First Bear 2021

I made my regular trip around the property to collect camera cards the other day.  My son Craig was along and it was good to have the company.  I figure the bears should be waking up at some point over the next few weeks, so walking alone out there gets a little creepier.  Not that I worry too much about that sort of thing - bears tend to leave you alone - but it does add to the excitement whenever you hear things moving about in the woods while hiking.

Anyway, I was disappointed with the results.  The spring season is still pretty young and the snow still fairly deep in places, so I shouldn't really get my hopes too high this time of year.  That said, getting one short video out of six cameras is pretty disheartening.  I'm also not really sure what I'm looking at here.  I'm thinking it's a fox, but I guess it could be a small coyote.  We don't see too many foxes up here; thus, my confusion.  I'll leave it for you to judge...

I had just started dinner last night and as is my habit, I scanned the hillside outside the kitchen window to see if any wildlife had made an appearance.  I see a dark, black shape near two big pine trees about halfway up the slope and immediately run into the bedroom to get Mary.  "There's a bear outside!" I whisper-scream (a whisper-scream is a sound you make when you want to express excitement but don't want to scare the wildlife).  We run back into the kitchen and there he is, grazing just up the hill from the house. 

I grabbed the video camera and notice the battery is dead (of course!).  Fortunately, my point and shoot camera has a nice long telephoto and also records HD video, so I set that up on a tripod and start filming.  I alternate between camera and binoculars in order to get the best views possible.

I have gotten to know some of the resident bears through years of capturing them in high def.  They all have different colorings, different body types and some identifiable scars that allow me to make a pretty good guess about which bear I'm looking at.  This guy looks like a bear I named "Handsome."  Handsome is just a really beautiful bear.  His coat is dark black, always neatly combed (how he does it, I don't know) and there aren't any scars or other imperfections that would mar his appearance.  He seems healthy and well fed no matter the time of year.  All this matches the bear in the video, but I won't be sure until I get a few close ups.  I'm hoping I caught him on one of the trailcams so that I can confirm his identity.

Without further ado, here are the videos of our first bear in 2021...

You can see that he's grazing.  Black bears are omnivores and will eat just about anything.  Plants, insects, small game (whatever they can catch, including baby deer and elk), carrion.  At this time of year, the grasses haven't really emerged yet and there aren't many insects to munch.  I'm thinking this guy is loading up on elk poop.  When Craig and I hiked that hillside the other day, there was plenty of it out there.  Looked like a field of milk duds.  While I can't vouch for the nutritional value of elk poop, I know that dogs love it and that makes me assume that bears wouldn't turn it down, either.  Especially in the absence of other sources of food and after a number of months of hibernation.   Whatever he was eating, he spent quite a bit of time working at it...

While we were watching the bear, about a half dozen elk also came out of the trees.  I chose not to film them, but it was interesting to see them out there at the same time the bear was grazing.  Adult elk don't have much to fear when it comes to black bears - especially at a distance - but I would have thought they'd be more concerned about it than they appeared to be.  

When I collect the trailcams next week, I'll try to confirm that this bear is the one we call Handsome.  When he walked away, he headed straight for the water hole where I get some of my best videos.  I'm hoping I get a few more good shots of him there.  There's another bear with a dark black coat in the area, but he's got a scar on his shoulder.  If we get good shots with the trailcam, we should be able to tell which bear this is...

We saw 13 different bears in 2020, including a mama with a newborn cub.  It'll be interesting to see how many pass through our place this year.  Hoping to see more cubs, too.  Should be fun!