toward the higher north-facing slopes to find dens. Some researchers say that bears pick out their dens in the summer - but the bears who I've photographed at the known den plus the bears who I've tracked in winter snow always seem undecided about where to den. Their tracks have shown me that they check out multiple promising places and even try to dig dens when there's already snow on the ground.

This week, I was hugely excited to see a big and familiar male bear return to our area. I thought that I saw hints that he was "Milton" in the first photos of him. "Milton" is the big male who hurt his right front leg very badly about 1.5 years ago. He disappeared from my trail cameras after that - so I thought that we might never see him again.

After seeing that a big male bear had visited two cameras on Wednesday, I discovered the jackpot trail camera footage yesterday. Milton had marked a bear tree in front of one of my trail cameras that shoots video. Because he stood on his hind legs to mark the tree, we can see his "trademark" white patch on his chest. He looks huge and strong and healthy. I was overjoyed to see him back!

Here is a video of his travels over the past week. The best footage is at the end, when the Milton marks the tree and I also show the limp he had before disappearing. You can watch here or at Youtube.

Many people told me how resilient bears are. Now I truly believe it, having seen this bear go from using an almost "tripawd" gait to having only a very minor limp.

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!

Zany Ears

Springtime in our neck of the woods is unpredictable and wild. Yesterday, we had a little bit of sunshine, teasing us before the current storm.

Because I've been a bit more subdued on our hikes since the migraine-induced haze hit, Shyla has been making fun for herself, zooming in circles around me carrying all sorts of objects.

When we returned home, a visitor came to our clearing who had zany ears! First, he peeked in the window just feet away from me - a Peeping Tom. Then, I went out to capture his handsome visage.

He was a dark-colored Abert's Squirrel.

He wasn't certain that he trusted me and stayed up high for a while.

Soon, he became curious and peered at me from his perch in a Ponderosa Pine. These squirrels live only in habitat that includes Ponderosa Pines, which limits their range substantially.

Since I hoped that he'd visit again, I went inside at that point to avoid scaring him off and to give him space to forage.

And, because it's wild and crazy almost-spring here, we woke up to this today!

Shyla wore my hat briefly, and then we hiked out into the snowy world. I've learned to welcome these wet snows that hit from March through May because they are nature's way of nurturing the wildflowers, the first of which should poke out of the ground in a month or so!

A winter day - and a bobcat

Tumultuous clouds that have hovered nearby for days finally hit their mark today.

As snow plummeted out of the sky this morning, I searched for ways to procrastinate about going out into the frigid and wet air. Finally, I decided to set up a fun photo with Shyla before we started our hike. The caption could be "An idyllic day for a picnic".
After our short photoshoot, we hiked into the forest. As usual, I ended up very happy that we went for a hike. Shyla gave it a high five despite the intense weather!

When the snow let up just a tiny bit, it was gorgeous.

When the weather is so tough, I always think of our wildlife, and I marvel at how they not only survive, but actually thrive, in our world. I recently checked a faraway trail camera to find that a bobcat had posed in the snow on a 5°F night.

After he pondered the world briefly, he turned rapidly toward the pine tree behind him. It appeared as if he heard something off to the left and was ready to flee.

He was next to a bear-marking tree, although no bears have marked it for a few months now. The bobcat paused next to this important wildlife landmark, and then departed.

On cold wintery days, I feel happy that I have a warm house with a crackling fire and a wonderful pack to relax indoors for most of the day. Mr. Bobcat doesn't have that - but he doesn't seem to need it.

It was a good day, because I was able to focus on the good in my life, rather than the tougher stuff.

Tiny steps

As I slept on the night before surgery, a bobcat walked along the side our house, within feet of our bedroom windows. Perhaps he read that I'd said such nice things about him the other day.

The next morning, we had to be at the hospital before dawn had broken so I didn't get see his tracks in our trail. But, my symbol of courage had been there - as this photo shows.

This morning (one day post-surgery), Shyla and I went for walk in the forest. I had a sling on my arm and haze of confusion in my brain. Oh my, the pain meds can addle my brain in a huge way. For example, I forgot my gaiters and got snow down my boots!

Shyla and I didn't walk far but we had fun along the way. She kept stopping to check on slow-poke KB.

I was going so slowly that she finally turned around to watch me carefully as I caught up.

I expect that helping me recover will be a maturing experience for Shyla. It was during my recovery from a major surgery that I felt like K and I became much closer. K seemed to suddenly feel responsible for watching out for me - and we became a team - each looking out for the other. Today, I felt like Shyla was starting to see that I needed her as much as she needed me.

Then, we came home and relaxed by the fire. Because I have this icewater machine that constantly circulates ice water around my shoulder - the fire is very welcome for keeping the rest of me warm. R loves the fire too - he likes to lie on the hearth as close to it as possible.

The quilt made by my friend, Jo, is also very welcome - it keeps me warm and reminds me of a wonderful friend.

My main companion by the fire has been the other patient in our family - R - who is recovering from elbow dysplasia surgery. He is still puppy-like in many ways but also has developed the maturity to know when hanging out close to me is wonderful!

My post-surgery situation is as expected- I am drowsy and dazed from all the pain medicine. But, if I reduce the pain medicine, then the pain is overwhelming. So, there's no escape from the pain pills yet.

I apologize in advance because it might be a while before I can leave comments on your blogs. Typing is very tough, and I know that the start of recovery involves tiny steps forward, interspersed with some setbacks. Despite all that knowledge, I felt reasonably upbeat today, enjoying my Duo and the world around us.