Black and White Sunday: Black Bear and Cub

I mentioned last week that my trail cameras captured photos and footage of a black bear mother and her cub. I've dubbed this mother bear "Mabel". These photos astounded me because the pair has gained so much weight since we last saw footage of them. Here is Mabel arriving in front of a bear marking tree. It looks to me as if she was lying in a bed of leaves for a while and many of them are stuck to her fur.

A short time later, her cub arrived. This cub is in superb shape for the start of winter. S/he has so much fat!

Then, mom exited the picture while her cub stood up to sniff (and perhaps mark) the tree.

I was lucky enough to capture footage of them in three different locations. The photos above are from the last location. I put together a video that shows them in three different spots along a mile or so walk.

You can enjoy the video here or at Youtube.

I suspect that Mabel and her cub are tucked away, starting their winter snooze now. During an outing the other day, I found bear cub tracks heading toward the bear den that I know so well because it was used by a bear family a few years ago. My fingers are crossed that one of our bear families will choose that den so that we can watch them this winter! It's a big enough den for a whole family!

Sunrise and Bears

After Shyla seemed hot yesterday during our bike ride, I promised myself to regularly get out on the trails earlier while the warm weather is here. We saw sunrise again today!

I think that Shyla loves it as much as I do. We play and relax in the early morning time when the new day is dawning.

I love Shyla's intensity. She adores scanning the forest with her nose but she stays nearby even with tempting scents all around her.

Some of those scents might be our bears. I've captured lots of bear action with my trail cameras in recent weeks but I've fallen behind in showing it to you. Much of the action has been at springs where the bears go to drink and cool off.

The larger female who we've dubbed "Cinnamom" has two cubs. Her territory overlaps with the black sow's ("Mabel") territory. It's been interesting to see the behaviors of the two of them. Cinnamom has taken to marking trees near valued resources like water sources.

Standing tall...

Rubbing her back hard against the tree (notice her enlarged teats)...

And posing for the camera...

Here are Mabel and her cub near the same tree. There is a spring within about 30' of this tree and another one within a quarter mile that both mother bears seem to value highly. As a side note, look how big Mabel's cub has become! Single cubs get lots and lots of milk and grow quickly.

I captured footage of both sows and their cubs in the springs. First, Cinnamom and both cubs visited a small pool fed by a spring (watch here or at Youtube).

Then, both mothers visited another spring within a half day of each other (Youtube link).

Based on recent sightings, it seems that Cinnamom has headed away from these springs while Mabel (black sow with one cub) is still near them. It'll be interesting to follow them as the summer season winds down.

Thank you to all of you who voted in the Trail Camera contest. I got third place in the US and Canada category due to your votes! Unfortunately, that doesn't come with a prize but it's a big honor because the competition was so tough. I'll enter again in the future!

Bear Play

While I was in the high mountains, the mother bears and their cubs were enjoying an incredible berry season. The size and abundance of all sorts of berries exceed any recent season. I personally love the raspberries, which are usually tiny, but are almost as big as store-bought raspberries this year.

Perhaps partly due to the abundance of food, the mother bears and their cubs have been very relaxed lately, playing in front of my cameras.

My cameras have captured video footage of the play at two different springs. Some of the play was by Mabel and her cub, while Cinnamom also played with one of her cubs. The two sows seem to have gone back to their original territories with the springs shown in the video being close to the dividing line between them.

You can watch the footage here or at Youtube.

Our world near home is still beautiful and bathed in the warmth of summer, as you can see in last night's hazy sunset.

As a last note, I promise that I'll stop reminding you about the trail camera photo contest that I entered very soon (the last date to vote is 8/18/13). You can read about the contest and how to vote in the last paragraph of a previous post. Since only one vote per email address is allowed, there's no need to try to vote a second time! Thank you for your support!

I'll tell you more about our alpine trip in the coming days.

Milton the Black Bear

Trail camera photos of bears make my heart sing. Shortly after one of our big April storms, a bear walked in the woods. Look at the size of his hind paw covered in sticky snow.

This bear is not "Tiny". Unlike Tiny, this bear has a white blaze on his chest. However, he's as big as Tiny, which tells me that he's "Milton", usually the most prominent male bear in our area during mating season.

He is passing a bear tree in these photos but did not mark it. Indeed, both he and Tiny have passed this tree several times in the past month but neither has marked it yet.

He gazed into the distance before moving along.

Compared to those snowy days when Milton was traipsing around the forest, we've had gorgeous weather recently. Shyla and I have adored our sunny and warm bike rides.

Alas, another storm is starting right now. No one seems to know how much snow it will bring - but it could be a big storm. I feel like covering my eyes just like Shyla!

I'll try to visualize Columbines falling from the sky as it snows, because of course, the gorgeous wildflowers cannot grow without the spring snows!