They're Ba-ack...

About the same time last night, I was cleaning up dishes from dinner when I looked out the window by the hot tub and saw the two mischievous marauders. They definitely were looking for that bird feeder again- little stinkers. We aren't sure if it's the same two (or three) that we saw the night before. Vil thought these two looked younger and skinnier than the previous two, but it's hard to say. We still aren't sure if this is the three that others have been seeing- or two others. Maybe mama told her teens to take a hike? That makes a total of three times that they've come to our place near dusk. Bird seed is like ice cream to bears- delicious, loaded with fat and nutrients and they can't get enough. If we do decide to put that feeder back up, it will have to be in a seriously creative way. Once again, the darkness made for tough shooting, so I was happy any of these came out.

This morning the deer are back in their beds in the meadow. They actually have 'beds' out there where no plants grow because they rest there so often. Looks like Bucky is getting his antler again!

Minutes ago...

Three bears have been galavanting around the neighborhood in the past month. Tonight, they showed up in our yard! We saw 2 and suspect Pup's warning bark scared the first one off. It was practically dark, so I was glad any of these photos came out. We think it's the same three little bears that were here last year (see the last photo taken in Sept. 2010). Now those cubs are as big as their mama! They were well behaved and just an absolute joy to watch as they sauntered across the meadow and melted into the woods. Vil was happy because he rarely gets to see them in our yard. I often spot them here when he's at meetings or out of town. At first we thought Pup was barking at a coyote, who has been a frequent visitor to our meadow, but tonight a parade of bears was our treat.

Wildlife Update

The cougar incident is pretty much over up here and the deer have returned in the evenings. Perhaps a mystery has been solved. About one week after all the cougar sightings, a bear was seen in the same spot as the cougar. Could it be coincidence? There was a creek there after all and water usually means life. But it was odd that a bear and a cougar would be spotted in a creek basin within one week of each other. A week passed with no sightings. Then, our neighbor called and told me he figured it out. He was driving home and he saw several large turkey vultures in the woods near the creek. He grabbed his gun and headed into the woods to see what the vultures were eating. Sure enough- there was a small deer carcass picked clean! Doing the math on the timing we figured that a cougar had come down the creek, grabbed a young deer and fed on it for several days. This would have been the days the cougar was sighted several times along that spot. The kill was pretty close to a road. After all the cougar was done with feeding, the carcass was left to decay. Mr. Bear likely smelled that carcass (they can smell a carcass from 4 miles away) and headed down to check it out. Being opportunistic feeders, it's my guess that the bear gnawed on what was left. The vultures played housekeeping and cleaned the rest to bones. Nature at work! The beauty of this whole story is that there were lots of people out walking, running and cycling around here and no creature disturbed people. The perfect balance of living in harmony with wildlife was exhibited. I think we must taste funny.

There have been lots of bear sightings around here. At least once or twice a week a neighbor sees a bear. We are used to seeing them up here and it's part of mountain life in spring and summer. A week ago a bear was spotted in a town called Bothell, north of here by about 45 minutes. Two elementary schools went into lockdown and it was a huge media scuffle. All the news could talk about was a bear that was near an elementary school. I was more worried about the bear than the kids- bears are predictable. It was kind of funny to think of the difference between there and here. In this neighborhood, the kids don't stop playing ball or miss a beat when they see a bear. Our neighbor kids are growing up bumping elbows nightly with deer and watching bear cruise around weekly.

Last Thursday I was driving home and saw a small to medium bear fairly close to our house. I drove by it in the truck and it just stood there looking at me with a mouth full of green grass. I went home and grabbed my camera to get a shot. When I came back, it took one look at me and bolted into the woods before the shutter could fire. "Good Bear"...I told him. I'd much rather have a shy bear than one who is brazen and becomes a problem. So no photo, but a great day. It was also the first time a black-headed grossbeak came to the feeder. They've been back for a couple of weeks and their songs are a symphony in the evenings.

This morning a Swainson's Hawk was sitting low in a hemlock out by the defunct bird feeder. I had spread some seed on the ground to help out my little feathered friends and I think the hawk figured out that squirrels and chipmunks are around, too. It was another missed photo as the big guy flew off before the camera could capture him. They are so shy!

That's the wildlife update for this week! Stay tuned for more interesting shenanigans as the weather continues to improve.

Bird Feeder DOWN!

When we arrived home from camping we unpacked, clean up and started normal household tasks. We were pretty tired from the weekend, so we opt'd to go grab dinner in town. When we came back only one hour later, a bear had taken the feeder down. We can't figure out exactly how he got it down because the feeder itself is in perfect form still- there are no scratch marks or evidence of him hanging on it. Our guess is that he pushed on the pole hard and was able to bend it. That's one strong bear! It was a solid metal pole buried in a concrete pad at a fairly high height. It looks like it bent where Vil put the bolt for the hook- a slight weakness in the metal. I'm so bummed that we couldn't have watched the Yogi Yoga.

