Early Saturday morning, Rick and I were at our computers in the office when we heard a strange sound. It sounded like a low moaning. Rick glanced over at the window and said in a voice so as not to alert the dogs, Lynne, bears! At first we weren’t sure how many there were, but then counted four. A mother and three cubs, one of which was very brown (not black like the other two) and much smaller. Last year’s cubs, but why was one so small? An odd family.
I know it’s hard to see them in the following photo since the tree is in the way. But you can at least see three black “things” and the little brown cub. I apologize in advance for the grainy quality of the photos. The front yard was still in shade and the bears were always in motion.
I went upstairs and poked the camera out the window but it didn’t help much. I wanted to get their vocalizations on video. As I filmed, the mother bear decided to put one of the cubs in his/her place. Be sure to turn your volume up to listen to them.
As you already know if you read my blog regularly, bears are pretty common around here. Start talking about the bears that visit your yard to just about anyone and they will respond with how they love “their” bears. People can co-exist with bears.
I had been hearing about a BIG bear that had been causing some trouble (as in overturning large garbage dumpsters in town). In fact, Tim, who is going to do our kitchen and bath remodel, had actually seen him and was pretty angry with him for turning over his dumpster at his showroom.
What we all didn’t know was just how big this bear really was. 726 pounds of black bear. He was trapped on Saturday, tagged, and weighed. That’s one big bear! He managed to get his photo on the front page of the local newspaper.
The bear was found to have an old injury to his nose, part of it having been almost sliced off, so a veterinarian was called in while the bear was tranquilized. That vet happens to be my very own vet, Dr. Louer of Greenwood Lake Animal Hospital. Dr. Louer performed “plastic surgery” on the bear’s nose, stitching him back up the best he could. The following photos were taken by a vet tech who attended along with Dr. Louer. (Dr. Louer is in the middle.)
Take a look at his foot!! Looks like Yeti ...
And how about those teeth?
Here they are working on him in the field.
Yesterday I went to pick up some medication for Sailor and I was teasing them about their new patient. They are currently in the process of expanding their clinic and adding on, so I asked if they were going to have a special area for treating bears. They laughed and pulled out a photo album full of photos from the big event. They were great to see. How I would love posing with that bear! Ahem, as long as he was still tranquilized, that is!
They released him back into the same area. Let’s hope he doesn’t continue to get into more trouble! What a beauty!
This is half of my back yard. The trees have not completely leafed out yet but they are working furiously on it. This is one of my flower beds (or maybe I should call it a rock garden!). [Note: all photos were taken this weekend.]
Above is part of the other half, and my big flower bed which will soon have a large variety of things taking their turn blooming.
With all these trees it figures that we get lots of different birds. Some of them are not residents of our mountain highlands and live a bit further south, while others live here year round. The red-bellied woodpecker is one of those residents. [Please don’t ask why they call it “red-bellied” when it’s obvious that it’s head is the only red thing on this bird.]
This male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (and the female, next photo) we only see occasionally.
One of my favorites is the Indigo Bunting which we only see coming to the feeder in spring. They are so bright blue you can’t miss them even when they sit in the trees!
Of course we gets lots of these pesky (but cute) creatures.
This is growing in the woods just off the big flower bed. It’s a kind of Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I consider the woods inside our fenced area to be “my yard” as well, so this counts.
Rick found this on Sunday morning as he started to plant the marigolds in the front flower bed. It’s a white morel! More on that story in a different entry ...
And last, but certainly not least, the newest repeat visitor to the front yard. Patch(es). As I drove in the driveway returning from a grocery trip yesterday, there she was laying in the same spot again. I think she likes it here. I managed to catch her on video as she was leaving.
I do hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of things found in my yard!
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than Patch in my yard the other day, I had another surprise visit today.
Count ‘em! FIVE BABY BEAR CUBS! In my yard/driveway! Two weeks ago they were sighted by my neighbor Luke, and also had their photo on the front page of our local newspaper when they happened to visit the community down the road from us, but I never thought they’d show up in my driveway! Last week Luke and I trudged up one side of the mountain and back down the other in search of this family unit with no success. Go figure.
You have to agree that they are just totally adorable. They didn’t stop to visit so I had to be quick and shoot the photos through the upstairs window (with screen) so the images are not as clear and sharp as I’d like, but at least I managed to capture them.
Look how eensy the littlest one is! I don’t know how old they are exactly, but I’ve had puppies bigger than this at 8 weeks of age! My goodness!
“Wait for us momma! We’re trying hard to keep up with you!”
And oh, as for a name ... uhm ... how about Myrtle? (As in Fertile Myrtle.) Luke has already named the cubs “The Fantastic Five” which I thinks fits them extremely well. I don’t know how usual it is for a female to have five cubs, but here they are!
I had a visitor yesterday afternoon. She made herself quite at home in my front yard.
“Ho, hum, I kind of like just laying here licking up seeds.”
“aahhhh ... time for a little stretch!”
“hey, did I say you could take my picture?”
“well, okay, go ahead then.”
“pretty, aren’t I?’
At first when I saw a tag in each ear and the darkish face of this bear I thought it was Minor, the cub from the year before. But after I looked up the photos of Minor I could see it was a different bear. The ear tags are in different spots. So, a completely new bear, and a young one at that. Probably a cub from last year turned out on her own.
I took these photos from the upstairs window that does not have a screen. She only looked up at me when I opened the window enough to get the telephoto lens of my camera out; she didn’t move an inch. She acted like she was right at home. She stayed until the mailman came by and he spooked her into the woods.
She came back twice more yesterday, the third time being after Rick had come home, so he got to see her. I had told him about the bear visits, so as he drove past the bottom on his way home he was looking for her. He saw her roaming around down there in the woods. Not ten minutes after he walked in the door we got a call from neighbor Kim alerting us to the fact that she was once again laying in front of our windows. We watched her for quite a while, but it soon became obvious she wasn’t in a hurry to move on. She scratched and pawed and found seeds that I think may have been buried all winter. She did a lot of just laying there like an big, black, overgrown dog. Lazy bear. She reminded me of Doris who was always the lazy one and did the very same thing. I wonder if this is her daughter?
New bears have to be named. This bear had a distinguishing feature (other than the placement of her ear tags): a triangular patch of brown on her chest. So, by the authority vested in me by the black bears of my neighborhood, I hereby name thee “Patch.”
We’re hoping she’s taken up residence in our woods. Come back soon, Patch!
Page 8 of 12 pages
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