Big snow this morning—at least 7 inches. Some bears will be too hard to get to until spring—even for young Jason (25). We very much want to get to all the dens with cubs before the bears leave so we can find out litter sizes before the cubs are out in the big world. Last night temperatures were 3 to 7 degrees below zero F. Temperatures range widely when it is cold because pockets of cold air settle here and there. This morning, it was 20 above, windy, and snowing like mad.
With all the snow, Jason worked more on your good den watch data from last year. We want to extract publications from that data with thanks to all who gathered it. And we want to know how to do even better in data collection this winter. A picture in last night’s update showed a portion of the form the data are in now.
Lily and Hope’s den(s) cam are scheduled to be installed December 18, so that occupies a lot of people’s minds—including the question of how we are all going to get to the den area in this snow. We’ll be doing some long snowmobile rides, it looks like.
Facebook continues to make changes that test our collective patience and resourcefulness. Folks have had a hard time enlarging the update pictures. In order to enlarge the update pictures in Facebook you need to open the update from within Lily the Black Bear’s Notes. Then, before you click to view the entire update, you can click to enlarge the picture. Once you have clicked to expand the update you cannot enlarge the picture until you go back to the Notes page by either clicking the ‘back’ button or by clicking on the ‘Lily the Black Bear’s Notes’ link just under Lily’s picture in the upper left of the screen. Another solution is to go to bear.org or bearstudy.org to read the updates. The pictures click big there without any extra steps.
Someone asked how we get the birds to land on our hands. Mainly time. A shortcut we tried years ago was putting a mannequin out to get the birds used to landing on a human shape. But the current batch of trusting birds took time a couple years ago. They come back each winter, and other birds get the idea and do the same. If we walk up the driveway or into the woods, several Chickadees and the occasional Red-breasted Nuthatch will follow. For Pine Siskins, American Goldfinches, and Common (or Hoary) Redpolls, the easiest way to get started is to have food on a big tray—big enough so a flock can land. Fill your hand with black oil sunflower seed kernels (i.e. no shells), then slowly approach the tray and put your hand next to the tray. The birds will quickly hop on. Redpolls are probably the tamest, followed by Siskins, and then Goldfinches. But as far as learning to follow and expect handouts, Black-capped Chickadees are the winners, followed by Red-breasted Nuthatches. But then, if you change the food, individual preferences show up. Covering your hat and shoulders with black niger thistle seeds does nothing for Chickadees and Nuthatches, but we’ve had as many as 17 Siskins and Goldfinches eating on a person at once.
Once upon a time, a Red-breasted Nuthatch learned that we were sources of mealworms in early summer when she was raising her brood. She would spot us from far away, take a mealworm, fly to her nest, and come back over and over. Gray Jays are notoriously easy to get to land on a hand in campgrounds, but we haven’t yet done that here. For those, suet is a better attractant than the sunflower seeds we use. Hand-feeding birds is a fun mind-reliever while taking a short break from writing—or walking to the mailbox a quarter mile away. Each year the Chickadees get more responsive to a hand being held out. A couple days ago, 51 Chickadees, including repeats, landed in quick succession in 5 minutes as the sun was going down and they were tanking up for the night.
A Lily fan designed the nice ‘Thank You to the City of Ely’ for their support toward protecting radio-collared bears. Someone said we should take out a big ad in the local newspapers and include the ‘Thank You’ design. We’re giving that some thought.
Tomorrow is the announcement, we believe, for the $20,000 you voted for Ely’s Schools. The Ely Area Food Shelf called and was delighted to get the first three donations from Lily fans. It’s harder to send donations there because they don’t have a pay pal account and can only get checks addressed to Ely Area Food Shelf, PO Box 786, Ely, MN 55731. Betty Firth is the manager there.
Thank you for all you are doing to show the importance of radio-collared bears to Ely.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center