Checking the food people left out for the orphan, he ate well last night--formula (the rich Hope Formula that Lily Fans helped develop), 
Red-breasted nuthatchwalnuts, and black oil sunflower seeds. People are calling him Quill, which I guess has become his name.
Bear visits have slowed in the community. Checking around, aside from Quill, Jewel was last seen on October 10, Summer and her 3 cubs on the 14th, Fern on the 15th, and 3 amigos (Brownie (a.k.a Griz), Stratton, and a third male) on the 16th.
Checking on Quill's feeding place, he has competition and the culprits were caught on film. The red-breasted nuthatch stuffed a piece of walnut in a crevice in a white pine and pecked away at it as he held onto the trunk with both feet. The picture was as he paused to look at the photographer. The black-capped chickadee held a piece of walnut in his left foot to peck, also using the foot to hang on. The blue jay has a piece of walnut in its bill and will fly off to do what blue jays do with their food, maybe bury it. The dark-eyed junco was an innocent bystander.
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| Blue jay | Black-capped chickadee | Dark-eyed junco |
Out the window at the WRI, 15 mallards ate black oil sunflower seeds and ignored the fork-horn yearling grazing on grass nearby.
Deer and ducks
At the Bear Center, a new grizzly bear mount, bought by a Lily Fan, arrived today. The new mount, smaller than the old one, is the size of an interior grizzly female. She has beautiful fur. We set her on her platform for now, but talented exhibit builders will arrange a place half upright with her front feet on a mound, and a spotlight on her face with appropriate vegetation around her. She will be beautiful.
Also at the Bear Center, a big welcome sign, carved and painted by Ray Thielbar as a labor of love, went up. Ray was our vice-chairman for many years as we gathered momentum to begin building. Ray's artistry is throughout the Bear Center.
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| Welcome sign install | Goldie | Entrance to the NABC |
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center