Bathing Bears

It is summertime. We and our pups play in the fields, enjoying nature's beauty.

Even the Columbines next our house (planted by me, the one with black thumb) are blooming!

Summer is in full swing.

Consequently, the bears are going about their lives in the forests near us. It's been warm lately so the few pools of water have become more popular. A young female bear took a bath in a pool with breaks to mark a nearby bear tree. She has a "mohawk" fur pattern so I thought that I'd call her "Mohawk" for now.

Sadly, I am starting to believe that there is open territory for a young sow or even two - which may be why an almost-adult sow is moving into the area. Two years ago, we delighted in watching the antics of Cinnamom with her two cubs and Mabel with her single cub. So far, I have not seen either of those sows this year. Healthy sows have cubs every 2 years so this year should be a cub year for both of them. I'm holding out hope that they may still appear but I'm also realistic. It's not easy for a bear to live a long life in such close proximity to their worst enemies - humans.

Here is a video of Mohawk taking baths and marking the tree. Notice that she carefully uses her paw to rub her face while bathing. She also rubbed her face on a pine cone. I think she had an itchy face!

I will be sharing more footage from a different pool in the near future. Not only did Tiny the Bear soak in it but a hawk, owl, and a mountain lion visited it! These pools are fountains of life for the wildlife in the summer.

Happy Summer!

Bear Tales

Although it is still raining an extraordinary amount here, full spring seems to have arrived!

Springtime means lots of bear antics. Tiny has been very busy marking trees and marching back and forth on the mating trail.

 Too tall for my camera...

Wriggling his back against the trunk of the tiny sapling.

He was back again, at the same tree, two days later. No other bears had been to the tree between his two markings.

It still astounds me that bears do these goofy dances every spring. No one gets see them, except for my trail cameras!

After that marking, Tiny headed for "the" main marking tree this year. He is a massive bear.

At the main marking tree, something odd had happened. The mother bear, who we've seen once before with her cubs, had marked the tree! In past years, mothers with tiny cubs don't mark these particular trees during mating season.

This was the second very popular tree that my cameras had captured her marking. Tiny, our biggest male, seemed confused by the mother bear's scent. He was the next to come to the tree and spent his entire visit sniffing. A couple of days later, he came back and marked again. I have a video of all the action which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Another note - we haven't yet seen the two matriarchs with cubs yet. They are both on schedule to have cubs this year. I believe that we saw "Mabel" on one occasion, taking a mud bath.

We have not yet seen a glimpse of Cinnamom, the hilarious mother who captivated us with her antics two years ago. I worry about her. She had ear tags which meant that she had a strike against her, probably for going too close to human habitation. The last photo of her was last spring when she was marking trees on the mating trail, looking for a good father for her next cubs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we do get to see her again.

A howling concert!

Last night, just as the Runner was getting ready to take the Duo out before bedtime, we heard howls from right outside our house. Fortunately, I had a trail camera set to record video (with audio) pointed at the base of our bear-proof birdfeeding station. Be sure to turn on your audio (and prepare for your dogs' reactions) before watching! It's also available at Youtube.

We scared off the coyote by pointing a flashlight at him through the window before taking the Duo out. Coyotes flee at the slightest disturbance from us.

The coyote's concert occurred before a surprising snowstorm arrived. We awakened to 4-6" of wet snow this morning. It made glorious sculptures on the still bare aspen trees.

And, Shyla was an ecstatic pup! She looks more graceful by the day when she gallops through the forest.

You'll be seeing more snow photos here in the next few days. According to the forecasts, it will snow for the next three days with a couple of feet total of wet and heavy snow possible. It's okay with me if it's so gorgeous and it feeds our wonderful wildflowers!