Ted’s Grave, Condolences, and Wildlife Action - UPDATE November 3, 2022
Ted's grave
What you see is a start toward special Ted’s grave. Local people have stopped by to adorn his site with roses and other flowers. Still to come is an engraved stone much like Honey’s. Thank you again for all of your condolences and expressions of grief and love for Ted. I feel so lucky to be connected with people whose hearts for bears and nature bring us all together.
Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle
And now, animals outside the window are perking me up as they search for food, avoid predators, and do little things that make me press the shutter button.
Seeing the fox stand for more than a minute looking at rippling water made me wonder what he was thinking. Do foxes appreciate the beauty of nature? I’ll never know.
When a bald eagle sailed in, the 150-plus ducks on the water took flight but landed and trickled back to their usual spot when the eagles did no more than sit quietly for the better part of an hour. The ducks were later stirred to action by a rough-legged hawk swooping down at them several times. Rough-legs eat mainly small mammals in their boreal forest summer homes, but are said to eat other wildlife at times.
Sharp-shinned hawk
Sharp-shinned hawk
Coming in
Coming in
Blue jay
Blue jay
A sharp-shinned hawk made dozens of flights after blue jays, each time giving them the hawk eye and then launching into a blur of motion. They sometimes came within a foot of the shrieking jays but I’ve never seen a capture even though their main food is birds. The jays agilely dodge and dart into cover.
Beaver
Beaver eating
Nice to see were herbivores finding meals. Deer were eating the last of the leaves from shrubs. A beaver was busy making ripples as he ate something—perhaps a cattail root. Cattail roots are a favorite and some were growing nearby.
Red squirrel focused
Focused
Red squirrel eating bud
Red squirrel eating bud
Deer browsing
Deer browsing
Most exciting was watching a frantic squirrel race up and down a balsam fir nipping tiny buds from the tips of branches. In one of the pictures it is coming down the slender trunk eyeing a bud. At the top, after nipping off the tip-top bud, he is pulling to him a branchlet that still has buds. His fast motions made it look like he especially likes these buds even though it would take many of them to make a meal.
A good day with good distractions as I sat writing.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
