Lake home of beaversA bow-hunter is at a bait again this evening a respectful ¾ mile away from WRI.
Elsewhere in the woods, trail cams are telling a story we wouldn’t have guessed. Two bears seem to be competing for a den. A lone bear, perhaps Ember, comes and goes during the night except when Lily and her cubs are there. 
1st beaver lodgeThis morning, Lily and cubs left at 3:22 AM. Ember? arrived at 6:33 AM and was in the den when the crew retrieved the card from the trail cam this afternoon. We don’t know who we are pulling for to spend the winter there—Lily and cubs or the other bear that is likely a pregnant 2-year-old female. Ember, if it is her, was orphaned when June was baited to a resident's yard where a hunter shot her on September 27, 2013. We like the idea of June’s daughter carrying on June’s legacy of teaching about bears.
2nd beaver lodgeToday, Donna and I checked two beaver lodges with thoughts of monitoring one or both of them with webcams over winter. Money for bandwidth to broadcast it may limit that. First, we checked a lodge that was established in 1977 where we had a camera in the winter of 2001. Video from that lodge will soon be playing in the Bear Center’s Ecology Hall. That’s the video of two beavers cohabitating with muskrats and one of the muskrats being killed by a mink. Although we have recently seen two beavers on top of that lodge, we saw no new sign of repair. We then checked a newer lodge on the same lake and found it covered with fresh mud and alder branches. Neither lodge had a winter food cache of branches in the water next to it yet. We’ll keep watching.
Mushroom topI’m still trying to identify the mystery mushroom from an update a week or so ago. Today I checked the identical mushroom that was growing next to it and found that its stem has now disintegrated, leaving the 8 ½ inch wide mushroom lying flat on the ground with dark blotches on the formerly white cap. I turned it over— inky black gills. Could it be an inky cap? I’m not a mushroom expert.
Mushroom undersideThank you again for the food donations that help keep the bears out of danger.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.