Cole and Aster have words Last night Lily moved from the place where she had spent four days. We’re glad we held off checking to see if she had a den there. If we had visited and then she left, we would have wondered if the move was natural or prompted. We’ll see how long she stays at the new place.
Jewel has been in one small area for over a week. We’ll see if she stays there or eventually moves like Lily did. We’re betting she has a den after this much time and considering that she should be pregnant and denning early. It’s nice that we can now get exact times of arrival at their den sites without having to physically check.
Gray fox visits feeding stationSince 5 AM on Saturday the 17th Aster has been spending her days about 150 yards north of her den of last winter, making us think she would eventually settle into that den. Today, she chose a different place to spend the day. We’ll continue to wait and see if she uses her old den, if it hasn’t collapsed, so she doesn’t have to dig one or use a surface den.
Ursula is still in the same place she’s been for a week with her cubs. A bit of snow is predicted for Thursday. We hope it doesn’t cover her scat so we can check for content. We also want to count her cubs. Some folks reported seeing only 2 cubs with her the last few times she was seen with them.
The community feeding sites are recording few bears, although Aster and the orphans Cole, and Ember continue to use their site according to GPS on Aster and a trail cam to record Cole and Ember.
As soon as we can get on top of paperwork deadlines, we’ll check closely on Fern and Star.
The leaves are still hanging onto the beautiful big-toothed aspen we showed last night. Today was rainy and dark. We’re hoping tomorrow is clear and calm enough to photograph this gorgeous tree against a blue sky when the light is right. We’re supposed to get a nice day before the predicted freeze of Thursday night. We’ll see what that does to the leaves and to bear denning behavior.
Gay Bradshaw combined with Charlie Russell to write another nice piece for Psychology Today at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bear-in-mind/201310/right-manners.
What a thoughtful group Lily Fans are! Such well-worded comments under the article by DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr at http://www.twincities.com/ci_24266370. We are not against hunting. We are for research and education. Lily Fans saw the imbalance in the Commissioner’s statements.
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.