Tasha in cub tree
A week ago when temperatures were 15 degrees warmer than today, "Taught" caught Tasha licking red maple saplings in this 3:41-minute music video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFnxIrAxgZo I’ve seen wild bears do that, so, if 47 degrees was warm enough for sap to run, I can’t think of another reason why Tasha would be licking like that.
Yesterday, "Pooch Pal" got a revealing picture of Tasha in the cub tree. It shows how broad she is, or maybe just appears to be with 4-inch long fur sticking straight out from her torso.
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| Redpolls and a Junco |
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At the WRI, dark-eyed juncos are migrating through, giving me a chance to see how they are accepted (or not) by redpolls that are busy ingesting sunflower seed hearts. Will the redpolls accept juncos like a flock of them accepted a purple finch that squeezed in shoulder to shoulder among them? Today, a junco landed several inches away from these three redpolls that included an adult male. A burst of three clicks within a single second caught the action as the male redpoll made a fast turn with beak open, 
Mink Guitar on 4-6-2021making the junco leap high and away before spreading its wings to streak past the redpolls that were back to eating already. Juncos, at 0.67 ounce, are almost half again the weight of a 0.46-ounce redpoll. Not all encounters are the same, though. Later in the day, a junco peacefully pecked up seeds at the edge of a group of redpolls. Those redpolls did not have an adult male, though, if that makes any difference. Still learning.
The moment of the day came at the very end. A mink (either Clear, Spot, or Guitar, all have the big clear white patch under the chin) came to the window that they visited regularly up until a year ago. I wasn’t ready. A gull had eaten all the bologna. I opened the door while I looked for something edible, but the mink went down the steps and under the first floor deck. I put out bologna and hope it comes back over and over. I’d about given up on seeing a mink after not seeing one for a year. The picture of Guitar is from when I last saw him or her (I have to go back and compare more photos) on April 6, 2021.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center