Red Crossbill MaleWe had not seen Lucky and Holly together before today. For some reason, Holly appeared afraid of Lucky today. We wonder if something happened between them last fall when Lucky wanted to sleep and Holly wanted to play. We know Lucky let her know she was unwelcome in his den and that Holly then went off and made her wild den. Today, Lucky was in his pen with the door open. Holly walked by. Lucky went out to approach her, but Holly ran away huffing, showing she was afraid and getting over it as she put distance between them. She stayed away from Lucky. Then, she circled around and went into his pen that also had the door open to the next pen where the two pens joined together. Lucky approached. What would Holly do being cornered in Lucky’s pen when he came in? She tried climbing the fence to the roof. She swatted at Lucky and may have hurt his nose. Lucky backed off. Holly exited into the next pen where she would also be cornered if Lucky followed. Then they both came to the fence. Holly knows the protective value of the fence and the two interacted through the fence. They came to an understanding, it appeared. They ignored each other for a couple minutes as each did other things in their pens. Holly exited through the pen Lucky was in but didn’t seem frightened or hurried. Shortly, Lucky followed. In the woods, he caught up to Holly. She kept a tree between them. They began to play—Lucky with an open-mouthed play-face and Holly with her ears back defensively. The play was gentle—gentle cuffs from each, gentle bites from each (especially from Lucky). Lucky lay down, putting himself below Holly. They continued with Holly getting braver. Donna videoed it on her cell phone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDmg0mPSsZE Soon, Holly had enough and ran off but shortly returned. She seemed like she wanted to be near Lucky but didn’t want to play. She backed away from his advances, defending herself by putting trees between them. Major progress. We believe she will be initiating play soon and will soon be back being the buddies they were last year.
We next want to see how she interacts with Ted who seemed wary of her. Ted was secure in his pen through the drama of today.
Sign marking toadDonna and I checked the spot where she found a hibernating toad buried in her flower garden at the Bear Center last fall. No sign of emergence yet. Although the temperature today was in the 60’s F and the ice on Woods Lake is opening up, the ground underneath the wood chips in the picture was cold. Frost undoubtedly starts only a few inches down.
Many birds are returning from migration, and chipmunks are out and about, but we still have winter visitors like bohemian waxwings and red crossbills. Today, I saw the bravest red crossbill I have ever seen. Birds from the north tend to be tamer than others but not this tame. He and his mate were gathering grit from the newly graveled Trygg Road here. I came driving along and the female flew up. The male stayed. I braked and stopped when it appeared he had disappeared under the front of the van. I hadn’t seen him fly and wondered if he was still there. I back up. There he was, still gathering grit. He continued as I eased the door open, stepped one foot out, and aimed the camera over the hood. The picture shows the big crossed bill designed for extracting seeds from conifer cones. His mate landed near him and he hopped over near her and looked at the camera for a picture of the pair. I got back in the van and checked the pictures I’d just taken. When I looked up, they were gone.
This Sunday, Lily Fans can help defeat the DNR’s legislation to ban feeding bears. The senate is back in session. Actions by the DNR indicate they would like to have SF1303 and companion bill HF 1406 become law by the end of this Session. SF1303 will next be heard in the Senate Finance Committee. This Sunday, Senator Richard Cohen, Chariman of that committee, is holding a Town Meeting along with Representatives Murphy and Pinto, at Mount Zion Temple, 1300 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105. The time is 1:30 PM until 3 PM. The main topic of the meeting is budget issues, but it is important that the feeding issue is brought up. Senator Cohen wrote, “I urge you to follow bills in which you are interested through the Senate website, www.senate.mn. As always, feel free to contact my office with any questions, concerns, or comments you may have. “ Please come if you can.
The link to the Senate members is http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/index.php?ls=#header
Red Crossbill pairThank you for all you can do on this. The feeding ban together with a poor food year would mean the bears that traditionally go to feeding stations in bad food years here would have to do what bears do elsewhere—go from house to house for bird seed and garbage. If there is no food outside and the bears are desperately hungry, house break-ins can be frequent, and many bears would be killed. This community has found a way to safely coexist with bears. The DNR claims they are acting for public safety even though they produced no witnesses that said they were ever approached by bears for food. The DNR claims they are acting for public safety, but their claims of attacks were not back up by one witness. No bear has ever come after anyone and hurt them in this community. The DNR even tried to claim public safety as the reason they ended public broadcast of the Den Cams. The real reasons for their campaign against us were stated in the hearing and in DNR letters to us—anger over our letters asking for protection, anger over a small handful of Lily Fans speaking out against hunting. There is no public safety issue with the feeding that has gone on here for over 50 years, with the feeding that has gone on for decades at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, and with the feeding that dwarfs all other feeding—the tons of food used for baiting by hunters. The date for our appeal hearing is April 22. Our arguments are sound. We think the DNR is running scared. As newspaper reports have stated, the legislature is another tool the DNR is using to end our research. The legislature should not get involved.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.