black bear

Well it has finally happened. Once again a black bear sited very close to our cabin.
Each year I anticipate it and then I dread it and then I use the experience to gain courage.

I think my instincts were right on the last few days. I noticed myself looking left, right and centre as I stepped out the back door. I knew why I was doing this because I did not want to walk in a black bears' path.

For many years the only evidence of bears was their scat, or a mauled piece of old stump, or a Saskatoon tree bent to the ground.

Then last year a very large, and I mean large [about 300 pound] black bear meandered through our front and side yard about 6 am. The dogs went mad and barked in a new way, never before heard.

We never did see this bear again,but of course we saw the above mentioned evidence. In addition the yellow and black ground wasp nest was decimated [ thank God]. These suckers are about 1.5 inches long and gave my husband an brutal sting, his arm swelled up, very red and nasty looking for about a week.

Well now our new small black bear about 150 pounds was snooping around the shed, by a tarp that was covering our bikes. My husband stepped on the porch, making a racket and this young bear ran off, but I watched as he/she sneakily stopped just in the bushes waited for the noise to stop and then sauntered back. Maybe, hopefully he/she is too immature to know about such warnings. I really do not want to have to deal with what might be called a nuisance black bear, one that has had opportunity to eat from what I would call human carelessness. Since we have lived here we have not had outdoor cooking, eating or garbage storage. I believe this is one reason we have had only evidence. Now having sited these bears it becomes a bit worrisome.

This now leads me to courage. The courage it will now take me to continue walking the trails alone each day. Today we all went together, my husband and the 2 dogs. Later I took each dog one by one with me, to help me get past this psychological barrier.

I am sure no bear will come near me as I have a loud bear bell that will alert any animal that I am approaching, but, I still will take the dogs for a few more days. I am a chicken heart.

hawk alert

Yes we have 2 large hawks which arrived last night. The one swooped down to try to snatch up our resident bat. This bat has been starting his rounds early as compared to some years. He is seen at about 7pm and here we experience daylight till about 10pm. or even 10:30pm.

The bat was of course very agile and swift heading into the forest,with the hawk following close. I will be looking for this bat tonight.
In addition to this, I am worried like a mother hen about our sweet little hummingbirds with the arrival of the hawks. They too are masters in aerobatics, so I do hope they are not too vulnerable.

These hawks have been here before and according to the books I have that help to identify they are probably rough shinned hawks. Their hunting is usually done together as a team and the little kee was so small as to make one think they were harmless.

We also have ruffled grouse here and I startled one the other day. I think she is guarding a nest or even young chicks. She played the injured squawking bird. At one point I would have sworn she was making a loud meowing cat noise. Quite the show, and really a great way to distract her enemies.

It is a privilege to view, hear, see and experience such an abundance of wildlife.
Blessings are sometimes such as this.