Samantha and her four cubs are back together. Samantha and the other three showed up today and the one we have been seeing alone joined them. 
Samantha's cubAll is well.
Lily was seen and is in a safe area with hunting season starting on September 1. We hadn’t seen her for a couple weeks.
The pontoon ride with the Black Bear Field Course was enjoyable. Highlights for the group—all returnees except one—were seeing the den where Hope was born and being close-up with loons and a chick that continued about their business and gave us insight into loon life. The chick was nearly adult size.
Young hooded mergansers can now fly.
A ring-billed gull flew close enough for a picture. The other gull picture shows the rock where the herring gulls that visit WRI spend time. I couldn’t recognize the individual herring gulls on the rock today. Ring-billed gulls that use the rock do not visit the WRI.
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| Hooded merganser | Ring-billed and herring gull | Ring-billed gull |
They’re telling me it’s time to give a PowerPoint presentation summarizing what we learned from the Den Cams. Those days are great memories for everyone, and we hope to resurrect them. More on that later.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center