Gray foxWe had Tasha spend the night out in the big enclosure safe and alone last night.
Fern was spotted last evening with her three yearlings Clover (female), Clyde, and Cletus (male).
Samantha spotted one of her yearlings (Ethel) here last night and chased her, showing that she means business about family break-up.
Hummingbird femaleQuill is doing well. He’s up to 89.5 pounds as of last evening. That’s about the same as Samantha’s yearling Ricky (90 pounds). Samantha did a good job giving her four yearlings a good start by family break-up: Lucy (56 pounds) , Ricky (90 pounds), Fred (no weight), and Ethel (75 pounds). I guess we can also, then, commend everyone who helped give Quill a good start last fall. In the update last night, the top picture of Quill was taken last fall, the bottom picture is from yesterday. The distinctive markings are the shape of his eyebrow patches, the narrow extension of black down his forehead onto his muzzle. Minor differences between the two pictures are likely due to lighting and shadows.
The Black Bear Field Courses are full. Thank you! There are still problems on the website, so I’d ask, if you can, to pay by check to: WRI, 1482 Trygg Road, Ely, MN 55731. I’m not sure when the webmaster will get to fixing the website.
Out the window, we were surprised how close the woodchuck let the gray fox get to it (~5 feet) before ducking down its burrow (before we could grab a camera). Female ruby-throated hummingbirds arrived back shortly after the male some days ago.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center