Swallowtails on wolf scatToday was another day of everything but bears—still catching up. Catching up on other things that is…when Sue, Jim, and Bec attempted to catch up to June and Ursula they failed on both attempts. So truly no bears!
Nature notes included a brave red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoenicius) savagely chasing a sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). Talk about turning the tables. Sharp-shinned hawks are built for catching birds on the wing, but the red-wing was doing the chasing.
Chalk-fronted corporal dragonfliesChalk-fronted corporal dragonflies emerged on time in this year of the late spring. Hundreds emerged and lined a forest road today and elsewhere a few days ago. The picture shows a newly emerged brown one and a black and bluish white one that is a few days older.
The tiger swallowtail butterflies we showed the other day were on the ground. More typically, we see them sucking moisture and nutrients from wolf droppings, as in this picture.
Painted turtleThe last few days, painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) have been looking for patches of gravel to dig nest holes where they can then cover their eggs and head back to water. We alerted two vehicles about this one crossing the highway and watched it continue into the woods. Jim, Bec, and Sue saw 7 painted turtles on one stretch of road.
Painted turtle on highwayIn the video in last night’s update (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1U0cMAGNTw), we could hardly believe the interest by so many species in the empty den where we all watched Lily and Faith in January to March 2012. We left the outside camera in place, gave it another SD card, and saw what animals did as they passed the den between November 13, 2012, until the SD card was full on March 29, 2013. Each visitor paused and looked into the den whether the visitor was an herbivore, a carnivore that eats small mammals, or a carnivore that eats large mammals. Was scent left from Lily and Faith from the previous winter and their brief visits over summer?
Painted turtle by highwayNot shown in the video were two other visitors. A cow moose and her calf left tracks when the camera wasn’t working, and we caught images of bats on another card. The bats are of special interest. We’re collaborating in an informal way with a bat researcher interested in bat use of deep rock dens that bears show us. We were unsure of the identities of the wolves/coyotes. We sent the video to major experts who weren’t sure or disagreed.
We plan to put up more trail cams at this den to record bears and other animals visiting in summer and fall. Now, seeing all the visitors from this past winter, we wonder if visitors were what made Lily and Faith look up at the entrance sometimes during their stay.
We’re looking forward to the half birthday party for the bears at the Bear Center tomorrow at noon. The tug of war coming up at 1 PM tomorrow (Saturday) is generating cocky smack talk from some of the participants and generating cautions for the old guy to not strain himself. The old guy is not done yet! We much appreciate this joint effort by the FUNdraising team, NABC staff and Pond Chat Mods.
We pulled a video together of Lily, Ellie, and Eli from June 3 and posted it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ay3DNDaS1A.
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.