Bears Sign

Sharon and I went for a walk in the winter woods today.   It was too lovely to be indoors, really.  Some of our guests were out on snowshoes.

We saw tracks where some had also been by on skiis.  And back at the rink, there was a whole lot of skating going on, but we -- well we were out there in the silence and the sunshine just remembering that we need to inhale.

It was fabulous.  We found where the bear had signed the trees.  The big beech trees with their smooth gray bark that often gets the name of 'elephant legs' record any scrapes made on them.  Sharon found one tree where the bear had stood up and flexed his paw into the bark.  Big bear!  She was happy to know that this time of year the bear are all tucked snug in their winter dens.

A close look at this tree shows where young bears with smaller paws have scrambled all the way to the top. That is where the beech nuts are. Tasty things, beech nuts. The deer enjoy them too, but have to wait until they fall to the forest floor.

Bears don't have to wait. They can climb. That is a very tall tree. That is a very long climb for little legs!






We found squirrel tracks, rabbit tracks, and the teensy trails left by mice (dragging their little tails) and vanishing under the snowbanks.  We also found plentiful sign of deer, where they are yarding together in the hemlock forest.

Taffy was deleriously happy to be out there in the sunshine, with all the wonderful smells that a dog can find in a woodland walk.  Check out those ears!

For all the animal tracks we saw, it wasn't until we got home to Bondi that we found someone still standing in their tracks -- that was one of the deer, who was happily vacuuming up seeds at one of the bird feeders.

It was, as Taffy wrote in her diary, a GREAT DAY!

Bear With Us

It's the season for apples ripe on the old pioneer trees. Berries are done, but acorns and beech nuts are out in force. Bears, sniffing the air and smelling the approach of winter, are on the hunt for up to 20,000 calories a day. That's how bears bulk up for the long winter hibernation.

A few weeks back, some of our hikers reported spotting a small bear in the back field, near one of the old apple trees. About a week later, we had another reported siting, of a small bear skedaddling away from walkers on the Lookout trail. Out on a nature hike, I found bear scat (black bear scat... with seeds and twigs, not grizzly scat with bear bells and pepper spray) but knowing there are bears in the woods is one thing. Catching up with them is quite another. For one thing, it's hard to be that quiet, particularly now when the leaves are coming down, and are crunchy and rustling underfoot.

We are very Bear Aware here, because we do live with wildlife. We are -- and we educate all our guests -- to be very careful with garbage. Not to leave food on bbq's, or outside where the smell would draw in a hungry bear. When we get reports of bear sightings, we ensure that our guests know what to do if they do encounter a bear -- in anything other than the normal fleeting glimpse.

But getting a photo of our elusive wary neighbours is a challenge. Mike has a stealth game camera set up in the bush just now, near a deer feeding station. It's a long way from any residences, deep in the woods. You have to know where to go to find it. He was kind enough to share these pictures, of a young bear who is bound and determined that the food in that remote feeder is meant for him, and him alone.

Stealth cameras are wonderful for stuff like this. Brian has one -- he's got some great images of raccoons, skunks, even Achmed at midnight, misbehaving... They trigger on movement, and don't use a flash, so the animals aren't disturbed. The results can be lovely -- as are these, of our young bear, well away from people, just being a bear. We love to see photos of bears in the woods, provided we are not face to face with them at the time! And for their part, our bears have been models of good bear behaviour, staying well away from people and buildings.

Not like the wolf pack -- ten days ago, when Brian went out to fill up the wood furnace at 6 a.m., he heard the pack howling. Close. Very close. He walked to the edge of the big barn, and there, in the horse pasture by the Port Cunnington Road, he could actually see the pack milling about, howling to some more distant pack members across the road. Right there in the field! They were long gone before anyone else was up and about, and of course, no photos of them... But they, too, might wander into the viewfinder of the Bush Camera before we're done... we can only hope! We'd welcome some photos of them, as well!

Twice this autumn a wolf has trotted down the road while Nancy has been driving to meetings -- once on the Fox Point Road near Marsh's Falls. Once, half way to Dorset. On both occasions it was too dark, and happened too fast, for a photo op!