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.