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.

The little brown cub made a hasty retreat to a different part of the yard.

And contemplated going up this tree.

Momma decided to join him/her.

Just another day in northern New Jersey bear country!

We have a lovely Burning Bush hedge in front of the house. Right now it’s going through a huge growth spurt (all this lovely rain!) and is threatening to take over the windows. It’s getting harder and harder each day to see out over it. The hedge is also a bird refuge. All manner of birds can be found throughout the day taking advantage of its protective branches. This hedge also happens to be directly under our second-story bedroom window. This hedge also harbors a mockingbird.

Each morning, promptly at four a.m., the concert begins. It starts out slowly and gains momentum. First a little chirp, then a few more, and then the full-blown repertoire begins. Really now, it’s all very pretty but it’s too darned early, Mr. Mockingbird!

The first morning this happened, it woke me up and I could not get back to sleep. Every time I’d drift back off into a light slumber, he’d wake me up again with his loud, clear notes. shut up! I silently screamed. When the concert began the next morning I drug myself out of bed, closed the window, and turned on the ceiling fan to help drown out the chatter. It is oh so annoying to be wakened before your time. Very annoying indeed. It’s enough to make you want to throttle the damn bird.

This morning, right on cue, I heard the first chirp and looked at the alarm clock. Yup, 4:07. I closed my eyes and went right back to sleep. Instead of keeping me awake, his singing has acted like a lullaby. 6:15 and I’m more or less awake. I lie in bed and see how many of his mimicking songs I can identify. This particular mockingbird is not the world’s best mimic. His notes get a bit garbled and hurried, but I can still pick out the goldfinch, the titmouse, and the wood thrush. Three repeats and the song changes. I have to giggle silently to myself (or the dogs will hear me and that will be the end of my pretending to still be asleep) because the songs and the way they change sounds a bit silly. Am I beginning to like this pesky bird?

In the two years that we’ve lived here we have never had a mockingbird around. Nor have we had any early morning songsters living in the hedge. Even though he’s as annoying as can be when he starts up at that hour of the morning, I guess he can stay. That is, unless he decides the hedge isn’t such a great place to live once Rick gets the hedge clippers out and gives the hedge a proper and much needed haircut. We shall see. If he decides to leave I might just miss him.

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!

In my yard ...

These are like little “pygmy” iris. They are tiny.

The yellow iris I “borrowed” from a neighbor at the end of the street.

More! Morels! Rick mowed the little piece of grass that I can’t reach with Johnny yesterday and found these:

A grandfather and grandson! Just growing in the grass, but adjacent to the flower bed where we found their “cousin” growing last week. Look how little the small one is next to my finger.

In this photo you can see how far apart they are growing from each other. See them? Big morel at the bottom of the photo; little one at the top in a direct line.

And, yes, we will be eating them ... soon.

These mushrooms were found growing in the backyard. I’m sure they have a name but we normally call this kind SBMs (small brown mushrooms). In other words, too hard to classify. No. We won’t be eating these.

As a side note: I sincerely hope no one was too upset by my “Morel” of the story the other day. My sister and Rick both found the story touching and sad. I guess my short story was a hit since I made my readers feel sympathy for a poor little mushroom!