Hope would have been 7 today. I’m remembering the excitement of January 22, 2010 and having no idea of all that was to follow.
Ray and Rose Thielbar
Today at church was the 60th anniversary of high school sweethearts Ray and Rose Thielbar. Ray was vice-chairman of the Bear Center for much of the first ten years of planning. Now he has beautified the structure with his hand-carved signs that so many remark about—and working on more. What an outpouring of love and respect for this couple today.
Black Bear Box made by Tim Muench Sadly, Trish Kirk’s wonderful husband of 20 years passed away today, leaving us remembering how he unselfishly honored Trish’s commitment to educating about bears. He put love and care into building 14 bear boxes to send out to schools as part of the Education Outreach Program. Trish and Tim have done a lot, our thoughts are with her and her family.
Out the window, a new face appeared—a mink—going for strips of bacon that must have thawed lately. We know the pictures are not good, but they are the best we could hope for. We think he/she stored some of the bacon in the garage, so we are likely to see him/her again.
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| Mink tugging at a strip of bacon | |
The red-breasted nuthatch on its way to the suet is a female as shown by the gray (not black) crown.
Red-breasted nuthatchAs more and more people sign up for the Black Bear Field Courses, my excitement builds in anticipation of connecting with new and old Lily Fans and with the bears we will meet, some of them with cubs. To see which courses have openings, go to bearstudy.org, click on Field Study Courses and then on the big blue button labeled “Click Here to Register.” A chart comes up showing how many people are registered for each course (maximum 8 people per course). Or click: http://www.bearstudy.org/website/bear-courses.html
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center