Spring Emergence and The Year of the Cubs - UPDATE March 19, 2017

This day last year was when Holly and Lucky came out of the den when the high was only 32°F.  This year it got up to 42°F today, but I haven’t heard that they emerged.Red squirrelRed squirrel

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Wondering when and if we’ll see Quill.

I’m looking forward to seeing bears show up with cubs, although that will most likely be toward the end of May. This might be the best place in the world to see mothers with cubs. I’m gauging that by the fact that a top film team is coming here to make a documentary on black bear CrowCrowmothers with cubs. Familiar bears we expect to have cubs and see a lot are 10-year-old Lily, her grandmother 30-year-old Shadow, and Lily’s 6-year-old daughter Faith. Other possibilities are 17-year-old Donna who has been having litters of four lately, 15-year-old Braveheart, 12-year-old Shannon (daughter of Donna), 11-year-old Bow (granddaughter of Shadow), 8-year-old Star (great-great granddaughter of Shadow), 6-year-old Willow (daughter of Donna), 6-year-old Wendy (daughter of Donna), 6-year-old Daisy (daughter of Bow), and 12-year-old Ursula (daughter of Shadow). 4-year-old Ellie (daughter of Lily) and 4-year-old Ember (daughter of June). Eleven lesser known females who turned four or more in Shadow’s clan this January could also have cubs. I could be wrong on Daisy. I expected her to have cubs at 3 or 4, but here she is at six. We’ll see what this nice bear and the others show us this year.

Blue jayBlue jayOut the window, our bread buffet was the hit of the day for blue jays and to a lesser extent, the members of the family Corvidae—the gray jays and the crows. The other birds ignored it with the exception of one taste by a white-breasted nuthatch. A red squirrel also tried one piece but the dozen plus other squirrels ignored it. The hundred plus siskins stuck to sunflower seeds, as did the chickadees. The red-breasted nuthatch split between sunflower seeds and suet, while the downy and hairy woodpeckers ate suet as usual.

Thank you for all you do.

—Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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