Abundant pincherry blossoms In the woods, phenology is running late. Even though some black ash (Fraxinus nigra) trees began to leaf out days ago, most haven’t started yet. Pincherry blossoms are dropping—in fact the pincherry bushes in the picture looked like a snowstorm as petals showered down in a gust of wind. Chokecherry blossoms are just beginning to open, and the bushes are loaded. In a normal year, all this would have happened a couple weeks ago. Berries will ripen late this year but should then be abundant in August barring any unforeseen weather anomalies.
An alert FaithThe bears are heading into a hungry time of year that normally would have occurred a couple weeks ago. It’s the time of year when emerging ground vegetation matures and becomes unpalatable. That’s usually the time ant pupae become abundant in a normal spring, but we’ve seen only scant sign of bears foraging for ant pupae. Few scats have any ants, and we haven’t seen it in our direct observations. 
FaithCold-blooded animals like ants are especially sensitive to cool temperatures like we’ve had in this record late spring. Ant reproduction has been greatly delayed. The exponential curve of pupae production is getting a late start, meaning lower abundance of pupae will be available as the bears wait for berries to ripen.
We don’t know what this all will mean for bear complaints. Time will tell.
The BFF Group (Bear Facts and Fun) has put together a nice summary about berry feeding. https://www.facebook.com/notes/bffbetty/berries-a-critical-food/329499597180866.
Mike claims there's a moose in this picture...Faith’s GPS locations are concentrated 1-2 miles outside the area her mother Lily usually used, although Lily was down in that area the year she became pregnant with Faith and Jason. She may be establishing her territory in that area of no homes and few roads. Time will tell. Today we saw her in an area accessible by logging roads and sent Mike out to change her batteries. He did well locating her and negotiating the battery change—and even saw a moose along the way.
Lynn came in late this morning after having breakfast with Donna on their 34th anniversary.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.