Ted was out on this nice, sunny, calm day of 38° F. He even ate some grass, which I don’t really understand. I remember visiting him a few days ago and how he crawled out to greet me making his welcoming sounds. 
Red squirrelOur real purpose was to give him more straw and having him come out a bit so we could put it in behind him, but it was nice to be greeted like he did. His legs were a little shaky, like he was pumping blood into them as I’ve seen in the wild (Rogers, L. L., and S. C. Durst. 1987. Evidence that black bears reduce peripheral blood flow during hibernation. J. Mammal. 68(4):872-875.), but he was fully alert and full of good will.
A Lily Fan captured his excursion today in these two videos that are 12 and 11 minutes long. https://youtu.be/dfeoELNAQns and https://youtu.be/Bzj5MHUNQxw
Out the window, about 6 feet from where I sit, I don’t know what makes birds and squirrels look at me like they do sometimes. I can’t hear them through the window, so I don’t know what they’re saying. My camera is aimed out the window, so all I have to do when a curious critter looks in is stop typing and click the camera.
 White-breasted nuthatch |
 Hairy woodpecker |
I’m happy the Black Bear Field Courses are two thirds full now—21 spaces left. Three courses are full. The other five have 2 to 7 openings. I’m looking forward to the courses. Meeting the people and being immersed in bears are summer highlights.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center