Bear Bits

More Funny Lookin' Birds

In The 90's

Still not much to report around here.
We actually reached 93 yesterday, so air conditioner was on first thing. As most of you know, the houses don't come with AC up here, so I bought a window unit years ago. We have very tall windows in this house and of course they're on the side the sun rises. So the house is pretty warm first thing in the morning.
I was kinda hoping I left the 90's back in TX, but at least it doesn't last very long.
You should have seen my front porch yesterday, looked liked I had a bunch of dead cats lying on it.

The Cat Food Bandits

What's Up?

Been awhile, eh?

Can't think of much exciting...

~I hear the fawns are everywhere although I haven't seen them in my yard yet.
~The bear have calmed down even though I do still see at least one daily.
~Had G's niece here for a few days while he was home.
~We've yet to hit 90 degrees, and I'm happy about that.

Annnnnnnndd...........that's about it. Told ya it was exciting.

The Mechanics of Cats

If you like cats..watch. Heh even if you don't.. it's kinda funny.
BTW.. I have that exact chewed up box and sack sitting on my floor :)

And Then There's Tom

The Babies

These are awful pics and don't even ask why.
I think it's a combo of a very shaded front porch, a shutter speed too high.. oh well, who knows.
Anyway, here they are, two of them anyway with momma. They don't usually show up in the middle of the day so they surprised me.

As you see in the second photo, she's washing the cat food in the water bowl.

What I Do With My Time

Tails of Three

They Need Exercise Too

Visits

Just hanging out on the porch last night when I had this visitor....

The Capture

I worked with it as much as I could. This is the one and only photo I got of the momma bear nursing her babies. Sigh.. what are the chances I'll see that again?

That Will Be $10 Please

I went with a couple friends to a pizza place just a couple towns over into Idaho. Great pizza and beer, and tables outside viewing the lake. It was really nice.

Anyway, this sign was on the door. I like :)
I think I need one for my house too.

The Day of Three Sighs... (so far)

Three big sighs so far today...

First... I woke at 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Should make for a fun draggy day. Sigh.

Second... Since I was up so early, I was able to see the sunrise and just see the goings on that early in the morning. At first light, which I would say was about 5:30-ish, I peeked outside to see the momma bear leaning up against a tree, sitting down and nursing the two babies. (eeps)
I knew if I opened a door she'd move. I grabbed my camera just to see if I could get a pic through the window, but no luck. Too dark and the glass just made it worse :(
It was such a cool sight. Sigh.

Third... I was on the porch ( no camera mind you) feeding the cats and just watching the birds, when I saw a male grossbeak courting a female. I don't know if you've ever seen this, but the males basically dance around the female, showing off, with wings spread. (eeps)
I ran inside for the camera and sure enough he had stopped. I tried once again to capture this dance, but the camera tried to focus on the branch instead of the birds and by the time it captured the birds, he was done. :( Sigh.

Feels like a "Leesa's Law" day... Stay tuned.

Picky Eater

Momma raccoon came back last night, but without babies.
I had talked to a neighbor earlier in the day and she told me they used to hand feed the raccoons and babies cornbread. Well you know me, I wanted to try this.

I don't have cornbread and wasn't going to bake just for raccoons. So, I tried regular bread.
She didn't want it.
I tried apples.
Nope.
So, I gave her some dry cat food.
She loved it. She also likes shelled peanuts.

I didn't hand this stuff to her either, I just threw it into the grass. Funny thing though, I was sitting on the porch and had a few cats sitting around me watching. She would not take her eyes off me or the cats, so she would feel on the ground for the food and pick it up and eat it without taking her eyes off us. It was a funny scene.

As usual it was getting dark so not a great photo, and I can't stand the gold eyes, so I tried to fix it. Not the best job, but oh well.

Spring Babies

It appears to be baby time.
Last night around 9-ish, I went outside to let some cats in for the night when I saw this little group. Of course I didn't have camera in hand, so by the time I got in, got the camera and back out they were leaving.










