Summer's Bounty

I love riding my mountain bike in mid-summer's glory on high alpine trails.

It never gets old, even after years of exploring.

While I'm out there, I sometimes see marmots. This one seemed so tame that I wondered if people had fed him. I talked with him for a while - and I named him Marvin. Do you see his two buck teeth? He's a huge rodent with the teeth to prove it.

Every year, I feel like the bottomless wildflowers are a gift, and I love playing with the Duo in them.

We play and play and play.

And then, some days, sunset is glorious. Do you see the almost full moon above the mountain?

This particular sunset, viewed from 11,300' in the mountains, got more intense by the moment. The mountain in the photo is almost 14,000' tall.

That almost full moon made the sky bright blue as the stars streaked across it over the course of almost an hour.

The bounty of summer is endless!

Wordless Wednesday

Cloudy skies in the morning...

Lead to a pretty sunset...

The Intensity of our Black Dog

R is a Lab who one trainer called a "10,000 Volt Dog". When he chooses to do something, he throws all his energy and enthusiasm into it.

He's willing to sit still if we ask him to "stay".

But he's not always happy about it. Sometimes I think he's protesting by refusing to open his eyes for a photo!

That is, unless he hears me pull out a treat. Then he's interested!

But, R is happiest when he's in action. He doesn't require treats to look happy and intense while running!

This is the kind of image that comes to mind when I think of R being happy - ears flying in the air as he's sprinting directly to me.

I'm glad he ended up with us. Without a very active life, R couldn't be happy. But, as long as he gets to sprint at full speed every day, he's a content dog.

Action at a Bear-marking Tree

I recently went through every bear visit to a marking tree that my trail camera had recorded. I picked one photo per visit to show you, to give you an idea of how important these marking trees are to bears.

After a 6 month hiatus for hibernation, the first visit to the tree was in late May. I believe this was Milton, a male who has spent mating season here for many years.

To kick off the mating season in style, Milton came back an hour later to mark the tree again.

The next visitor, an even bigger male (named "Tiny"), also marked the tree. The competition for the females was underway!

Tiny was determined to make sure his scent was all over this tree so he returned again a couple of days later.

Milton and Tiny were really in competition at this point. Milton marked the tree again. But, you may have noticed that NO females had yet visited the tree.

Later that same day, a big male bear came past the tree. I'm not absolutely certain but I think this was "Tiny" again.

He passed the tree twice that evening, not bothering to mark it the second time.

Again, three days later, a big male passed the tree and didn't do a full marking. He just rubbed the tree with his side as he walked past it.

Finally, about 8 days later, a smaller bear, perhaps a female who could be a mate for all those males marking the tree showed up.

Then, yet another female arrived after the tree had been vacant for a while!

And she decided to mark it. I believe this is our new female bear ("Dot" for the white dot on her chest), who is filling the empty territory after the loss of our two matriarchs in the past year.

For good measure, Dot marked it again a few days later.

Then a larger female came through. She visited the tree just once.

In the midst of all the female visits, one of the big males checked out the tree. I'm not sure which male this was but he must have been happy to know that there were some females in the neighborhood. It is confusing, however, that mating season theoretically had ended by this point (it's usually in May and June).

The very next day after the male, Dot came back. She sniffed the tree, doubtless learning that another female had been there and that a potential mate had visited.

Ten days later, she checked the tree again.

That was the all the bear visits through the end of July - a total of 15 visits by 5-7 different bears. I suspect that I'll find that more bears have been there the next time I check the camera. However, the marking behavior will probably be tailing off as the bears are focused on getting fat in August!

A bear marking tree is a key communication center. Every now and then, a bear marking tree gets cut down or mowed over, and I always feel sad, knowing the role it's played in the lives of the bears. I hope that this mangled little tree stays standing for a long time!

Superstar Sunday - Black Dog and Stars

When we camp, I love playing with our dogs by day, especially in mountain lakes.

Got it!

And gazing at the stars by night. The next photo was a time lapse from a dark night after the moon had set.

Life feels so simple when we're camped out in the quiet of the mountains.

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.

Feline Friday: Mother Bobcat and Kittens

It is our lucky year. Not only do we have a mother mountain lion and kittens in our neck of the woods, but we also have a mother bobcat with two kittens.

A long-term trail camera that hasn't seen much activity this year captured their antics. Mom arrived first and check out the scene.

I think she noticed the camera but she's used to my cameras by now.

Then, the first young one appeared. Look at that little kitten!

Soon, the second one emerged from the forest, and the three of them proceeded to hang out in front of my trail camera!

They started playing. To my low resolution camera, it looked like a big pile of bobcat fur. However, I assure you that mom and two kittens are in that pile.

Suddenly, mom and one kitten alerted, staring in one direction.

Very soon thereafter, mom got to her feet and led her kittens back into the forest.

These are, by far, the youngest bobcat kittens I've captured photos of.

I guessed that a mother bobcat had kittens in this area about 3 weeks ago when a trail camera captured a photo of a bobcat carrying prey. The only time that bobcats carry prey long distances is when they have a den of kittens who they are introducing to solid food.

So, we have another feline family to follow. This summer and fall are going to be fascinating!

The Black Dog Update

Since the poisoning incident, R has been wearing a muzzle most of the time when he's outdoors. Fortunately, he is a very confident dog so it doesn't affect him much. Also, fortunately, Shyla hasn't needed a muzzle. I would worry that it would set back her growing confidence. It must be scary to feel that you can't defend yourself due to a muzzle.

When we do our stay or recall practice, it doesn't cross R's mind to look for mushrooms so he's okay without his muzzle. I think the "freedom from the muzzle" during training has made him love it even more.

A recall race, cheek-to-cheek...

We are all looking forward to when the mushroom crop disappears so we can put the muzzle away all the time.

We feel very fortunate that R doesn't seem to have any long-term effects from his poisoning. We may do one more blood test to be absolutely sure because he has lost a little weight since the incident. However, I think we're just being paranoid, and the test will be fine.

We know how lucky we are to still have R with us after almost losing him.