Summer of Bears...

This summer has been a real SOB so far.  Summer of Bears, that is.

Mary and I have seen a number of our ursine neighbors out and about this year.  Most of the time we see them walking along the edge of the forest on the ridge to the south of the cabin.  It's always exciting to watch them browse from that safe distance.  

We had a great experience yesterday.  Mary went to the monthly meeting of her neighborhood book club - no, she didn't read the book - and saw a bear just off the road on her way home.  We occasionally see bears on the road leading to our place in the summer.  There are several wild raspberry bushes in the borrow ditches and the bears love to munch on the sweet treats as part of their preparation for the coming winter.  It was fun to see her so excited as she told the story of her brief encounter with a large black bear.  He didn't stick around long; she said that once he saw her coming, he gave her a look of frustration and lumbered up the hill and back into the woods.  Apparently, he wasn't pleased to be chased off the raspberries.

We headed into town that afternoon.  The annual High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass fest is being held in Westcliffe this weekend.  Mary and I aren't really fans of bluegrass, but the fest is always a good time.  As we're driving that same road toward town, I see a bear in the ditch along the road and say, "There's your bear." Mary replies, "No, that one is brown.  The one I saw was black."   We stop and watch as the bear gives us that look of frustration before turning into the trees.  In the background, I see the black bear, too!  He's already heading into the woods, so I creep the car toward them.  We saw both bears as they moved away from the road (and the raspberries).

It's odd to see two adult bears hanging around so close to one another.  It could be the food source that is making them so tolerant of one another, but the raspberries haven't quite popped just yet.  Of course, there's another reason a big boy (the black bear) and a grown girl (assuming the brown bear is female) get together.  Especially in July, which is the middle of the mating season for black bears.  I'm thinking that maybe these two saw each other's profiles on a dating app - that's the scent trail in the world of bears - and decided to hook up at the raspberry bar.  If they're compatible, we might just see a couple of cubs next spring.  

Really cool stuff.  

In other news, I managed to grab my trail cams last week.  A couple of them hadn't been touched for almost a month and I got some really good video.  In addition to birds, squirrels, coyotes, mule deer and elk, the cameras captured 11 different bears since June 6 (we've seen 17 individuals so far this year), a couple of bobcats and a striped skunk!  There are too many videos to post at once, so I've selected a few for your viewing pleasure.  I'll post others sometime down the road. 

We'll start with the big black bear with the white spot on his butt.  We saw this guy walk all the way from the southeast corner of our lot, up along the ridge to the south, past the stock tank and up and over the ridge to the northwest of the cabin.  He was heading right for the raspberry bushes.  Or the brown female.  Or both.  He's the same black bear we saw on the road last night.

Forgive the camera work, please.  I took the video from the dining room window so it's shaky in spots.  I cut and pasted a few segments together and it turned out to be about three minutes long.  Feel free to fast forward if you get bored.  Also, there's no audio (sorry).  I had to mute it because Mary kept making silly comments while I was filming.  Or maybe it was me.  Either way, I cut the audio...

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This next bear could be the girl in our little love story.  It looks small enough to be an adult female but too big to be an adolescent.  Also looks a lot like the bear we saw on the road yesterday...
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This next footage is a really cool video.  We see an adolescent bear first.  It's got a tag in its ear and that means he (or she) has gotten into a bit of mischief.  One tag means the bear has been caught and released after getting into or damaging someone's property.  A second incident would result in the bear being put down and that would be a shame.  The tagged bear is surprised by a second adolescent following close on its trail.  You'll see its reaction in the video.  It's fun to watch.
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I'll end the post with the striped skunk.  We rarely see skunks up here, but they seem to walk past the water hole once a year or so.  They're really pretty animals; too bad they're such little stinkers...
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