The feeder was pretty much empty too, as the birds cleaned out most of it before we left for our trip and I purposely didn't refill it. I guess he was after the suet mostly. Our neighbor emailed that his kids saw the bear cross the road and head up to our house, shortly after he saw us head out for dinner. Smart bear- wait until the people leave...then head over. Looks like we'll have to get creative again for bird feeding....any suggestions? This morning the birds are all gathered in the trees trying to figure out what happened to their feeder.

Score: Bear 1...Us 0.

Dry Falls!

We took our annual fishing trip to Dry Falls lake in central/eastern Washington with our friend Matt. This year, his brothers also came and fished. As usual it was amazing over there and the wildlife watching is so much fun. There is so much life around those lakes!

Painted turtles- look at their long claws in the second photo. Crazy, huh? They are great swimmers, but prefer sunning themselves by day on the many rocks around the lake.

Damsel fly

Violet-green swallow

Starling with babies in this fantastic deep tree nest.

As you kick around the lake, the Cliff Swallows occupy some of the mud nests. They are often filled with feathers and later in the year, little babies poke their heads out. We were too low to see inside the nests, but I suspect they are on sitting on eggs.

Giant brown trout!

The last day we went to a spring creek called Rocky Ford. It is teaming with life! There were lots of muskrats, birds, fish and even a bull snake.
You can see these huge fish in the water. But...they are very picky and rarely bite a hook. We finally found a 'fly' they liked and Matt's brother, Greg caught a whopper. Matt also caught one, but it hopped off the line before he netted it.



In the early morning of camping, I got up with my camera and walked around looking at birds and scenery. There were tons of killdeer (birds). Each time I came upon one, it started doing this (see picture) as if wounded. So many of them were doing this, that I was totally perplexed. What was this behavior? After reading in my bird book, the amazing mystery was solved. Killdeer are ground nesters and therefore are often easy targets for predators. To distract a would-be predator, the killdeer will roll around like it's dying or injured to lure the predator away from it's nest. Brilliant, right?

Beautiful Northern Flickers

Barn swallow

Crazy! We saw a pelican! I could not believe this because I've only seen one in Washington in my life. This is a white pelican which is more of a warm water coastal bird. One gal there said that for the last couple of years they have been showing up at this spring creek and no one knows why. I'm guessing it's because the trout are the size of logs and word got out.
Nothing says spring like the screech of a red-wing blackbird. The males are black and a beautiful red with tinges of yellow. The females are a boring brown, but I'm sure they are LOADED with personality :).

Trip to Curator's Office

For my book, I recently spent the day down just outside the park at the Park Administration offices, researching old picture. It was just amazing to see and handle actual photos from the late 1800's to early 1900's. Wearing gloves, I dove into boxes and boxes of carefully arranged photographs of various park happenings from years past and my mind got lost on a journey of history. Back then, the women wore heavy dresses, petticoats and hats for things like skiing, hiking, and camping. I can't imagine how difficult those things must have been in yards and yards of fabric. The men wore similar outfits, such as suit jackets with matching fedoras. The park roads were in construction during those days and it took many miles on either horseback or 1900's cars to arrive at the park on dirt roads. They had all sorts of issues with horse vs. cars using the roads and there were fatalities on a regular basis. Imagine- someone new to driving and new to the automobile is cruising down a dirt road with very few road rules, when suddenly a blind corner gives way to folks on horses. The roads were very narrow and the drop offs deep. In the archives there are lots of documents describing the chaos.

There were so many pictures it made my head spin. I did find a couple that I'd like to use in my book, but there is a cost involved, so we'll see if the budget line allows. Regardless, it was a fantastic trip into history. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I brought a delicious salad in a cooler for lunch and ate it on the porch of the National Park Inn. I had a great view and some blue feathered friends for company. Believe it or not, there is still lots of snow there!


This was one of the photos that I could not believe. Back in the early 1900's the park had all kinds of bear conditioning issues. People were feeding them from car windows and rangers were guiding groups of tourists on 'bear tours' where they would hand-feed well known park bears, honey. In the 50's when tourism was peaking and camp sites were packed, bears became a serious issue and rangers would drive their trucks into campgrounds at night with the horns blaring and lights flashing in attempts to scare the bears back into the woods. But bears are brilliant, and quickly figured out to stay away from rangers and their trucks and figured out that any other car or person was fair game. It was a dangerous situation. The picture below was an amazing one- this guy was a park worker at Paradise lodge around the year 1929 who frequently put peanut butter on his face to have the bears 'kiss' him. Oh how far we've come!