Baby raccoons are the cutest things. So fat and furry. I wish I had gotten a better shot. Maybe they'll be back tonight :)

Then, later around midnight, I went to close up everything and turn off lights when I saw this momma. At first it was just another bear at night kinda-thing, but as I walked over to turn off the lights I saw the two babies following behind.

They were easy enough to scare away, and thank goodness there's a momma, but I of course had to try to catch a few photos. I think these are the smallest I've seen so far here.

I guess now it's time for fawns :)

Say Ahhhh

We finally have some warmth and sunshine.
The lawn needs to be mowed badly.
Oh and it's Friday. The thirteenth.
I don't even care.. it's sunny and warm that's all the matters.

Put your feet up :)

**update.. I decided to check the temp.. it's 60 degrees.
After growing up in Texas, it's kinda funny to think 60 is nice and warm.
But it is :)

She Likes The New Pasture

As you know from previous posts, we've had a hell of a time keeping the horses from the new pasture. It appears they don't like fencing. They've kicked out wood fencing, metal gates, and even electric fencing.













Well recently they've actually left it alone and we've been able to let the new pasture grow grass.
We let them out into the new pasture yesterday.













I think they like it :)

Spring?

Well, it was a relief this morning to not have to worry about the baby on the porch or causing problems.. but it is kind of weird not seeing her anymore.
I was actually able to hang my bird feeders back out again and throw a little corn for the deer and geese.
The weather is still a mess. We have snow on the tree tops and rain down below, it was 37 this morning.
I'm thinking the trap and commotion scared off the larger bears too because I haven't seen any in a couple days. Normally this time of the year they'd start heading up high for huckleberries, but with snow on the ground that's not happening.

So weird to think that middle of June we're wearing sweatshirts and jackets and considering burning a fire.

Caught

Well....baby caught and baby go bye-bye. She sure loved that yuck waiting for her inside :)













She even stuck her tongue out at me one last time.

INside.. you're supposed to go INside

Bear Jail

Didn't sleep well last night thinking about this one. There she is this morning. Not as angry as I would have thought, but I guess she's had about 12 hours to calm down.













She should be free in about an hour.
Bet she never crawls in one of these again :)













We'll try again today for the baby. It's 38 degrees here this morning and there's snow on the trees. Crazy.

Fun Times Ahead

And.. there it is. The trap is set.

The bear goes inside, pulls on that red bag of i-don't-even-want-to-know, and the door closes down trapping them inside.
She left the trap overnight and will check in in the morning. My luck, it will trap one anytime now and I'll have a pissed off bear in there all night.













From what she says, the baby will probably eat all the yuck, and then just howl all night. Which, might attract other bear. heh.
If a big bear gets in there, it will be one pissed off bear and I might see it rocking. yay.













Of course, just like I told her, 15 minutes after she left the big black bear was over checking it out. I just knew he was going to go inside, but he didn't. He snooped around and then ran away. I'm going to guess he's been in one before.
If she does catch the baby, she will take it up into the wilderness and let it go, probably with some kind of animal carcass (yum) and leave it, away from homes and humans and hopefully he'll adjust. Hopefully.













It's pouring here right now and we have a wintry-mix weather advisory tonight.. sigh. I don't think my gardens are going to survive this funky weather.













So... there it is. I'll let ya know what happens :)


**update.. 9:00 pm.. it's already trapped a bear, the wrong one of course. So overnight it will stay and we'll start over tomorrow. yeehaw.

Damn Paparazzi

During the Storm

Say Bye Bye

Well, after a very close encounter with this baby this morning, I've been on the phone with some rehabbers and hopefully get her picked up soon.
I found out that they have at least 12 baby cubs born this year already and other Montanans have had the same problem. I guess with hunting season recently ending (bear) that the momma's were killed :(.
Anyway, it was an interesting lesson and hopefully this little one will go somewhere safer soon.

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