A beautiful day. Blue sky. 50 degrees. Snow melting. And Lily et al. and Jo both spent most of the day scouring a 150 yard radius around their trees for spring tidbits. If yesterday’s scats from Lily were any indication, those tidbits are snow fleas, new green shoots, and old vegetation from last year. They may also be finding pussy willows. In some years, bears would be starting to climb aspen trees for catkins now, but the unseasonably cold temperature is delaying that. This is the time of year when bears are tempted by carcasses that the melting uncovers. These aren’t favorites, but choices are limited. Eagles are looking for those carcasses, too, and are pulling dead fish out of melting ice on the lakes. The migration north is in full swing with bald eagles soaring in low circles over icy lakes and leafless forests. Birds at the feeders now include juncos, siskins, redpolls, tree sparrows, and fox sparrows on their way north.
The time with the bears yesterday was interesting as always. They showed their individual personalities, which includes how they judge the safety of their surroundings, including us, moment by moment. The first yellow-bellied sapsuckers of the year were drumming loudly within 50 feet on two sides of the bears, but the bears paid no attention. Lily was calm when Lynn’s behavior was routine and predictable. For example, when Lynn sat beside her on a rock ledge to get her heart rate in exchange for a handful of grapes, she understood. She even let Lynn push her into a sitting position so he could reach her heart better. When her arm was in the way, she moved it. But later, when Lynn was doing gyrations trying to keep from falling on her as he slipped on a patch of snow, she blew in anxiety and later hurried past him instead of walking calmly.
We haven’t tried to get near Faith after she screamed when Lynn tried to touch her last Tuesday. Now that Faith is past the stage where touching is bonding, the only thing we can do is be patient, keep our distance, and be non-threatening presences for the long haul. This is all because we stayed away to watch the PTZ camera when we should have been with her. But we couldn’t have it both ways, so we maximized our first opportunity to watch a family outside their den without anyone around. Faith plays with Hope and Lily and objects and doesn’t show anxiety about us as long as we are 8-10 feet away. She is learning our voices and didn’t even begin to climb the white pine.
Video of yesterday's play between Hope and Faith has been uploaded to ‘bearstudy’ videos on YouTube at http://ww
You are mustering many votes for the International Wolf Center. We roared from 3rd place and 97 votes this morning to second place and 591 votes this afternoon. Voting for Chase is different than we’re used to. Each Facebook account gets only one vote per charity. That means once you vote, you’re done for this phase that ends May 4 in just two weeks. The top 100 charities at that point each get $25,000. Then the 100 winners submit big ideas and start another round of voting for really big money. Voting for that is only a week from May 19-25. The top 25 in that round get $20,000 to $500,000 each. So the main thing for the next two weeks is to stay in the top 100.
Here’s how to vote. First, go to this link http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving and click “Like.” Then go to this link https://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/411543539-international-wolf-center?code=PvoEtpvF08RWhcd0q6ga2NaTUxjoidsRLEHG4uMoBPw.eyJpdiI6IjNQbF9CcC0yR1VmQXlxN2ZlWk9LWkEifQ.pvfj6wP2Iqh97EFHPwbXIMdLrsvC1mVNscVpIshW0FJ4pViY_tbw6SOgBfeM3NhzU2tBDsiPMylCq3K4kZPEP4VOhB_WSh1_8O3-bu_UZEYZQLJ-hQUlhTzKOW3V69K8d7eWrAoF4c34giDd4gLzbQ and register your vote for the International Wolf Center.
In the Readers Digest contest to win money for Ely, you have us solidly in 6th place and catching up to 5th place. To vote 10 times in a row each day, the link is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN. This contest runs through May 16.
A Lily fan discovered this link to a recent article about the Black Bear Field Courses here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42559086/ns/travel-active_travel/ You know about Budget Travel Magazine because you won the Budget Travel contest to select the Coolest Small Town in America. As a result, Budget Travel sent Andrea Minarcek to Ely to write this article. Another version of it is at http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/quotwe-wanted-to-vacation-with-the-bearsquot,7133/
A Lily fan discovered this little article that is pretty good except for one small error—that Lynn formed New Jersey’s BEAR Group, which he didn’t. http://jefferson.patch.com/articles/how-to-get-along-with-black-bears
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center